Luke 6:17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.
Do you remember the incident in the movies “Field of Dreams” when Kevin Costner has his “dream” about building a baseball field on his Iowa farm? While wondering if it is the thing to do, he hears a voice which says, “If you build it they will come.”
I could not help but think of that assurance as I read those words in Luke which says throngs of people came to Jesus “to hear Him and to be healed”. And I heard an affirmation “they will still come to hear Him and to be healed.”
My brothers and sisters that is the simple description of the essence of the Christian experience: TO HEAR HIM AND BE HEALED. And every time we forget that, we get into all kinds of trouble, we lose our focus, we lose our power, and we lose our heart.
In the middle of our structuring and organizing and calling people to ministry, in the midst of our telling people how they are to live, there is God’s reminder—people come to Jesus to hear Him and be healed.
Do you realize how important that is? John calls Jesus God’s word to us—to hear Him is to hear what God says. We are warned in the Bible about the disastrous day or time when there will be a drought of hearing God’s Word. It is the worst calamity that can befall a people.
On the other hand to hear Jesus is to be healed (cured, saved). The healing is in the hearing! We hear through the Scriptures, the Bible.
It is no accident that we are called people of the word—read it, study it, share it.
How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord
is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.
Fear not I am with thee, I will still be thy guide.
I’ll strength thee and help and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my mighty omnipotent hand.
Filed under: The Journey |
Discipleship at Messiah 