Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” ¹³ He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.
¹⁴ The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.”
¹⁵ The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? ¹⁶ Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.
Luke 13:10-17 (CEB)

We often like to wait for the right time to do things. Maybe you’ve had someone ask you, “When are you going to do this or that?” and you answered, “I’m waiting for the right time.” Often this happens with regard to delivering some kind of news to someone that may or may not be a good thing. When a couple finds out they are having a new baby, they often wait for the right time to let everyone know the good news.

In this text, Luke reminds us that Jesus does not wait until the time is right. The woman was in the synagogue at that very moment, on that very day, and it didn’t matter to Jesus that it happened to be the Sabbath. This unnamed woman needed healing and Jesus healed her immediately, without hesitation. He didn’t pause to wonder whether it was the right time or not. He didn’t consider whether or not he should heal her since it would mean doing work on the Sabbath. He wasn’t afraid of what the synagogue leader might think if he healed her on the Sabbath. Jesus saw this woman’s need for healing and healed her. It reminds me of the old hymn “Jesus Saves”, especially the third verse:

Sing above the battle strife:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
By His death and endless life:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Sing it softly through the gloom,
When the heart for mercy craves;
Sing in triumph o’er the tomb:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
https://hymnary.org/text/we_have_heard_the_joyful_sound

While the battle is still raging in our hearts and minds, Jesus does not wait. Jesus saves.

When we feel trapped in the gloom and darkness, Jesus does not wait. Jesus saves.

While our hearts are still crying out for mercy, Jesus does not wait. Jesus saves.

We can, right this very minute, stand in triumph at the mouth of the empty tomb of the resurrection and boldly proclaim, “Jesus saves, Jesus saves!” because right now is the right time.

Jesus doesn’t wait. Neither should we, because there is someone out there right now who needs healing, and Christ has no hands nor feet in this world but ours. Let us go and, through our service as disciples of Jesus Christ, proclaim to the lost, the hurting, the sick, the grieving, the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, the broken hearted, “Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”

Finding Faith In Days Like These

We all know that these days are quite stressful. Different people are dealing with different sources of anxiety, fear, etc.

This morning, the day I’m writing this post, the anxiety was centered around finding a UPS drop-off location for a package.

I found it, finally. I kept looking for a building of some kind with the UPS sign on it. The location turned out to just be a drop box outside the bank. Such things seem very serious when we are in the moment, and the stress can be amplified when we assume that what we are looking for is one thing (a building with a sign) when in fact it is actually something else (a drop box outside a totally unrelated business).

The key to finding faith in days like these is to know what you are looking for.

Faith at its core is not exactly what most people think it is. When we go looking for our faith in situations and circumstances that are challenging, we often have trouble finding it because we are actually looking for the wrong thing.

Faith is not so much about knowing what is going to happen, or knowing that everything is going to be okay. Faith as described in Scripture actually goes much deeper than that.

Faith is another way of talking about our relationship with God.

When you think about all of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11, what do they all have in common? It is their deep and abiding relationship with God. The only way these people could possibly have brought themselves to actually follow God’s call on their life is because they had a very close, personal relationship with God, and through that relationship they trusted that God would not lead them into temptation, but deliver them from evil. Through knowing God, they knew that they were not alone in the world, and they did not have to face adversity on their own.

Faith is found by cultivating a deep and abiding relationship with God…

…because faith, fundamentally speaking, just is a deep and abiding relationship with God. If one wants to have a healthy and loving relationship with a spouse, then it is necessary for both people to get to know each other deeply, which builds trust. Any kind of positive, healthy relationship involves all parties involved knowing, trusting, and caring about each other. The same is true concerning our relationship with God. Finding our faith is only as difficult as participating in what is known in the Wesleyan tradition as the means of grace. Some of these means of grace include prayer, Bible study, worship, Holy Communion, and there are many others. By participating in these things and by being in fellowship with other believers, we are growing in the grace and love of God, and we are growing in our faith — that is, growing our relationship with God.

If you are looking for a way to start building a deeper relationship with God and growing in your faith, here are a couple of prayers that are excellent starting points. The first is, of course, The Lord’s Prayer, which so many know by heart:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the Kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

When you pray, really dwell on the words and think about what you are actually saying. For example, when we pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, what are we really saying? Do we, in fact, forgive others? Are there people out there we have been withholding forgiveness from? If so, what are we asking God to do with regard to forgiving us? Such care and consideration and deeper meditation on our prayers serves to deepen our relationship with God.

Another prayer is the Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition, commonly referred to simply as The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou are mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
“A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition,” United Methodist Hymnal #607.

Try praying the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer first thing in the morning when you wake up and see how starting your day with prayer changes how you see the world and other people throughout your day.

I could go on with recommendations for how to grow your relationship with God, how to grow in your faith, but prayer is always a great place to start. The key is to be intentional, to actively participate with God in this thing called life. Finding our faith is not as difficult as you might think.

And it sure beats driving around in the rain looking for a UPS drop-off.

New Creations

For the past few weeks, we have been working on creating a new website that is up-to-date and working to provide information about FUMC Mountain View to anyone who wants to learn more about our local church. This new website is a new creation: We have retired the old website and published a new one.

As such, the new website doesn’t work in the same way the old website did. That’s because it is entirely new. It really is a new creation.

A new creation does not operate in the same way its predecessor did.

In his letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul encourages them to “get rid” of the way they once conducted themselves because they have “clothed [themselves] with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:7-10). As the creator of our new website, I had to spend time designing the site to function in the way I intended it to function. Everything about the new design is aimed toward having the site provide certain types of information in certain ways. That’s how it was designed and created.

You and I are designed and created to glorify God by being who we were created to be. As disciples of Jesus Christ who have been raised with Christ and whose lives are hidden with Christ in God (3:1-3), we are being continually renewed by God’s sanctifying grace, renewed in the imago Dei – the image of God in which we were created – to bring glory to the Creator as new creations.

Renewal is a process that takes a lifetime.

I didn’t just get up one morning, drive to the church office, and sit down and throw up a website. It took time to design, create, and publish it. What we refer to in the Methodist tradition as entire sanctification, or sometimes Christian perfection – that is, being made perfect in love of God and neighbor by the sanctifying grace of God at work within us – does not happen overnight either. It is a process that lasts a lifetime. During that time, we are consistently growing in the grace and love of God, reflecting the image of God as new creatures justified by the righteousness of Christ our Lord. We are new creatures who are being continually renewed as we grow in the grace of God.

May we continue growing in the grace of God together, seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, being made new each day by the power of the Holy Spirit.