Overcoming obstacles starts with a positive attitude
and faith that God will see you through.
(unknown)
(Mark 2: 1-12 New Living Translation)
When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door.
While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head.
(Houses were one story with an outside staircase and a flat roof thatched with rushes and mud over wood beams.)
“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal;
you do not change your decision to get there.”
Zig Ziglar
Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
(What amazing friends! Their faith brought the powerless man to Jesus, overcoming all barriers in their way. Jesus always responds to faith.)
But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
(Since disability/sickness was thought to be caused by sin, these people were often excluded from Temple as unclean. Jesus begins the healing by making him clean again. The religious teachers’ religious prejudice made them blind to what Jesus was doing.)
Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
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“Jesus completely destroyed sickness wherever He went, provided that He had the faith of the sufferer or the friend of the sufferer.”
Albert E. Cliffe
(And everyone can be a friend!)
