Matthew 9:2-6

Matthew 9:2-6 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. The Pharisees were exactly right. No one can forgive sins but God alone. But what they failed to realize was that Jesus was God! And Jesus could forgive sins because He was God! And Jesus went on to prove that He was God by healing a man who had never ever walked a day in his life! Jesus commanded the man to get up and to walk ... and he did! He didn’t need any physical therapy or practice; he just got up and started to walk! Jesus healed the man and Jesus forgave the man of his sins. Jesus was God and He alone could do both!

Matthew 8:23-27

Matthew 8:23-27 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! The disciples were in a difficult place in the middle of a great storm. They were worried, but Jesus wasn’t. Actually Jesus was getting some sleep! But they disciples woke Jesus up afraid that they were going to drown. Silly disciples! Was Jesus, the very Son of God in danger of drowning? Absolutely not! And as long as the disciples were in the same boat as Jesus was, they would never drown either! They forgot to trust Jesus just like we forget to trust Jesus too. They shouldn’t have worried and we shouldn’t worry either! And just like Jesus reminded his disciples to trust in Him, we should trust in Jesus too! Silly us!

Matthew 8:19,20

Matthew 8:19,20 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Sometimes we make a commitment before we realize all that it involves. Years ago, I wanted to get more Scriptures into Romania. We had a man who spoke at our church that talked about printing Scriptures, so I thought, “I can do that.” And I did. Soon the man called and said that he had found a paper company in Watertown, New York that had some paper that they didn’t need and they would sell it at a bargain. I talked to Brother Ron Kuhns and we agreed. We bought a half or a trailer load of paper! I called Keith VanDerLinden in Madison, GA and his organization agreed to print the John/Romans at their cost. But I had to have boxes to put them in. So Les Wilkinson knew a manager at Farms of Lorette chicken processing plant and he gave us 450 boxes. I had to wash the chicken smell off of those boxes and dry and fold them. David Gunneson and I drove the church van to Madison GA and worked all day receiving the John Romans as they came off of the giant printing press. I had no idea how much that I was getting into! But God used that uninformed decision to get 138,000 John Romans Scriptures printed and shipped to Romania. And God will use you someday to do great things for Him too!

Matthew 8:6-10

Matthew 8:6-10 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith. And the centurion didn’t seem to be worried because he knew that Jesus could heal his servant. And He knew that Jesus didn’t have to be there in order for the servant to be healed. He was a commander of many men and he knew how orders were to be followed. And he had the faith to believe that Jesus’ orders would be followed too. So, how about us? Do we have faith in Jesus? Do we know, that we know for sure that Jesus’ orders will be followed? Will we follow Jesus’ orders? I hope so!

Matthew 8:1-4

Matthew 8:1-4 When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. Jesus did many wonderful things while He was here on earth. He healed the sick and raised the dead and caused the blind to see. But this story about a leper man had an interesting twist. You see, leprosy is incurable. When someone got leprosy in Bible times, they became outcasts because leprosy was not only incurable, but it was highly contagious. And in the book of Leviticus, God gave instructions to Moses on how to identify leprosy and why the Children of Israel had to remove a leprous man from the community. But it was interesting, that also in Leviticus 14 that God also gave instructions about what to do when a leprous man was cured of leprosy. But no leper was ever cured of his leprosy. That is until Jesus came along. God knew that Jesus would heal a man of leprosy and so God had Moses to put instructions in the book of Leviticus on how the priest had to conduct the ceremony for clearing the leprous man to go back to his family. So when Jesus said for the man to go and show himself to the priest, that was a big deal! No priest had ever performed the leper cleansing ceremony before! And what a testimony! I am sure that the priest grilled the man about how he came to be healed of his incurable disease. The man just said, “It was Jesus. He made me whole!” A great testimony!

Matthew 7:24-27

Matthew 7:24-27 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Jesus told the people in The Sermon on the Mount that there were two kinds of people: those who heard what He said and those who heard and followed what He said. Jesus went on to give a story that explained what He was saying. Two men built two identical houses. The only difference was the foundation. The foundation is that part of the house that you can’t see. It is what the house sits upon. The foundation must be solid and strong in order for the house to be solid and strong. If the foundation is weak and cracks, the house will be weak and crack and will soon fall apart. And so it is with our lives. If we build our lives upon God’s foundation, the Word of God, our lives will remain strong. But if we take short cuts in our lives; if we cheat and lie in order to save time; our lives will be weak and we will have trouble. Put God first in your life, and your life will be solid. God’s Word, the Bible is a good foundation.