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Rejoice in The Lord for "The Joy of The Lord is Your Strength"
John 14:1 Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me" Rejoice always, again I say Rejoice for this is the will of God
"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you." 1Thess. 5:18
True Christianity: Inexpressible Joy in the Invisible Christ
Message by John Piper
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:8–9
Topic: Christian Hedonism
Series: 1 Peter: Grow in the Grace & Knowledge of Christ.
And though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
Peter's Description of the Christian Experience
Our focus this morning is on verses 8 and 9. The question I want to start with is this: why does Peter tell the Christians what they are experiencing? He says, "Though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls."
He tells them what they are experiencing: "You are loving Christ; you are believing in Christ; you are rejoicing in Christ with inexpressible and glorified joy; all of that even though you do not now see him." Why? Why tell them what their own experience is?
I think the reason is that he wants to describe for them what true Christianity really is. And to do it in such a way that, if they ever drift away from it, they will have a fixed standard to show them what's happening, so they can wake up and return to what they've lost.
Illustration: Swimming Upstream
I picture it like this (it's not a perfect picture, but it helped me get a handle on why Peter would tell them about their own experience): true Christianity is like swimming upstream in a river of godlessness—for us, secular American godlessness. We swim with the stroke of love to Christ, and the stroke of faith in Christ, and the stroke of joy in Christ. And while we swim, we do not get swept away with the godless toward the terrible cataracts of judgment down river.
God keeps us, as verse 5 said, through faith. He enables us to keep on swimming against the stream with the strokes of faith, love, and joy, so that we don't get carried away in the current of Christlessness.
Our swimming coach, the apostle Peter, is on the shore watching us and following us. When we are swimming well, he calls out to us, "Look here, you're doing well, I'm putting a flag here even with where you are in the river. Now mark this. This is where you are." That's what he's doing in verses 8 and 9.
The reason is so that if we stop using the swimming strokes of love for Jesus, and faith in Jesus, and joy in Jesus, and begin to just float downstream in the river of godlessness, we will be able to wake up and look to the shore and notice that the flag is upstream. We will have a fixed point of reference to call us back to what real Christianity is.
So that's what I want to do this morning. Peter did it for the Christians then, and I am going to try to do it with his words for you now—to plant a flag on the side of the river of American godlessness and call you to look at it to see where you are in your Christian swimming.
Five Things About Christians
Peter says five things (in verses 8–9) about his Christian readers:
1. they love Christ;
2. they believe in Christ;
3. they rejoice in Christ;
4. through all this they are receiving the salvation of their souls; and
5. they are experiencing this even though, like us, they have never seen Christ in person.
This is true Christianity: God is saving our souls by working in our hearts a love and confidence and a joy that is against the stream of secularism and godlessness and worldliness in our society.
True Christianity is loving Christ and trusting Christ and enjoying Christ. In other words, Christianity is first and foremost a matter of the heart (love, trust, and joy), not a matter of external performances. And Peter adds in verse 9: in this you are now (progressively) receiving the goal of it all, the salvation of your soul. The final full salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (v. 5) we are now receiving for our souls (in part) as we love Christ, trust Christ, and rejoice in Christ now.
Three Definitions
Let's see if we can get inside these three experiences and see how they relate and whether we are in fact experiencing them or not. What do we really mean when we speak of loving Christ and trusting Christ and enjoying Christ? We will start with three definitions:
1. Loving Christ
Loving Christ means experiencing Christ as precious for all his character and virtue (cf. 2:7).
2. Trusting Christ
Trusting Christ means experiencing Christ as reliable in all his promises and all his counsel.
In other words:
Love is attracted to the Beloved for who he is.
Faith is confident in the Trusted for what he will do.
3. Enjoying Christ
Now what about joy? Peter says (v. 8), "We rejoice [in Christ] with inexpressible and glorified joy." The more I think about it, and the more I consider biblical texts (like
Philippians 1:25 and Romans 15:13 and 2 Corinthians 1:24), the less I think we should conceive of joy as separate from love and faith.
Joy in Christ is the deep good feelings in loving him and believing him. It's the echo in our emotions—our hearts—of experiencing Christ as precious and experiencing Christ as reliable. It's the deep good feelings of being attracted to him for who he is and the deep good feelings of being confident in him for what he will do.
So joy is part of love and part of faith. Because it would be a contradiction (wouldn't it?) to say, "I am attracted to the preciousness of what Christ is, but I have no good feelings in this attraction." What is attraction without good feelings for something? There may be terror in the attraction (as to a Lion named Aslan) but if there were no deep good feelings in it, it would not be experienced as attraction at all, but only as rejection.
