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Am I Willing to be Sent?

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.    John 9:7 ESV

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For those of you who don’t speak a second language you may have missed the fact that Jesus sometimes spoke in Aramaic while at others the common language (Greek). At crucial moments He moved to His mother tongue, such as when He cried out on the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani – my God my God why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). In this passage He sends the blind man on a mission to wash in a fountain which He gives its Aramaic name. Then just in case we miss that significance John translates it for us and tells us that it means “sent”.

Any time we are waiting on God for a miracle we need to first ask ourselves, “Am I willing to be sent?” To be sent means doing something I have never done. To be sent may mean doing something difficult (Jesus was asking the blind man to make a trip of over half a mile). To be sent most importantly means that as we begin our journey we are walking by blind faith into the exact center of God’s will. If we want to trust see all that God has in store and experience all that He wants to do get prepared; because Jesus has a mission and He is ready to send us on it when we are ready to be sent.

The Other Side of the Hill

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For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  Romans 8:24

 

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In the town where I spent my teen-aged years there is a hill we called Mount Pleasant. On most days it was just another rolling green hill. But on some mornings you drove out of that sunshine into a deep impenetrable fog bank. Though the fog usually covered no more than a half of mile of the summit, it was terrifying. The only safe way through was to slow down and keep your eyes on the yellow center line. The most dangerous thing was to stop because then you became a target of the next car that came speeding along. But if you could just force yourself to just keep going, in just a few moments you would drive back out into sunshine.

Fog banks come to all of our lives. A single phone call and a visit to the doctor who told us that my wife needed surgery to remove a mass loomed ahead like a blinding fog. Everything around us seemed dark. Our lives slowed to a crawl. Days blurred into nights as my wife struggled through a painful week in the hospital after her surgery. Ahead lay more months of difficult recovery then more months of chemotherapy.

Through that time we were ever so slowly passing through our fog bank. We were learning how to pray together, and be gentle and honest with each other as we both struggled with our fears. But God’s promise to guide us through our own valley of shadows stood true. When life slowed to a snail’s pace the lines on the road of God’s promises remained and showed us the way – even if just one inch at a time! God stayed with us and carried us through. Today we are driving back out into a sunshine season with gratitude to God, our friends and family. But now we see with a hope, that no matter what dense clouds lie ahead, our sunshine road will be just on the other side of the hill.

 

Passing Through the Notch

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Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me Psalm 23:4 NRSV

Coming home from work I used to drive through a notch

KIMG0848in the hills called Sugar Hollow. The interesting thing about the place was that in late afternoon the angle of the surrounding hills blocked out most of the sun when it was low on the horizon. You would drive out of bright sunshine into a sort of twilight for a few miles. Then after a few long minutes suddenly the shadows lifted and the sun came shone again as you passed through to the other side.

That passing through may be what you are experiencing today. Maybe everything seemed pretty normal in your life till unexpectedly the boss called you into the office or the doctor called about those test results. The bright sunshine of your day in a moment changed to a shadowy path. If you are at all like me it feels at those moments that even the most familiar of lP1020256and-marks seem strangely different in darkness. That is the time to remind ourselves to hang on and keep going. We do not need to panic. Jesus has promised to be with us always. Whatever deep river, hot fire or dark valley that lies ahead is temporary. Just past the shadows of the notch we are passing through, His road will lead us into sunshine and all the way home!

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