This is one of those lessons that I learned awhile ago but God decided to make real again this week so, here we go! (there's a lot of set up for this one).
K, so in Community Group this week we went over Mark 5:25-34 about the woman who'd been bleeding for 12 years. If you don't know the story...go read it on www.biblegateway.com or in your Bible. CG leader was talking about what it would have meant for this girl to be bleeding for 12 years, say she went to two doctor's a year that'd be twenty-four doc's and instead of helping they made her worse. Top that off with she was a Jew and there were clean laws so part of what that meant was that she had to call out everywhere she went "unclean" everything she sat on or used would be unclean until the end of the day.
Just imagine with me for a second -gosh!- how would that feel? Maybe if I'm going to a place where I don't like the people it'd be like a little bit of revenge I'm unclean and gonna make all your stuff unclean til the end of the day. But really? What if she just wanted to go shopping - she probably shouldn't touch anything! No pretty necklace trying on, don't pat that cute kid on the head, tell everybody UNCLEAN. I bet she felt a lot of faults guilt and shame. I bet a lot of people told her it was because of her sin, I bet those people condemned her... and you and I both know it really hurts when people judge you. I bet there were people who were good with her coming over but __________, or there were a lot of people who just ignored her. They could have been friends, they could have loved who she was but when they saw her coming they saw the unclean girl "she's so sweet but so messed up" lots of shaking heads. I bet she cried a lot, and just didn't understand. I bet she got angry about it and just didn't understand. But apparently she wasn't so angry that she gave up. Our Mark 5 girl was still holding on to some hope that she'd be healed.
So she hears of Jesus who is a teacher and healer. She goes looking for Him, pushes through a crowd (that she doesn't announce she's uncleanness too), touches Jesus and she's healed! I bet in her heart she giggled! I bet she wanted to have a dance party - for one split second. But Jesus knew power had gone out from Him and asked "Who touched Me?" and His disciples were like "Dude! Don't You see the crowd? Like everybody is touching You, Jesus, like duh." And Jesus insisted that someone had touched Him. Then our girl knowing what had happened came, fell at His feet and told Him (and the crowd) what she'd done.
I bet she cried. The Bible says she came trembling with fear, CGroup leader was saying that to touch a teacher in those days esp as you were unclean that'd be so looked down on. And she wasn't even suppose to be in a tight packed crowd. She had everything at stake. So she was crazy afraid! But Jesus said what to her? "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
Wow! Just wow!
Okay so hooray she's healed! I bet she ran and told everybody! I bet she made new friends and they all had dance parties together! But something else, I bet it she forgot at times that she was clean and didn't need to all the rituals. Which I'm sure made her life so much easier but in another way she still had questions. There was still that group of people that had ignored her that either had kept ignoring her or was now friends with her again. But she had to deal with all of that. She still had to deal with the sins of those against her. And I bet there were days that she completely forgot that she'd ever had a bleeding problem.
That's been a struggled like our girl. Forgiving people who have sinned against me. Remembering that it was Jesus who made me whole. Learning to remember that the God of the universe has given me more then I deserve and forgiven me so yes, I can turn and forgive those people. I use to be terrified of every male I came in contact with, because of two men's sins. One day the Holy Spirit taught me that when God looks at Vicki He see her as if He's looking at Jesus His favorite Son. Because He has saved me, I am now His beloved daughter and I can now live in that light instead of the lies of those men who hurt me. So I'm healed! I dance a lot more now! I love dance parties with friends. I laugh a lot more now. But I still have days that I forget that healing, other days I sit down and ask why did that happen? I've been judge, sometimes I get angry at people who labeled me. Sometimes I just don't want to forgive them. I go around thinking they don't deserve my forgiveness. But just like our girl Jesus still says "Daughter your faith has healed you, go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Like a reminder it doesn't matter what you do it matters more who you are, that is I'm a daughter of God plus nothing. When I struggle to forgive, when I forget joy, I remember who I am and what is was that Christ did for me. He gave me healing from emotional pain but He also gave me the ultimate healing of forgiveness of sins. Just like our home girl He healed her and I think also gave her salvation.
