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The Believer
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Saturday, November 11, 2006
10:06
how far do you follow? Mark 10:46-42 reads, Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the road begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." "Go." said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he receieved his sight and followed Jesus along the road. This is the story of the blind man, Bartimaeus. It started off with him calling out to Jesus when he heard that He was near. Bartimaeus has probably heard lots of stories about Jesus before, and thought that this would be the right time to call out to Him. Despite being discouraged from the crowd, he called out even more. Jesus then stopped what He was doing and called up to Bartimaeus to come foward, and he came (note, at this time, the crowd has swayed as it does with the world and was not encouraging, rather than discouraging). Jesus probably knew what Bartimaeus wanted from the very beginning, but still, He asked him what he would have liked done. And knowing this was his chance, Bartimaeus blurted it out, "I want to see", not even saying "if you are able to" or "if you can", but just saying it knowing it will be done. This is the picture of faith, and the result of faith, was his sight. And the story didnt just end there. It ended with, "and followed Jesus along the road". I wonder how long that road was, and how long Bartimaeus followed Jesus for. Out of gratitude? Reverence? Amazement? and I wonder again, how much further Bartimaeus carried on this faith of his, was it a one time only faith ticket? Or was it an ongoing everyday believe? This is rather like us when we first started out with God. We have heard about Him so many times from different people, and finally one day, we decided to call out to Him when we feel Him come by. The world tries to discourage us, but we were in such a position that we just had to call out to him. So God turned and said "come". And so we moved foward and came to know God as who He is, and accepted Christ for what He's done for us and felt something different twig in our lives. We searched for Him, He called out to us, we came to Him, and we receieved His gift that He has ever so graciously given. Our faith was strong. So then we walked a little way along the road, and then find ourselves slowly falling little by little on the slippery road, probably littered with stones and rubbish, but still we tried to carry on. but bit by bit, we feel we're moving further, not because He has started walking faster, but because we've stopped following on as strongly as we used to. and then, we find that we've fallen, oh so far, that it seems almost impossible to get back. We then re-find ourselves in the same position we used to be in. we try to start all over again, only to find that He has stopped and has been standing beside us all of that time, waiting to pick us back into His loving arms. Doesnt it make you think? how really, you could have saved yourselves from the falling off and trying to start all over again? We know that in our hearts, we need God, and yet, why do we keep falling off? Are our memories so crappy that we forget what He has done for us, and require something new to jolt us back into position each time? I really don't know, but I know this is something worth thinking about... How far do you follow before you suddenly find yourself in something else you shouldnt be in? How are you following Him? |