Posted in Blindness, Christianity, Comfort, elevation, Faith, Father, Favour, Favourite, fear, Glory, God, Good Shepherd, Hiding Place, Holy Spirit, Hope, Inspirational, Jesus, Life, Love, Ministry, Peace, Power, Pride, Rehab, Righteousness, Salvation, Sculpting, Serving, Temptation, Truth, Uncategorized

Public Spectacle

Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

It’s the hour when the called out priesthood of the Lord of Hosts is once again reminded of the time when God made a public spectacle of His love by giving His Only Son Jesus to die on the cross for us. How often do we remember this when we absently comment on someone’s common mistakes or intentionally launch into a diatribe over the great injustice done by another- that the Lord not only took a stand to cancel every one of our merited condemnations, but has also taken His rightful seat to continue advocating on the behalf of the entire world? (Romans 8:33-34 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”)

We live in a day and age when it’s possible to make known our views, opinions and judgements on any given topic or person, simply at the touch of a finger. The technology in communication which reinvents itself every nanosecond to supposedly bring people closer together, has endowed mankind with the power to raise an applause for one and an outcry against another, making anything and everything a sensational news item. There are several platforms on which the most mundane mistakes and the most private misdemeanors recieve avalanches of undue attention from across the globe. We, as the church of God, need to make the difference in the way we use these channels, by categorically manifesting the love of God at every given opportunity, because that is exactly what Jesus did- every time a group of people looked down on someone’s misdeeds, Jesus turned up to embrace that very person in full view of everyone (Luke 19:5-7 “And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.””)

What Jesus did in that moment looking up at Zaccheus, was actually directed at the crowds that surrounded Him. Instead of pointing a finger at Zaccheus’ malpractices or demanding a public apology for his unethical means of money-making, Jesus simply made a scene of His reckless love for the sinner-man! He set the perfect example to show that we who are called to be in the business of building each other up in love shouldn’t be tearing each other down (Galatians 5:14-15 “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”)

Christian exhorting is NOT mudslinging a miscreant with an audience watching. It is the private dealing with a sibling, done in utter meekness and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, with a heightened awareness of the ONLY God-desired outcome- to bring home the prodigal (Galatians 6:1 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”) And for those of us who would persist in unveiling another’s mistakes, the Lord admonishes that we first look into our own closet (John 8:7 “.. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”) An anonymous writer has rightly said, “for often he who is first to find fault, is the very one who has first transgressed.”

God bless

Posted in Blessing, Christianity, elevation, Excellence, Faith, Father, Favour, Favourite, Glory, God, Good Shepherd, Holy Spirit, Hope, Inspirational, Intimacy, Jesus, Joy, Life, Love, Power, Prayer, Righteousness, Salvation, Sculpting, Truth, Uncategorized

I am NO VICTIM!

PSALM 34:10 “The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”

If your relationship is with your SUPPLIER is good, you’ll never have bad inventory. Suffering lack is not for those of us who are aware of our own identity as the sons and daughters of the Most High God (Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will”).

The children of the King of Kings are not victimised by the fluctuations in the economy. We who know the portion of the promises in store for those who worship God and belong to Him (Psalm 112:1-3 “Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.”), also have the perfect perspective from heaven that fully convinces us of God’s ability to keep His commitments (Jeremiah 1:12 “Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it””). Only with such clairty in the line of our spiritual sight, do we confidently and consistently go to the throneroom everyday, not to beg and plead for a morsel, but to sit at His table and eat from His hand what we know has been prepared freshly just for us (Matthew 6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread”).

Being God-provisioned is way beyond getting our daily dietary requirements met by God. It is a lifestyle acquired by those who put their belief in the faithfulness of God’s love and choose to rest in Him and in His strength. It’s a place where He joyfully arranges free-flowing food, drink and favor in their lives as an expression of His manner of love toward them (Psalm 36:7-8 “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.”)

