Believe Part II

6. February 2009 by Bernice Davis.

Hello:

Our text for today is:

Matthew 17:14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 ”Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” 17 ”O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Our text today flows out of our last topic concerning the transfiguration of Jesus.   Jesus has taken Peter, James, and John with him to witness this marvelous event and afterwards they come back to the remaining disciples and a crowd has gathered.

The text says that a man approaches Jesus and kneels down and says; “Lord have mercy on my son.”  The child was demon possessed and the father had brought him to the disciples but they could not cast out the demons.  When this story is told in Mark, the bible says that when Jesus came to his disciples, they were actually quarrelling with the religious leaders.  Jesus asked the scribes why were they arguing with the disciples and it is when this man comes to him and tells him that he is the cause of the problem.

What is fascinating about this text is that if you remember in Matthew the 10^th chapter when Jesus called his disciples together he gave them power to cast out demons and heal all manner of sickness and diseases.   Now a few chapters later and the church has lost its power.    After a spectacular event (the transfiguration) Jesus comes back to a church that is experiencing defeat. 

When Jesus finds out that the disciples could not cast out the demon he calls that generation “faithless” and “perverse.”  The Strong’s Concordance gives the following definition for “perverse.” It means  (1) to distort, turn aside (2) to oppose, plot against the saving purposes and plans of God (3) to turn aside from the right path, to pervert, corrupt.

As you can see in our definition, Jesus attached the lack of faith and the moral character of that generation.   They had ceased to “BELIEVE” and ceased to be people of integrity concerning spiritual matters.   Holiness is right.   I understand that sanctification is a process and we have victories and failures in this walk but our mindset should be one of obtaining the holiness of God and it should be reflected in our lifestyle.  We should be growing and maturing.  We should constantly be getting the victory over our struggles.  Our lifestyle should reflect maturity.   The simple way to explain holiness is to “be different.”  Sometimes I think we make the word or concept of holiness too mystical.  It simply means to be different.  We are different from the world.  We live differently, we act differently, we treat people differently, we love differently, we live by the standards of the kingdom and it is dramatically different from this world’s system.   It is not bondage, it is freedom.   I have never been so free in my life, actually this world’s system is what was bondage for me.   Remember, Jesus came to set us free.  He who the son sets free is free indeed.  So to be set free means we were enslaved to this world’s system.    I AM FREE and it feels real good.  

When I first got saved, I wanted to give up so many times, because I felt like there were just too many rules for salvation and there was no way that I was going to keep them all.  Since (in my limited understanding and opinion) I thought that not being able to keep them would result in me going to hell then I felt like I may as well live anyway I want cause hell was sure to be my destiny.

I have since learned to not focus on the rules but focus on my relationship with God.   When you fall in love with God, the other stuff is easy because now your desire is to please HIM and to SERVE HIM and you don’t want to disappoint HIM and you want more of HIM so you gradually loose the desires of the world and you start craving the spiritual more and more until you long to be in his presence.  Sometimes I get sad when my day is so busy that I can’t sneak away just to hear a song about him or just to talk to him and tell him how my day is going.   YEP!!!!!!!!  I love him like that yall… 

The bible teaches us that it is the goodness of God that causes men to repent.    The word “repent” simply means to “change your mind.”   It is because he is just so GOOD… that I want to do right and change my mind to serve him totally.   What he has done to my heart, how he has put a love there that I never thought I could experience towards HIM and others, how he has been merciful, compassionate, forgiving, how he has favored me…. And the list goes on and on but most importantly the way HE makes me feel about myself and life and HIM.   It is truly amazing….

There is no easy solution.  There is no quick twelve step plan to fall in love with God.  It is simply through prayer, praise, worship and the word that I have learned to love him and to crave him.  I know…….. but I don’t understand the word, I fall asleep when I read it, It is boring…….  YEP!!!!!!!!  I did all of that too but keep picking it up and one day it really does become your source of strength, inspiration, and encouragement.   THE WORD WORKS!!!!!!!   It really does.    Just be faithful to trying to understand and hanging out in church where it is explained and attending Sunday school or any format that your church has available and God will honor your commitment.  Serve your church and your community, volunteer to make someone else’s life a little bit better and you will see the blessings that will flow in your own life because of it.  Once you stop focusing on what you don’t have and focus on what you do have which first and foremost is “GOD” then things turn around for you.  They really do because then you understand that you call do all things through Christ that strengthens you and with God all things are possible.  That’s all things, if you BELIEVE.   So the issue is to “BELIEVE.”

They that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.   Jesus promises us in this statement that he makes from the Sermon on the Mount that if the object of our thirst and hunger is righteousness then we shall be filled.  

Okay, have a great weekend, I’ll finish this story on Monday.  There is so much enclosed in this text that is really encouraging and I don’t want to rush through it.    Jesus goes on to deal with this man’s belief system and gets to the heart of the problem as to why he cannot believe. 

Stay encouraged!!!!!!!!!

Have a great weekend.

 Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily. 

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