River of Life Christian Centre

 

Thought for the week - July 23rd 2010

 (Published weekly on Fridays at about 10.00am GMT)

 

A recent visit to Israel captured our hearts in so many ways. Not lease of which was the realisation that so much of the three years of ministry of our Lord was spend in what has become known as the "Teaching triangle"

Just a few square miles of land at the top end of the Lake Galilee  triangulated by Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorizin hosted much of what we read in the gospels.

The beatitudes were spoken there, the feeding of the four thousand, the miracle catch of fish, to name just three significant events.

Mary Magdalene who lived just a couple of miles along the road, almost certainly had the face to face life transforming encounter with Jesus and just across the lake, Gadara, where the mental wreck named Legion was set free from a multitude of demons

I am reminded of apostle Johns' final word in his gospel (John 21.25) reminds us that no one could ever fully report all that Jesus did there.

Interesting that our Lord Jesus Himself challenged those who had heard nearly three years of His wonderful words, and seen the amazing miracles, that they were still spiritually deaf and blind.

"Woe to Chorazin" He said "Woe to Bethsaida. If the gentile (non Jewish) people of Tyre and Sidon had heard and seen these things they would have been on their knees pleading for forgiveness" (Matthew 11.21)

How many times have we all said "What would it have been like to be there in the times of Jesus - hearing HIm, seeing Him, the miracles". In saying this, we make an assumption that we would have been the ones who followed Him straightaway. But would we?

Believing in our Lord Jesus is a matter of faith - "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see (Hebrews 11.1)

In the bible we have the written evidence of what happened and what we need to do. Believe / trust/ repent / have faith. Go to a church where you hear these things being taught, where you see these things happening.

This is for real! This is for now! This is for you!