Author: Dave Dishman (Page 233 of 458)

A man laid beside a pool in Jerusalem for years, hoping for a cure in the miraculous waters. Instead, the one who created those waters walked up and asked, do you want to get well?

Jesus healed the man with this command: Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.

This occurred on a Sabbath, not a problem for Jesus—the Lord of the Sabbath—nor the crippled man now skipping down the street. But a group of Pharisees took offense when they met the man carrying his mat. They asked, who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?

These religious teachers missed the point.

Instead of rejoicing with the now-whole man, or asking about a healer at loose in Jerusalem, their focus turned to minutia. Protection of the status quo, of religion’s place in society, of their standing as guardians all undergirded this question.

The Pharisees focused on the waves Jesus caused, but missed Jesus himself. The Messiah came to set them free, but many (although not all) missed out.

You and I need to find Jesus for ourselves. I hear a broad range of opinions about Jesus, spanning the horizons. Some bring me to careful thought, others are simply drivel. I cannot keep the faith by simply adopting fashionable views of Jesus.

Go to the Good Book. Open the Bible and meet the man who healed the paralytic by the pool. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Take notes. Think. Then read them again, over and over.

Learn to see Jesus for yourself.

John 5 in reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Alejandro Luengo

The psalmist writes:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Today I give thanks to the Lord for Eleanor Lydia, born October 25 in New York City to parents Matt & Megan.

Some days it takes faith to cling to gratitude, but on others it comes in flashing brilliance. And so this little girl arrived.

God’s love continues through generations and indeed endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Photo by the father

Jesus made a second lap through Cana, where he previously delighted a wedding crowd with wine of an otherworldly vintage. On this trip, doubtless inspired by stories about the wine, a royal official approached Jesus and begged him to heal his son.

A father urged The Son to heal his son.

The official continued to pester Jesus, knowing his child lay dying. Finally Jesus replied, Go, your son will live.

Then the man took Jesus at his word and departed. The boy’s turn from the edge of death timed to that very instant Jesus spoke his fate.

We’re not told if this official was Jew or Gentile, God-fearer or indifferent, or if he treated his people with equanimity or harshness.

We do know he loved his son. We also know that he saw only one solution to his problem. Only one person possessed the power to hold off death—he had to get to Jesus.

I solve many problems in life. But I have bigger issues that I cannot fix. I often don’t know where to start. But I do know where to go with these problems. Jesus holds the power over all the world, my problems included, the same Jesus I read about here.

Take a lesson from this desperate father, and let your desperation lead you to Jesus.

John 4 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Jackson Simmer

Sometimes old expressions fade through generations. Like when I saw a man limping and said, that dude has a hitch in his giddy-up. Some friends had never heard the saying and one wondered if it was offensive. I let them stew on it, too good of an expression to lose.

Ezekiel recorded the Lord, in white hot anger, condemn the religious practices of the people of Judah with this phrase: Look at them putting the branch to their nose!

Commentators disagree as to what this expression specifically means, but all agree that it was really, really bad. One explanation refers to bowing to the sun as it rose in the east. In ancient Persia, when people prayed to the sun they held a bundle of twigs in front of their face so that the bright rays of the sun might not be polluted by human breath.

Veneration of the sun took place in the temple of Jehovah. The people of Judah turned from worshipping the Creator to worshipping the creation. They lost God and focused instead on bad breath.

Literally as I write the sun rises over the horizon. It’s in my eyes, brilliance covering the earth. I pull the shades down in order to see the computer screen. The sun overwhelms my vision.

It’s easy to lose the Lord in my day to day life. Like the sun in my eyes, the immediate demands my attention.

But to realize the sun, one of millions of stars, only a bauble in his firmament, was placed in the heavens by a spoken word of the Lord reminds me of who’s in control and to whom I bow my knee.

Ezekiel 8 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Jordan Wozniak