God delights in lavishing His love and care upon His own ‘flesh’- for that’s what we are (Ephesians 5:29 “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,”) and He doesn’t find any ask too difficult to fulfill (Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?”). The question about the needy and those suffering lack is never about God’s ability or inclination to provide for those that are His, rather it is always about will He be asked, as fathers are by their children. It is those that don’t go to the Father by rightful sonship that often complain that God is partial to some while ignoring others, but the reality is that the Abba Father has never turned away anyone who has lifted their eyes unto Him and asked of Him. It’s delusional to think that created beings know how to bless those that they beget and that He who is their Creator wouldn’t do infinitely more for those that He handcrafted and that depend on Him (Matthew 7:9-11 “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”)

Yes, we are previleged in Christ and we fixate on Him with our lives rotating on the axis of the cross, but we do so for far more than just a filling, and only those that truly seek Him enjoy the enormity of the feast that He has laid up for those that have RSVP’d to His invitation, and trust us – ‘the bread’ is just the sides!

God bless!

Posted in Blessing, Comfort, Faith, Father, Favour, God, Good Shepherd, Hiding Place, Hope, Inspirational, Intimacy, Jesus, Joy, Life, Love, Touch, Truth, Uncategorized

I am CARRIED!

ISAIAH 46: 3-4 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

So often when we feel like we are teetering on the edge of a cliff, we forget that – God, He has got a grip on us like none other! And it’s not like He’s just getting the hang of it…. He has been carrying us, safely ensconing us in His loving arms from before even we were conceived. Even before your parents decided pink or blue, and painted the room with soothing pastels, God chose you for Himself and carefully wove every particle of your being together to create what He already had begun bearing in His mind. We were conceived in His mind first before we were even a tiny embryo feeding off our mother’s sustenance from inside the womb and He already has a record of how every season of our lives is going to turn out (Psalm 139:15-16 “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” ).

He has promised us that He is the same God who first carried us, Who will also carry us until the very end. He prepared us, not so He could drop us when we are being too difficult to handle, but to bear us up in Him. He does not walk away when we are stubborn, He does not leave us stranded where we are, rather there is nothing we can do that can make Him give us up. It has always been us who have given up on God. It’s been us who have denied Him when it was inconvenient for us, but never Him. So we have no reason to fret or freak out, because He is always with us, upholding us in His righteous right hand (Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”).

When we make the resources and references we have carry us and not God who is the Source of all things, we will feel suspended of all support when the resources dry out or when there have been bitter experiences with flaky people and untrustworthy cords that frayed at the slightest hint of a flame. (Job 6:13 “Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?”) Unless we recognise that it’s God’s hands that keep holding us in place, where ever we are, and not any human or man made works or the works produced thereof, we are constantly in danger of feeling let down.

Let us rest in the knowledge that God is our potter and we are the clay in His hands, and He has never once taken His hands off of us.

God bless!

Posted in Anointing, Blessing, Christianity, Comfort, Faith, Father, Favourite, God, Holy Spirit, Hope, Inspirational, Intimacy, Jesus, Joy, Life, Love, Peace, Prayer, Pride, Temptation, Touch, Truth

The Passion behind Compassion

BV 060820171 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. “

If there is a quest for the source of the desire for expressing love or the root of the passion behind compassion, it would end at finding Jesus Christ who is the personification of love and who came down to explicitly express the Father’s compassion toward a dying world and the deep seated yearning in Him that none should perish (1 John 4:8-9 “God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”) God Himself is the author of love and the express image of it.  And our capacity to love anyone or the will to be compassionate toward anybody has its genesis in Christ Jesus, who through His Spirit cascades love into our hearts (Romans 5:5 “… because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”)

Compassion is one expression of love just as mercy, grace and empathy might be. Has it ever happened that we’ve tried to show God’s love to some one, comfort someone in their pain, encourage someone is their backsliding, teach someone a spiritual discipline and somehow the action back fired or set in motion completely chaotic events? If we were to honestly check ourselves in that situation, we’d find that we had reached out  because of the enthusiasm of the flesh rather than the urging of the Holy Spirit. When our compassion is led by the prompting of the Holy Spirit within us it won’t have that effect (1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace”). Identifying the driving force or the passion behind our acts of love and kindness to one another is of paramount importance because if we are not careful to direct our actions according to the leading of the Spirit, then we are in the perilous position of switching to default mode- acting to satiate the lusts of our flesh which can have unwanted consequences (Galatians 5:16-17 “ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do”).