It is the same with faith: it would be a contradiction to say, "I am confidently trusting in what Christ will do for me, but I have no good feelings in this confidence." What is confidence without good feelings of hope and assurance in the one you trust? There may be expectation of pain and suffering on the way, but if there were no deep good feeling that it's going to turn out well, it would not be called trust or confidence at all.
So I conclude that attraction to the ultimate preciousness of Christ (which we call love), and confidence in the ultimate reliability of Christ (which we call faith) are not less than a deep good feeling, called joy. They are more; there are other elements in them besides the deep good feeling of joy, but they are not less than joy. So this holy joy that Peter refers to in verse 8 is a constituent part of love and faith, and together they are true Christianity.
This goes a long way to explaining why Peter calls this joy "inexpressible and full of glory [or glorified]."
Joy: You Become What You Crave
What gives joy its quality? I don't mean merely its intensity, but its moral character? What makes joy ugly or beautiful? Depraved or noble? Dirty or clean? The answer is that the thing enjoyed gives joy its character. If you enjoy dirty jokes and bathroom language and lewd pictures, then your heart is dirty and your joy is dirty. If you enjoy cruelty and arrogance and revenge, then your heart and your joy have that character. Or the more you get your joy simply from material things, the more your heart and your joy shrivel up like a mere material thing. You become like what you crave.
Peter says (in v. 8) that Christian joy is inexpressible and glorified. So how does it become that like that? It becomes like that because Christian joy is the joy of craving the preciousness of Jesus and the reliability of Jesus. You become like what you crave. Christians crave Christ. Therefore they become like Christ. Christ's preciousness and reliability are inexpressibly great, and so our joy is inexpressible in him. And Christ has in him all the glory of the universe and of God, and so our joy in him is a glorified joy—that is, a joy being changed from one degree to another by his glory as we are attracted by its preciousness and as we are confident in its reliability. We become what we crave and what Christians crave above all else is the glory of Christ. So our joy is "inexpressible and glorified" because it is joy in loving Christ and trusting Christ who is inexpressibly glorious.
Seeing What You Cannot See
The gospels are better than being there!
But how do we come to crave the preciousness of Christ and trust the reliability of Christ if we can't see him? How do you love him and believe in him, if you can't see him?
We See Him in Another and More Important Way
I think the answer to that question is that even though we don't see him face to face with our physical eyes, we do see him in another way that is even more important. For example, in Romans 15:20–21, Paul described his mission to unreached peoples (who could never see Christ physically) like this: "I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named . . . but as it is written, 'They who had no news of him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.'" In the preaching of the gospel Christ can be seen in a way that is more important than seeing him physically.
Hundreds of people in Jesus' lifetime saw him physically and never really saw him. "Seeing they did not see," Jesus said. There is a seeing that is infinitely more important than seeing with the eyes. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul describes it like this: "The God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." There is a spiritual seeing in the heart of the glory of God in the face of Christ, and without it no one is saved. Michael Card expressed the paradox of not seeing yet seeing in one of his songs like this:
To hear with my heart
to see with my soul
to be guided by a hand I cannot hold
to trust in a way that I cannot see
that's what faith must be.
"That's What Faith Must Be"
Music and words by Michael Card
We See Him Through the Word of God
How does it happen? How is this kind of seeing happen? It happens through the Word of God. When the gospel of Christ is preached, we can see Christ more clearly for who he really is than many could see in his own lifetime. If you read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with openness to Christ, you can see the true glory of Christ far more clearly than most of the people who knew him on earth could see him—Nicodemus, the Syrophoenician woman, the Centurion, the widow of Nain, Zacchaeus, the thief on the cross, the thronging crowds. They saw a snatch here and a snatch there. But in the gospels you get four complementary portraits of Christ inspired by God and covering the whole range of his teaching and his ministry.
The gospels are better than being there. You are taken into the inner circle of the apostolic band where you never could have gone. You go with him through Gethsemane and the trial and the crucifixion and the resurrection and the meetings after the resurrection. You hear whole sermons and long discourses—not in isolated snatches on hillsides but in rich God-inspired contexts that take you deeper than you ever could have gone as a perplexed peasant in Galilee. You see the whole range of his character and power which nobody on earth saw as fully as you can now see in the gospels: you see his freedom from anxiety with no place to lay his head, his courage in the face of opposition, his unanswerable wisdom, his honoring women, his tenderness with children, his compassion toward lepers, his meekness in suffering, his patience with Peter, his tears over Jerusalem, his blessing those who cursed him, his heart for the nations, his love for the glory of God, his simplicity and devotion, his power to still storms and heal the sick and multiply bread and cast out demons.
