Faith

06/14/2010

Good Morning!!!

Yesterday Miss N and I attended a traditional church since our Bible study group was on vacation for a week. She had been wanting to visit a church where several of her coworkers go … so we headed out in that direction. We didn’t seen any of her coworkers – and perhaps we weren’t at their church – but we were where we were supposed to be to hear the sermon we were supposed to hear. The preaching passage is below:

Mark 11:12-14; 20-24 (English Standard Version)
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14And he said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it.

The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21And Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." 22And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

The key theme of the sermon was HAVE FAITH IN GOD. We do a lot of praying. But do we do a lot of believing? Do we have faith that God will grant the desires of our heart? The preacher used three examples of people who are mentioned in the Gospel of Mark that had faith. The first is a group of men who believed that Jesus would heal their friend. They carried their friend who was afflicted with palsy but were not able to get in the door because there were too many people in the house. You remember the story … or do you? I thought I did until the preacher pointed out that it was not the afflicted man’s faith that Jesus praised. No – it was the faith that his friends had that Jesus recognized – and acknowledged as He healed the man. You can read all about it in Mark 2.

The second person that had faith was a woman with an issue of blood. She had spent her entire fortune on doctors but her problem only got worse. She too couldn’t get to Jesus – but she believed that if she could just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. Again, it was not her cry for help that led to her healing. No – it was her simple trust that God could and God would. And God did. Read about it in Mark 4.

The last person mentioned was Bartimeus. He was the person who was blind from birth. He heard that Jesus was coming so he began crying out for Jesus the son of David. People told him to hush up – to not make a spectacle of himself. Bartimeus just cried out even louder. And Jesus saw his faith – and healed him. Take a look at Mark 10 for the rest of the story.

The preacher made a point that I think is significant. When we pray for a need, we should begin our prayer thanking God for supplying the need. For example, if the need is a job, the prayer should be “Thank you, Father, for providing me a job.” Take a look at verse 24 of Mark 11. Now, this is not “name it – claim it” but rather just having faith that God will bless.

A good sermon I thought I would pass along to my friends this good morning. God bless you.

Agape’

Mr. Jim


Special Prayer Request:
Ellen sent me the following. Note the prayer requests that Abbey wrote herself. She is in Belarus – so pray hard for her.

These are some emails that Nancy wrote to regarding Abby:

Hi Ellen, what a great devotional! I am about to forward it to Abbey... she was really homesick this morning when I spoke with her. please lift her up. she has 3 1/2 more weeks to go. she needs a friend and needs to know how to talk with people there. please keep her in your prayers.
she is in Belarus - living in a flat with 5 other 18 year old girls that 'graduated' from the orphanage.... they are supposedly learning homemaking skills.. the first part of her trip she was with a group from Lee and they were in Ukraine.... this part she is by herself and in retrospect probably wasn't a good idea.... but the Lord swung open doors of study for her at the university of linguistics in minsk to study russian and a professor at lee wrote a self study course for her to study the belarusian language's death soooo she could get scholarship money and credit through lee. many things about the trip are amazing but keep her in your prayers.

from Abby herself:
Hey mom and dad. Thanks for sending both of these messages. class went well today. I am understanding more I think. My internet modem was all used up yesterday...it was supposed to last all month. That is the usual case with stuff here though. There are all sorts of laws about trying to get more internet...it is either extremely expensive or extremely difficult so I will probably not be updating as often. I am on a school computer which doesn't allow me to get on facebook. So.
Tonight I am going to visit with a foster family. The 53 year old single woman takes care of 8 children. One of the girls (who spent the last few years in this home) and I are going to just spend sometime and try to encourage this lady as well as bring her a package of food. So I am looking forward to that. I am going to try to do some research before I have to go give Thomas a lesson...but I just realized what time it was, so I think I will have to go straight home. Haha. Someone is irritated at me for typing too hard and fast on the keys.oops.
Yes this place is extremely dark, and I feel powerless as a Light here, which i know is not the case but I desperately need a place to fellowship. I found a place here in town on Pipers website. however, the law has not been very friendly to the leader of said group, and therefore it is impossible to find any contact info on the internet. Tanya may know.
Speaking of gov, yesterday they cut off all hot water for one week. Let me tell you I am now officially a fan of Dem.
Also on that topic, several fellowships are coming together here to hold a conference against a Certain prominent poli phil here. We are hosting some of the attendees. Pray for the conference...that the Gospel will be clearly seen by all who attend.
Pray for the girls...they have exams and are all pretty stressed.
Pray for Olya...she is trying to prepare documents for camps at the end of this month and is extremely stressed and very pregnant!
Pray for me...for strength and JOYand all the things you already know about (including internet connection)
Pray for the research...that He will give me discernment and open doors for the Gospel through such research.
Pray for the last remaining days of the camp where Yana is, that He will open many hearts and for strength for the workers there.

ellen brewer