 It is with the very intent of equipping us with the ability to fulfill the greatest commandment- to love God and to love others that Jesus Christ promised us ‘Another Helper’ (John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”). When not directed by the Spirit, our motivation to show love and offer comfort comes from unconsciously exalting ourselves. We think of ourselves to be in a better position, more enabled or simply wiser than the one we are reaching out to and somehow what is so holy and pure to God as love, comes out as condescension along with a need to be identified or graded for the benevolence. The office of any ministry for God is primarily service. To love someone with God-kind of love requires humility. Only a humble heart that is prepared to serve another can truly love and exhibit the right kind of compassion, without personal goals. God came down from His throne in heaven, was born as an infant much like the rest of us and served His life on a platter to show His love for us (Philippians 2:3-8 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross“). 

The passion behind our compassion is Christ Jesus, Himself (1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”)  

Being a Christian is not standing on a pedestal, feeling self sufficient in our own ways and exhorting others who may not have fully climbed up yet, with passionate speeches. Rather it is in the going down and accepting that it is the grace of God alone that uplifts us and desperately depending on the Spirit of God to direct our compassion toward people with solid actions (1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”). 

God Bless

Posted in Blessing, Christianity, Comfort, Faith, Father, Favour, God, Good Shepherd, Hiding Place, Holy Spirit, Hope, Inspirational, Intimacy, Jesus, Love, Peace, Prayer, Rehab, Salvation, Touch, Truth

God Of All Comfort

LogoLicious_20170720_173529.jpgIsaiah 66:13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”

When we picture God as God the Father, it is natural to visualize Him in a perfectly paternal way as the Planner, Provider, and Protector. But we are also promised in the Word of God that we will receive a kind of nurturing care in God’s hands that is like that of a mother to her new born. Actually, even more mindful than that is He in His compassion toward us (Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”) When we think of the Lord as compassionate we expect the expression of such a compassion to take the form of readily available soothing arms to hold us whenever we are hurting, lonely or in need for such an affection. But today, we are encouraged to have a bigger understanding of the greatness and timelessness of the love and the motherhood of our Abba Father, which is not just about hugs and kisses to make a boo boo go away but it is about the Great I Am using his own body to provide comfort to His people as nursing mother does her child!

The comfort of a mother’s arms paint a picture of a mother holding close to her bosom her child to satisfy every last bit of hunger and thirst that  the child was wailing because of.  Just as a mother cannot biologically turn away from the cry of a child but is compelled to attend to it so urgently because her body responds to that plaintive call even before her mind can process the situation, God cannot and does not miss the sincere cries of His people, instead He hastens to hear us and cannot help but respond in His great love for us (Psalm 66 :19-20 ” But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!”)

Because we so often cry out against our situations and tear up about this thing, that thing or the other in our prayer, we might anticipate that our God who is the prayer answering God would rush toward us like a relay race runner with the answer like a baton which He would pass to into our outstretched waiting hands so that we can grab it and run forward without even looking back. Sometimes we simply want God to quiet our tantrums by handing us the exact missing pieces to fit the puzzle that we scattered all over the place- meet the immediate need with an immediate feed. But then no mother treats her child’s requirement like a drive thru fast-food joint does its customer’s order. A mother takes the time to read her child’s face and knows what her child is really hungering after, even without being told and feeds her child accordingly and certainly not with anything junk if she can help it! So does our Lord. He knows that though we may be famished and all cried out, our prayers don’t need breaded answers, rather a supernatural provision that comes not from the ground up but heaven down, the living Word which when we consume ravenously we would be satiated in a more real way (Deuteronomy 8:3 “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”)

We are not simply at the receiving end of the maternal care and nurturing at the hands of our God but are called to be an extension cord to whoever needs plugging into His love. The nursing mother comforting her infant with the warmth of her own body is also a divine display of how our God, the Balm of Gilead, intends for His body, the church, each and every one of His own chosen people who have received loving kindness at his hands to be the source of comfort for all the ailing and wailing who are in desperate need of soothing (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”).

God Bless

 

 

Posted in Blessing, Christianity, Faith, Father, fear, God, Good Shepherd, Holy Spirit, Hope, Inspirational, Intimacy, Jesus, Life, Love, Power, Prayer, Rehab, Sculpting, Truth, Uncategorized

God made us FLINT-STONES!