K, so in Community Group this week we went over Mark 5:25-34 about the woman who'd been bleeding for 12 years. If you don't know the story...go read it on www.biblegateway.com or in your Bible. CG leader was talking about what it would have meant for this girl to be bleeding for 12 years, say she went to two doctor's a year that'd be twenty-four doc's and instead of helping they made her worse. Top that off with she was a Jew and there were clean laws so part of what that meant was that she had to call out everywhere she went "unclean" everything she sat on or used would be unclean until the end of the day.
Just imagine with me for a second -gosh!- how would that feel? Maybe if I'm going to a place where I don't like the people it'd be like a little bit of revenge I'm unclean and gonna make all your stuff unclean til the end of the day. But really? What if she just wanted to go shopping - she probably shouldn't touch anything! No pretty necklace trying on, don't pat that cute kid on the head, tell everybody UNCLEAN. I bet she felt a lot of faults guilt and shame. I bet a lot of people told her it was because of her sin, I bet those people condemned her... and you and I both know it really hurts when people judge you. I bet there were people who were good with her coming over but __________, or there were a lot of people who just ignored her. They could have been friends, they could have loved who she was but when they saw her coming they saw the unclean girl "she's so sweet but so messed up" lots of shaking heads. I bet she cried a lot, and just didn't understand. I bet she got angry about it and just didn't understand. But apparently she wasn't so angry that she gave up. Our Mark 5 girl was still holding on to some hope that she'd be healed.
So she hears of Jesus who is a teacher and healer. She goes looking for Him, pushes through a crowd (that she doesn't announce she's uncleanness too), touches Jesus and she's healed! I bet in her heart she giggled! I bet she wanted to have a dance party - for one split second. But Jesus knew power had gone out from Him and asked "Who touched Me?" and His disciples were like "Dude! Don't You see the crowd? Like everybody is touching You, Jesus, like duh." And Jesus insisted that someone had touched Him. Then our girl knowing what had happened came, fell at His feet and told Him (and the crowd) what she'd done.
I bet she cried. The Bible says she came trembling with fear, CGroup leader was saying that to touch a teacher in those days esp as you were unclean that'd be so looked down on. And she wasn't even suppose to be in a tight packed crowd. She had everything at stake. So she was crazy afraid! But Jesus said what to her? "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
Wow! Just wow!
Okay so hooray she's healed! I bet she ran and told everybody! I bet she made new friends and they all had dance parties together! But something else, I bet it she forgot at times that she was clean and didn't need to all the rituals. Which I'm sure made her life so much easier but in another way she still had questions. There was still that group of people that had ignored her that either had kept ignoring her or was now friends with her again. But she had to deal with all of that. She still had to deal with the sins of those against her. And I bet there were days that she completely forgot that she'd ever had a bleeding problem.
That's been a struggled like our girl. Forgiving people who have sinned against me. Remembering that it was Jesus who made me whole. Learning to remember that the God of the universe has given me more then I deserve and forgiven me so yes, I can turn and forgive those people. I use to be terrified of every male I came in contact with, because of two men's sins. One day the Holy Spirit taught me that when God looks at Vicki He see her as if He's looking at Jesus His favorite Son. Because He has saved me, I am now His beloved daughter and I can now live in that light instead of the lies of those men who hurt me. So I'm healed! I dance a lot more now! I love dance parties with friends. I laugh a lot more now. But I still have days that I forget that healing, other days I sit down and ask why did that happen? I've been judge, sometimes I get angry at people who labeled me. Sometimes I just don't want to forgive them. I go around thinking they don't deserve my forgiveness. But just like our girl Jesus still says "Daughter your faith has healed you, go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Like a reminder it doesn't matter what you do it matters more who you are, that is I'm a daughter of God plus nothing. When I struggle to forgive, when I forget joy, I remember who I am and what is was that Christ did for me. He gave me healing from emotional pain but He also gave me the ultimate healing of forgiveness of sins. Just like our home girl He healed her and I think also gave her salvation.
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