2-16-2014 It's Not About The Miracles: Bad Eyes

I was out in my shirtsleeves yesterday after the church service, and today, we’ve shoveled twice in the freezing cold and our driveway is again totally covered.  I do have to admit, however, that it’s been a long time since I’ve witnessed lightning and thunder during a snowstorm, so that was fun.

To be honest, I probably feel the worst for the mailmen, the garbage men, the UPS guys, and all of the other people who have to trudge through this weather every day, even if it’s a blizzard out.  You ought to offer your mailman some hot chocolate as he comes by tomorrow, just to let him know how much you appreciate him.

By the way, this week was the last week for dropping off your books, DVDs, CDs, etc., to be picked up and taken to Love Packages. Please pray for the people to whom all of those materials will be distributed this month, and thank you for your generosity toward others.

Oh, and as a reminder, we will be having our Congregational Dinner this Thursday evening at 6:00, followed by the Congregational Meeting afterwards. We’ll be able to hear reports from the Deacons and ministry leaders about what our church family has done in 2013, and what we’d like to see happen in 2014.  If you can make it to the dinner, please RSVP to Wendy at the office.

In the message this week, we continued looking at how the miracles of Jesus weren’t really about the miracles, but about the points that Jesus was making with each of them. This week, in order to understand why the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida was the only time that one of Christ’s miracles wasn’t completely instantaneous, we looked at a series of episodes in the Gospel of Mark--remembering that the Gospel was originally written to be read as one coherent story, rather than as a series of distinct episodes.  

The healing actually came at the end of a series of episodes where Jesus was having to make the same point twice--i.e.; that it’s not people and things that make you unclean, but the attitudes of your heart; that it’s not how your worship looks on the outside that matters, but what’s going on inside of you; that the disciples had been given the authority and power to do miracles, including feeding multitudes, etc., but kept dropping the ball when it came to being faithful in doing the hard things; etc.

After the disciples again and again had no clue what was going on--after they showed again and again that they could only sorta see who Jesus was and what He was calling them to, He used a blind man as an example to them.  He touched him once, but the man could only see very vague shaped.  He did the same thing again, and the man could finally see clearly.  Then He turned around and asked His disciples who people said He was, and they gave Him several wrong answers.  He did the same thing again, and Peter finally said, “You are the Christ!”

How many times does God have to touch you and me the same way before we understand what He’s trying to get across to us?

So what has God been trying to get across to you today?