BV 20052017.pngEzekiel 3:9 “I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”

There’s such a might in the provision of God’s grace for His people that allows us to give ourselves in perfect submission to His will and in doing that to still stand upright in the midst of unrepentant hearts. Through the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit, God prepares the spirit-man that resides inside of each of us with such immense strength, which our physical-man embodies as a boldness in our right-standing with God that won’t bend under the pressures of the shake-downs that the world puts us through (Ephesians 3:16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man”)

When we put ourselves in the hands of our maker and know that He is molding us, we ought to expect that there will be a time and place where He will position us that will truly showcase His handiwork to every one that comes in contact with us, even when the viewers have got their blinders on (Acts 13:47 “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.””). While our original disposition is weak in itself to carry the weight of God’s call to its fulfillment in the face of the disobedience that reigns all around us, the Lord gives us sufficient grace that causes us to become flint-faced because if we are any less tough than that we would break under the pressure in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…”). To obey God and speak faith when everything around us speaks defeat, failure and discord with God, is to swim upstream and against the tide and it requires so much resistance that it is only the love of the Father, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, quite literally and not just a pronouncement, that can uphold us.

The God-given steadfastness is provided to us to submit to Him and to His sovereign will. When we desire so much to hearken to His voice and do His bidding then He gives us the ability to  drown out the cacophony that surrounds us.However, there is a stark contrast between this resoluteness that is birthed from the Spirit of submission from the stubbornness that comes from the pride of being passionate about the things of God. Our Lord Jesus demonstrated His submission to His Father’s will in that He was focused in His path and nothing could distract Him from His purpose (Luke 9:51 “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”) That Jesus would be given the grace to persevere in His divine mission upon the completion of which He would be lifted up to be seated at the right-hand of the Father was prophesied of Him years before His birth (Isaiah 50:7 “But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.) The strength that we require to fulfill God’s plans for us has been pre-deposited in our lives from the foundations of the earth by the choice that He made of calling us “in Christ”. It is God’s placement of us “in Christ” that makes us sharper and harder than flint so that we don’t flinch when the world happens to us (Ephesians 1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love”)

Today’s “rebellious house” is more than just an atmosphere of unbelief and disobedience to God. It is also in the prevalence of deception even among the so-called people of the faith. There’s a lot of feel-good factor involved in the attitude of worship that doesn’t allow for the Holy Spirit  to really penetrate the hearts of God’s people. It is in such a setting that the Lord prepares His own chosen children with anointing to help them be discerning and remain genuine (1 John 2:20-21 “ But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”)

God Bless.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Blessing, Christianity, Faith, Father, Favourite, God, Hope, Inspirational, Jesus, Life, Love, Peace, Pride, Rehab, Resurrection, Salvation, Temptation, Touch, Truth

Boast in Christ Not in Past

LogoLicious_20170320_121219.png2 Corinthians 10:17-18 “ “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

We can be boastful without even meaning to. That’s the fact. Humility doesn’t come by accident. It is not the default position of the heart to be humble. If it is our desire to do the will of God, our heart must first, consciously, take the right position- an inclined posture leaning on His works, His testimony, His words of wisdom. Or else, we stand at risk of making a move or speaking a word that can unintentionally be self-serving or self-appraising (Psalm 119:36 ” Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”).  When we are constantly watching reruns of the past from which Christ Jesus has rescued us, it ceases to be boasting about God and turns into boasting about ourselves, even with the ‘Hallelujahs’ and the ‘Praise the Lords’. It is like looking at a picture in of you in a roller-coaster and remembering the ride and not the guy that opened the gate and let you out. 

