Morning By Morning #251

Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

Mark 2:4

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Faith can be very creative. In today’s verse the house was full and even the door was blocked, but faith found a way of getting to the Lord and placing the paralyzed man before Him. Thus, if we can’t get sinners to Jesus by ordinary methods, we must use extraordinary ones. According to Luke 5:19 we are told the man was lowered “through the tiles,” meaning tiles were removed, probably causing a great deal of dust and possibly endangering others from the risk of falling tiles. Therefore, if the situation is quite urgent, we must not mind taking some risks and shocking people’s ideas of correctness. Jesus was there to heal, and so whatever might fall, faith dared to act so his poor paralyzed friend may have his sins forgiven. Oh, that the church had more of this daring faith!

Can we, dear reader, seek this kind of faith for ourselves and our fellow Christians this morning? Can we attempt to perform some daring act today for the love of souls and the glory of the Lord? The unbelieving world is always creative, and if that’s the case, can’t faith be creative as well and, perhaps in some new way, reach the lost who are perishing around us?

It was the presence of Jesus that kindled the victorious courage in the four men carrying the paralyzed man—and isn’t the Lord among us now? Have we seen His face for ourselves this morning? Have we felt His healing power in our own souls? If so, we should then endeavor to go through any door, window, or roof and break through any barrier to bring needy souls to Jesus. Any means is good and appropriate when faith and love are truly focused on winning souls. If hunger for bread can cause someone to break through stone walls to find it, surely hunger for souls should not hinder our efforts.

O Lord, make us creative in methods of reaching Your needy, sin-sick ones and make us bold enough to follow those methods amid any dangers.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Spurgeon says today that “Jesus was there to heal,” and, in that regard, there is an interesting phrase in Luke’s account of the story: “The power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick” (Luke 5:17). An alternative reading is that “the power of the Lord was ‘with Him’ to heal the sick.” This is, of course, the power of the Holy Spirit, and one of the beautiful aspects of the Spirit’s power is that even though it is exerted for various works, such as healing, it is never diminished.

As Jesus would heal others, the power of the Spirit would flow from Him to others. For example, “The people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all” (Luke 6:19), and “At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him” (Mark 5:30). And as the Lord told His followers just before His ascension into heaven, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” But notice the rest of the sentence, which gives us the purpose for His power coming upon us: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).