Monday, October 23, 2006

Matthew 9 Harvestor Time

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Matthew 9:1-38
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man 1Jesus got into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. 2Some people brought to Jesus a man who was paralyzed and lying on a mat. When Jesus saw the faith of these people, he said to the paralyzed man, "Be encouraged, young man. Your sins are forgiven." 3Some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This man speaks as if he were God. That is blasphemy!" F25 4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why are you thinking evil thoughts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven, ' or to tell him, 'Stand up and walk'? 6But I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Stand up, take your mat, and go home." 7And the man stood up and went home. 8When the people saw this, they were amazed and praised God for giving power like this to human beings. Jesus Chooses Matthew 9When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector's booth. Jesus said to him, "Follow me, "and he stood up and followed Jesus. 10As Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with Jesus and his followers. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus' followers, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 12When Jesus heard them, he said, "It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. 13Go and learn what this means: 'I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.' F26 I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners." Jesus' Followers Are Criticized 14Then the followers of JohnF27 came to Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees often give up eating for a certain time, F28 but your followers don't?" 15Jesus answered, "The friends of the bridegroom are not sad while he is with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will give up eating. 16"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth over a hole in an old coat. If he does, the patch will shrink and pull away from the coat, making the hole worse. 17Also, people never pour new wine into old leather bags. Otherwise, the bags will break, the wine will spill, and the wine bags will be ruined. But people always pour new wine into new wine bags. Then both will continue to be good." Jesus Gives Life to a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman 18While Jesus was saying these things, a leader of the synagogue came to him. He bowed down before Jesus and said, "My daughter has just died. But if you come and lay your hand on her, she will live again." 19So Jesus and his followers stood up and went with the leader. 20Then a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the edge of his coat. 21She was thinking, "If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 22Jesus turned and saw the woman and said, "Be encouraged, dear woman. You are made well because you believed." And the woman was healed from that moment on. 23Jesus continued along with the leader and went into his house. There he saw the funeral musicians and many people crying. 24Jesus said, "Go away. The girl is not dead, only asleep." But the people laughed at him. 25After the crowd had been thrown out of the house, Jesus went into the girl's room and took hold of her hand, and she stood up. 26The news about this spread all around the area. Jesus Heals More People 27When Jesus was leaving there, two blind men followed him. They cried out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28After Jesus went inside, the blind men went with him. He asked the men, "Do you believe that I can make you see again?" They answered, "Yes, Lord." 29Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, "Because you believe I can make you see again, it will happen." 30Then the men were able to see. But Jesus warned them strongly, saying, "Don't tell anyone about this." 31But the blind men left and spread the news about Jesus all around that area. 32When the two men were leaving, some people brought another man to Jesus. This man could not talk because he had a demon in him. 33After Jesus forced the demon to leave the man, he was able to speak. The crowd was amazed and said, "We have never seen anything like this in Israel." 34But the Pharisees said, "The prince of demons is the one that gives him power to force demons out." 35Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News about the kingdom, and healing all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. 36When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them because they were hurting and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37Jesus said to his followers,
"There are many people to harvest but only a few workers to help harvest them (do it).
38Pray to the Lord, who owns the harvest, that he will send more workers to gather his harvest." F29
FOOTNOTES:F25 blasphemy - Saying things against God or not showing respect for God.F26 'I want…sacrifices.' - Quotation from Hosea 6:6.F27 John - John the Baptist, who preached to people about Christ's coming (Matthew 3, Luke 3).F28 give up…time - This is called "fasting." The people would give up eating for a special time of prayer and worship to God. It was also done to show sadness and disappointment.F29 "There are…harvest." - As a farmer sends workers to harvest the grain, Jesus sends his followers to bring people to God.
Copyright Statement:
New Century Version

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Do you know men have authority on earth to forgive sins? Do you know the forgiveness of sins and the healing of disease are directly related? In fact if one will not forgive sin they are themselves involved in sin, and willful sin is an open door to all sorts of ailments and torments.
In fact, the one who wills to not forgive sins, stands in God’s place as judge and jury, he’s taken his own seat as God, determiner of people’s outcome, and taking God’s seat is not taken very lightly, in fact the last “guy” who did that was forced out of heaven and brought down to an eternal pit, an eternal destiny of doom.
Many are diseased due to sins not repented of. Many are paralyzed and cannot even walk the walk of faith, due to sin unrepented of. When sin is repented of, the divine order in one’s life is re-established and all sorts of blessings can flow to earth from heaven.
Forgive and heal the land.
In the great co-mission Jesus said we were to make disciples. Here we see Jesus making disciples. He says to men, “Come follow me” and they do. Men need to follow Jesus in us today. The thing is, are we following Jesus far enough that we can lead someone else His way? Have you ever asked someone to follow you? How easy is it to have a follower in our world? Not very, right? Why? People need to see something supernatural in order to leave what it is they are doing in life and follow another man other than themselves. It takes faith in God. It should take a tremendous amount of faith in God and also a huge amount of responsibility to be a leader. It would take a tremendous amount of courage to say, “Come follow me”, for what if I make a mistake? What if I’m not “perfect” as most humans aren’t. The leader who asks people to follow him must be in right relationship with God and stay there. It takes a decision to be such a person. Yet God requires each of us to make this quality decision and lead others to Him. He wants each of us to gird up our loins and cinch up the ropes of our lives, swallow hard and diligently seek Him that others may be found in Him, as we also have been. It takes faith to lead and faith to follow. It is faith that raises up dead things, faith that heals and causes bind eyes to see the fields of harvest are indeed ripe.
When He says pray for laborers what do you think that means? I believe it means there are a whole lot of Christians who say they are following Christ yet have not become faith-filled enough to step out on water and say to a group of people, watch me walk, and follow me as I also follow Christ. We need to pray yes for more believers, but also for those who say they believe to become brave, faith-filled leaders who lead others into discipleship. We have to pray for continuity to erase hypocrisy. We must ask God to help Adam and Eve come out of hiding behind their own coverings and show themselves to God daily that there’s nothing left hidden that His light cannot shine on. We must pray that they’d be made clean, loving what is right and hating what is wrong and become anointed to destroy yokes of bondage everywhere they go. We need to pray they be kept from evil and from the sway of the evil one.
We’ve had lots of converts, if we had 100% of the converts become disciples, within just a few years our world would be saved in no time.

Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15
I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.