Praise the Lord.
It is Friday and Sunday is coming. In America the Beautiful we will
celebrate " Mother's Day" this coming Sunday. Praise the Lord
for moms around the corner and around the globe. Praise the Lord for
Christian moms who are committed to raising and nurturing their
children in Jesus Christ and for His glory and for His Kingdom. Many
moms live lives of great sacrifice, devotion, and dedication so that their
children may come to know Jesus Christ and trust Him as their Lord and Savior
and live in this world as " A Breed Apart", as Ambassadors for
Christ. I praise the Lord for my mom, from whom I heard the Name of Jesus
at the age of 3. Jesus has made all the difference in my life all these
years. I praise the Lord for my wife, who has been a wonderful mom to our
four daughters, who love the Lord and serve Him. I praise the Lord for
all the moms who have been a source of perpetual blessings of Jesus in my
life all these years. May Jesus increase the tribes and the company of
moms who love Jesus and are committed in training up their children in the way
that leads to life Eternal. May He include them in the "great
Cloud of witnesses'.
The
Lord blessed us with a sweet time with the young students at Release Time
yesterday. We are getting ready for worship and celebration this coming
Sunday. We will gather for Sunday School at 10 AM and for worship at 11:00 AM.
Last evening I attended calling hours for a young woman who died
unexpectedly. She was in her late twenties, a distinguished graduate of
Cornell University. She loved the Lord. She loved life and she
loved people. She was driven and committed in making a difference in the
lives of others. She was involved in ongoing ministry in her local
Church. She was an accomplished trumpeter and a musician. She was
an avid world traveler. The calling hours were held in city a little over
one hour drive from us. When I arrived at the Funeral home the place
was already packed with literally hundreds of people - family, friends,
colleagues, college mates. We are reminded how life is precious and at
the same time it is precarious and very fragile. This young woman had touched
so many lives and had made difference. There was a great sense
overwhelming loss and an air of massive grief.
As
I was driving back on Interstate 81 criss-crossing the city of Syracuse, I
gazed the western skies that were dazzling with the setting sun. It was
one of most breathtaking and heartwarming sunsets. I resisted the
temptation of stopping at the Interstate and keep on gazing at the
sunset. I praise the Lord who is Resurrection and life . He makes
all sunsets beautiful and makes all sunrises all over the world most
glorious. Indeed, "Beyond the sunset, oh blissful
morning".
In
light of Mother's Day this coming Sunday I am looking at
a living Faith of a mom, whose name we do not know. The
Bible, however, records about her persistent faith. According to
Scripture, most of the people who received healing from Jesus were
Israelites. Jesus did indeed heal many people of several different
maladies: blindness, deafness, paralysis, muteness, as well as casting out demons.
Yet, there was at least one occasion when Jesus ministered to a foreign woman,
a Gentile from another country. This account, recorded in Mark 7:24-30, speaks of a daughter who had an
unclean spirit. The mother heard of him, and came and fell at his
feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him
that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it
is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] unto the dogs. And
she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of
the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the
devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she
found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed."
Verse 25 tells us that the woman made
one of the most sincere requests for help that we'll read in the gospels. The
devil, the enemy of our souls, was after youth of that day, as well.
According to the gospels, when the parents discovered the demon possession and
oppression, they did something about it. They got the children to Jesus
and asked Him to heal their children!
Another touching thing is this woman
didn't just ask once. We have the record that she came and fell at His
feet (verse 25). According to Dr. A. T. Robertson, she asked
repeatedly. Some remarkable things included the fact that the woman was
not Jewish, but was Greek, a Gentile. She was about as far away from the
blessings, hopes and promises for Israel as she could be; but she knew one
thing: She believed Jesus could heal her daughter, and she wanted to get that
healing. We see the woman's persistent faith. Jesus said it wasn't right
to give table food to the dogs but He never called her a dog. He was
using a figure of speech. The woman could have stopped or quit at any
time, but she didn't. She replied in the same spirit with a bit of humor
and good grace: "True, Lord, but even the puppies get the crumbs falling
from the table!" So Jesus granted her request. Matthew adds
that the woman's daughter was made whole from that very hour (Matt. 15:28). The
lesson we can learn from this woman is that Jesus will listen to anyone who
calls upon Him. The answers may not be as miraculous as in this case, but
we can trust Him to provide answers He knows are best. Praise the Lord
for the Persistent faith of Moms.
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment