PT-1 "Things Learned From Jesus' Ministry in Decapolis"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/6/2022 9:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                      Focus:  PT-1 “Things learned from Jesus ministry in Decapolis”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 15:29-39

 

            Message of the verses:  I am not going to quote these verses because they have been already written about in earlier SD and we finished talking about them in yesterday’s SD.

 

            First lesson from our Lord’s ministry to those at Decapolis is that we see again Jesus’ unrivaled divine power.  The power I am talking about is the power to create and multiply those seven loaves of bread and a few fish even one-fold and not to mention many thousand-fold.  Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, who believed Him “who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist” as seen in Romans 4:17.  In the same way Jesus had created healthy tissues to replace diseased ones, whole limbs to replace deformed and missing ones, and seeing eyes to replace blinded ones, Jesus also created a superabundance of food to replace a little.  This certainly proves who Jesus Christ is.

 

            In my other blog I have just begun going over my older Spiritual Diaries on the book of Acts and in the beginnings of the book of Acts you can see that when the apostles were establishing the early church, many miracles were performed through them.  The miracles that they performed were performed by the power of Jesus Christ, for whom they served merely as instruments.  It was Jesus however, who performed miracles in His own name and power, and the reason was because He was the source of the power.  He did not heal, deliver, raise the dead, and multiply food as God’s agent but as God.

 

            The second lesson we can learn from His ministry in Decapolis will be the last one that we will go over today, and that is the fact that “He not only cured diseases and restored hearing and sight but restored those who were kullos (maimed and sometimes completely without arms, legs, eyes, or other parts of the body), He set Himself totally apart from self-proclaimed divine healers of past years and modern times.  You look in vain among those healers for verified accounts of anyone who was given an arm, leg, or eye to replace one that was missing. Their ‘cures’ are at best psychosomatic and are extremely minor compared to those the Lord performed during the three years of His earthly ministry.”

 

            We know that our Lord is perfectly able to do these kinds of healings, and I believe that He does do things to heal people in our world today, but I have a hard time believing that He does these through so-called “healers.”  Why were they done so much during Jesus’ time on earth and the first few years of the Church age?  MacArthur writes “But the only age of healing in the church was the time of authenticating the Messiah Himself and of His Word through the apostles.  Once those ends were accomplished, the gift of miracles ceased.”  MacArthur has written a book entitled Charismatic Chaos where he goes much more deeply into this subject.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the miracle gift of Jesus Christ saving my soul many years ago.  Yes there are other things that I would love to have healed in my physical body, but Jesus uses these problems to draw me to Him in wonderful ways.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust the Lord to use my life to bring glory to His name, even though my life seems to copy Chuck Swindoll’s book “Three Steps Forward Two Steps Back.”

 

8/6/2022 10:06 AM