The tendency to pat oneself on the back arises especially when we take a trip down memory lane. Oh those days! We see the great gulf between the ‘Where-I-had-been’ to the ‘Where-I-am-at’, and our heart swells with inadvertent pride. A splendid opportunity to accredit God with the logistics really! (Psalm 40:2 “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”) Sometimes, we reminisce about how lengthy the trials had been and how tricky the mazes were out of which God’s righteous right hand has navigated us.When we love telling tales about our own wicked past, we are indulging in a perverse glorying in the suffering or in the ignorance that was part of us in the past. If we are talking about “the bog” more than “the Rock”, we need to know that we are ‘gossiping’, because it is a story about someone that has died to those works (2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”)

Our humility is in the boasting of God’s work that is alive in us, that is producing a new fruit in us everyday, not in the dead works that we have walked out of (Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— “). The difference between boasting in Christ and boasting in self is how often we remember what He is doing over and over again in us versus what we did once upon a time.  We are called to count our blessings, His benefits, and not keep the books of the losses before that. When we do this we truly enjoy the rewards of God’s approval- we soar high in His commendation of who we are in Him  (Psalm 103:2-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”)

We need to be careful of what memories we choose to relive and what we choose to keep in their graves. If what God has chosen to forget is something we choose to remember, isn’t that prideful? And He has chosen to remember our past no more for His name’s sake. There is no glory to God in our resurrecting the dusty old bones from the closet (Isaiah 43:25 ““I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”) If we insist on doing it we need to be aware that we are idolizing our ‘has-been’ and actively blocking our visibility of the ‘will-be’ plans of God for us. That is why God asks that we let go of the past and look forward (Isaiah 43:18-19 ““Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”)

Today is a great time to quit looking in the rear-view mirror and get the wipers going on the windshield ahead and put the gear on God’s Drive into our future.

God Bless.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Anointing, Blessing, Christianity, Faith, Father, Favourite, fear, God, Hope, Inspirational, Intimacy, Jesus, Joy, Life, Love, Salvation, Touch, Truth

Get In Touch!

26Feb2017.pngMatthew 9:20-22 “ And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.”

Our God is REACHABLE!! No matter how crowded it can get, if we are willing to put out our hand in faith we will find that “His Garment” is accessible. The garment of Jesus was typically one of the Jewish attire, just as that of any other Israelite. It was inclusive of the tassels on the corners which consummated the law (Numbers 15:38-39 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them…”)  To the hurting woman the hem of Jesus’ garment represented the fulfillment of all the commandments that she knew she’d not been able to fulfill. After all, she’d been “ceremonially unclean” for twelve years until then and could not be declared as clean until she had made an offering for the cleansing which would require at least 7 days of not discharging any blood.

The woman recognized her need to get in touch with Jesus because she believed that if she would ONLY touch His garment she would be made well. Physical wellness, a sense of wholeness and well-being is most often a motive for reaching out to God. The sick and hurting have been known to throng to places that are great distances away and to experts that are almost unbearably unaffordable, just to receive healing in their bodies. But this woman had realized that her HEALING is both accessible and available at the stretching forth of her hand in faith. To the one who believes that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of ALL the commandments and that His garment (His righteousness) can bring salvation, their faith can and does relieve them of bodily suffering and restores them to perfect health (Romans 10:4 “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”)

The stigma that would have been attached to the disease the woman was carrying around for twelve years is at best unimaginable. She had to have been looked down upon for her “ceremonial uncleanness” by the society at large. We may be considered as outcast in the midst of our own people because of our circumstances and maybe people don’t want us near them for fear of contagiously acquiring our situation. It might be that we have reached out to people but haven’t found anyone who would want to take our hand or may be we have feared soiling others with our distasteful past and so have steered clear of them. But if we come into CONTACT with the “Living Word” we are purified. Jesus, ‘The Word who became flesh’ cleanses us from every defilement through His Word (John 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”) Our spotlessness matters to Him because we are His dwelling place and He is the “Temple Cleanser” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”)

Twelve years of “Haemorrhoissa”- continuous menstruation would mean that for the entirety of that period she was unable to conceive a child. Her identity as a woman with child-bearing abilities was compromised. Her fertility was masked by her physical condition. We may possess the potential to be productive in something specific but if there is a constant outflow of our time and energy into other causes we are hindered from conceiving God’s purposed gifts for us. But today, if we are ready to reach out and experience the tangible presence of God in our lives and CONNECT with Him in faith, He is ready heal us of our infirmity and end barrenness in our lives (Exodus 23:25-26 “You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”)

Are we prepared to blindly reach our in faith and touch the hem of Christ’s Garment?(Mark 5:56 “..And as many as touched it were made well.” His Righteousness is easily accessible and available. Let’s Put our hands in the hands of the Man from Galilee.

God Bless.