13 Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stay where you are and see the work Yahweh will do to save you today. The Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see again! 14 Yahweh will fight for you and all you have to do is to keep still.”
Beloved, today I come to You with all that troubles me and I surrender it all to You. I claim these words words of reassurance that Moses spoke to the Israelites for myself and for my life. I will not be afraid but stay where I am and trust You to fight my battles on my behalf. All I will do, is stay still in Your Presence.
Ephesians 4:32----5:832 be good and understanding, mutually forgiving one another as God forgave you in Christ.
5 • 1 As most beloved children of God, strive to imitate him. 2 Follow the way of love, the example of Christ who loved you. He gave himself up for us and became the offering and sacrificial victim whose fragrance rises to God. 3 And since you are holy, there must not be among you even a hint of sexual immorality or greed, or any kind of impurity: these should not be named among you. 4 So too for scandalous words, nonsense and foolishness, which are not fitting; instead offer thanksgiving to God.
5 Know this: no depraved, impure or covetous person who serves the god ‘Money’ shall have part in the kingdom of Christ and of God.6 Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for these are the sins which God is about to condemn in people who do not obey. 7 Do not associate with such people. 8 You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Behave as children of light;
Beloved, there is much to learn and understand from these verses. As Christians, St. Paul gives us a blueprint on Christian living. If we call ourselves holy then there has got to be not even a whiff of sin in us.
Luke 13:10-17
10 Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath 11 and a crippled woman was there. An evil spirit had kept her bent for eighteen years so that she could not straighten up at all. 12 On seeing her, Jesus called her and said “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” 13 Then he laid his handsupon her and immediately she was made straight and praised God.14 But the ruler of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had performed this healing on the Sabbath day and he said to the people, “There are six days in which to work; come on those days to be healed and not on the Sabbath.”
15 But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Everyone of you unties his ox or his donkey on the Sabbath and leads it out of the barn to give it water. 16 And here you have a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. Should she not be freed from her bonds on the Sabbath?”
17 When Jesus said this, all his opponents felt ashamed. But the people rejoiced at the many wonders that happened through him. ,
You are always teaching us, Your loving eyes are always upons us looking deep into our souls and ministering to us. The crippled woman was in the crowd listening to You. You saw the longing in her heart despite her being possessed by an evil spirit she still longed for God and she hungered to be free. You saw her and called her, You freed her and laid Your hands on her and touched her and immediately she was released from the bondage of sin that had crippled her for 18 years. One would imagine the ruler of the synagogue would be happy for this poor woman yet his reaction was one of anger. All his years of working in this place of worship ought to have made him more kind, sympathetic, holy and compassionate but it only served to make him more rule bound. Often our work for the Kingdom is seen as a job, a duty. We do not see the person. You rebuked the ruler of the synagogue and told him to show atleast as much compassion as he would show their livestock. He shamed his opponents but the people rejoiced.
Similarly all of us sinners can take heart and rejoice that You came to seek the lost, minister to the sinner and heal the sick.
THE CRIPPLE
The Lord was in the synagogue,
One holy sabbath day,
When He saw a crippled woman,
Enter in to pray.
Bound by an evil spirit,
Bent double eighteen years,
She lived a sad and lonely life,
Nobody cared for her.
On that memorable morning,
Of that sabbath long ago,
She heard the Master call her,
As she walked in through the door
He laid His hands upon her,
She stood up straight and tall,
Eyes brimming over tears of joy,
She praised the Living God.
I was like that woman,
Crippled by my sins,
Until my Saviour touched me,
And healed me from within.
He drew me out of darkness,
Into His radiant light,
The Lord calls me beloved,
I call Him my delight..
LUKE 13:10-13
Myra D’souza/26.10.98
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