Skip to main content

How Far Does Jesus Have To Travel To Work A Miracle In The Church Today?

In  Luke 4:18-27, Jesus tries to do a little outreach in his hometown of Nazareth. It's safe to say there was no "standing O", or demands for an encore. Reading the passage, you can imagine a flutter rippling through the crowd as the people whispered from ear to ear, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" Throats are cleared in embarrassment. Nervous glances are shared. Didn't we see him running through the streets in his diapers? Now he is claiming to be the Messiah spoken of in Isaiah? Seriously? Because of this, he could not do many miracles because of their unbelief.

Jesus, ever mining the heart for any glint of faith's gold, rebukes them for their unbelief.  He wants them to have so much more. To illustrate how their unbelief is robbing them, he pauses and gives a little history lesson. Elijah was a prophet who also was unable to perform any miracles in Israel. To work a miracle, he had to travel to another nation where he miraculously provided for a widow, and healed a leper named Naaman. The tragedy of this story, according to Jesus, is that there were widows and lepers in Israel, but none were healed due to unbelief.

 I believe that we can also lack discernment about who Jesus is and what he has done for us. The Jews said, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" But we may say, "Isn't that the man who died on the cross and gets me to heaven?" And we go about our day seeking nothing of him.  We sometimes sit in churches that have a form of God but deny His power.

I wonder if we can be like the Israelites. I wonder, how far does Jesus have to travel to work a miracle in the church today? I have tasted some of his divine power, and I am grateful beyond words. It has caused my heart to burn with a passion to experience all the God gave us in the cross. It cost Him everything. His love astounds me. Paul prayed that God would give us a revelation of our glorious inheritance in Him. The Spirit is here to reveal it.

 In studying this passage, I looked up the meaning of the word Naaman, the leper in Syria that was cleansed. It is so awesome! Naaman means "pleasant, agreeable, grace, sweet, splendor, beauty". The Leper was full of sweetness and grace. He tasted sweetness and grace. Judging from Jesus's reaction to those with faith in Him, God was deeply pleased by Naaman's faith. He was full of beauty and grace.

I believe that God wants to heal the sick and provide miraculously for us.  He wants to reveal His glory so that we might believe on Him. We often lack faith because we don't know who Jesus really is and what he has done for us. But we don't like to be "rebuked." Our tendency is to defend ourselves lest we be found lacking in some area. But condemnation comes from us, not God.  He always receives us in our weakness.  My prayer of late has been this: Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief! I don't want You to have to travel far to do a marvelous work.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Elon's Fire Dragon From Heaven and Revelation 13

The Christian world, what I will call "Churchianity", has chosen to overlook things that are inconvenient to see. We all do it, when we want something badly, or believe something, we rationalize, overlook, and dismiss information to the contrary. We are doing it again, and I believe we will see very grave consequences. However, scripture tells us it will happen, mass deception in the church, that is, and my hope is that God will work it all for our good. He orders all things according to the counsel of His will. He is training us for eternity, so maybe it's one last divine lesson that we will never, ever forget. This will be a longer post as I will talk about Elon's dark sentences, Elon's fire from heaven, and Trump and Elon teaming up from Revelation 13, so buckle your seat belts! And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. Daniel 8:23 Elon a...

Growing in Revelation

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26 It is so important that we approach scripture as children, expecting the Holy Spirit to open our minds to Truth. As “churched” believers, (I so dislike that term, it sounds like something that is pickled), we are in danger of approaching the word as if we fully understand it. This attitude shuts off revelation, dulling our spiritual vision and curbing our knowledge of God. We are called to be spiritually quickened, not to pickle in the stagnant pools of familiar church doctrine. This is not to say that church doctrine is a not good and helpful. No, the problem comes when doctrine becomes a wall that shuts us out from Spirit led revelation. But when viewed as a door, doctrine can serve as an invitation, beckoning the hungry heart to come in and explore. It is interesting to note...

Elon's Grok

Elon's AI image maker and chatbot, Grok, takes its name from a science fiction novel in which a Martian comes to earth and starts a church called the Church of All Worlds. (He also draws inspiration for Grok from a classic, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I will post below.) The word " grok ", coined in the novel, made its way into the English language. In Heinlein's invented Martian language, "grok" literally means "to drink" and figuratively means "to comprehend", "to love", and "to be one with". The word rapidly became common parlance among science fiction fans, hippies, and later computer programmers [ 20 ]  and hackers, [ 21 ]  and has since entered the  Oxford English Dictionary . [ 22 ] When I consider these words, drinking, loving, unity, and revelation (comprehension), I immediately think of God's word. The Word is that Living Water that we drink to grow in our knowledge of God, but in this st...