Having a Holy Boldness

Satan is sly, clever and a twister of lies for he is a murderer and the father of lies. It sounds good to say Jesus was a good man. He was that but more importantly he was and is the very divine Son of God. Satan's desire is to confuse and conflict truth with half truths or even lies or false assumptions. The disciples struggled with the reasons of the beggar's blindness.  They asked: is this man blind because of his sin or his parent’s sin and that is the way of the enemy as he seeks either confuse or conceal truth. Jesus corrects that assumption by saying it was so that and upon the evidence of the healing removes the false assumptions and replaces them with truth so that the listeners may be without excuse. 

The Neighbors: You can’t be who you say you are for I remember who you were and you are not the same person, so I deny that you are you.  Remember Peter’s words: 1Pe 4:4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you.

 

The Parents:  After questioning him the religious experts call for his parents who refuse to acknowledge the Healer out of fear of being removed from the synagogue.  Again we remember Prov 29:25 “the fear of man is a snare.” 

The Religious Leaders claim to follow Moses but fail to say they follow God when they claim that Jesus does not observe the Sabbath. Remember the words of Jesus: “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.[Mk 2]  Also they claim and yet are confounded with the evidence presented to them in the healing of the beggar: “We know that God has spoken to Moses! We do not know where this man comes from!”

The Man testifies: “This is a remarkable thing, that you don’t know where he comes from, and yet he caused me to see!  We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is devout and does his will, God listens to him. Never before has anyone heard of someone causing a man born blind to see.”

Precious Friend, many may see the change in you but are either unwilling to accept it or to believe it. But, if you are like the blind man who has met the Divine Healer, continue to have a holy boldness like the blind man and fall and worship the Divine Son of God!

Heart X-Ray

Jesus saw and then acted. He saw the crowds and went up the mountain, sat down and began to teach. No one had a Bible, no one had their laptop or their iPad to take notes. All they had were their ears and eyes, a mind to take in the teaching and they would then be expected to act upon that teaching. Today we carry our electronics with us to worship, we mull over passages, look up cross references but do we take time to really listen? Over and over through Matthew we will come across this phrase: “he who has ears better listen.” So how are your listening skills today?

Jesus began by saying “Blessed are.. followed by.. then you are.” It is because of this transformation we  become His followers and can share these truths with others. That is the measure of being a disciple of Christ. Jesus also said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’  If we want to be a true disciple we must look inwardly to our heart and then observe our actions. Matt Skinner wrote: Jesus “greater point is that righteousness encompasses the focus and state of mind that motivates and sustains one’s actions.” Perhaps that is why Jesus said “be careful” in how you reveal your inner righteousness because the world is watching.  We ask: What do they see? What do they hear? What do they then surmise? The better question is what does God see, what does God hear, what then does God know about our heart?