True Christianity
Though you do not now see him, yet in another sense you do see him far better than thousands who saw him face to face. You see the glory of God shining in this man's face at every turn in the gospels. And because you see him with the eyes of the heart, you love him and trust him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. This is true Christianity.
That is the flag waving on the side of the river of godlessness. I pray that if you are looking at it this morning from downstream floating comfortably toward destruction that God will wake you up and open the eyes of your heart and set you to stroking—not with legal works to earn anything from God, but with the stroke of love and faith and joy. That is true Christianity.
Evans Ighodalo and Kola Sax currently serving withThe Avalanche of theCommonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) are songwriters, singers and fathers who have collaborated to release a new single titled 'Higher'. The song is a thanksgiving song dished in pidgin English.
OFFICIAL VIDEO: Chris Shalom - Power Belongs To You || @shalom_chris
After the successful release of his 5th studio album “You are the Reason”, it is only right that Gospel music minister Chris Shalom aka the Golden Voice crowns the year with the video for “Power Belongs to You” – the single he started the year with. “Power Belongs to You”, the phenomenal yet simple sing-along worship single ushered in the album “You are the Reason” and has stood out, gradually topping the records of Chris Shalom’s widely accepted single “You are the Reason”.
The single has also broken the boundaries of religion and can be heard not only on alters and amongst Christians but also at public places thus garnering more commercial value as well.
The video directed by Marthins Harrison follows a simple plot to tell a compelling story of the power and sovereignty of the Almighty God. Chris Shalom is excited about the release of the video and believes it will take the song to a whole new meaning as people get inspired, motivated, encouraged and blessed all over again.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success...KJV
This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of 'Purpose Driven Life' .. His wife now has cancer, and he now has 'wealth' from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
'People ask me 'What is the purpose of life?' And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act , the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, 'which is "my problem, my issues, my pain.'
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of fame that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or fame for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, fame and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches,equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God'spurposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do.That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD. '
A friend sent it to me, I shared it with you, share with others as well, for them to have a rethink about life. God bless you.
And that was how God saved me from RAPE! A Must Read!!
True story about how God saved me from Rape
This happened long time ago but I'm led to share it with all Christ Lovers across the globe. Read and be Blessed!
Being a strong Tomboy while growing up, I always thought, Rape? No! no man can rape me, anyone who tries it? Hmm! I'll fight, I'll do this, I'll do that. You know, I played rape scenes in my small head and then strategically planned how I'll deliver myself...lol, forgetting what the bible said in Isaiah which says, woe to that man that trust in the arm of the flesh (paraphrased). Well, truth is the day I finally experienced it, you won't even believe it, Friends, I couldn't even exercise or carry out not even one of my plans...lol
I had an old friend who used to live in my neighborhood with his elder brother, we normally chat and greet well. So years down the lane, he relocated after his brother got married. I didn't know exactly where he relocated to, so he invited me over. Now, that didn't feel right, so I refused to honor the invitation. Several times he invited me for more than one year, I didn't flinch, I didn't go. After almost two years, I traveled and was away for a while.
When I got back, I needed to visit some relatives of mine, so on my way to their place, a thought came to mind and it said, "this your friend has been inviting you for a long time, so why not stop by and say hello". So, I decided to visit which was a bad idea by the way, I picked my phone and called him, I'm around your area I said, where exactly is your house? He directed me and soon I was at his doorstep, 'harmless visit' or so I thought. On seeing me, I could literally smell his excitement, he ushered me in, it was a room apartment. He had just one plastic seat with his clothes piled up in it, so sitting on the bed became the obvious alternative. We both sat down and began to reminisce on old times, after a while he went out, got some drinks and snacks for both of us. I was so much at alert, preparing for anything that might spring up, relying so much on my senses and strength. He asked me to take first and I smartly told him, no, you take first and when he did, I collected that particular one from him, because I assumed he'll take one that's safe, assuming one isn't. I was being careful.
After about twenty minutes into the discussions, he started coming close and then closer, I stylishly shifted each time becoming a little agitated. Next, I felt his hands on my shoulder and there and then I knew I was in trouble. Meanwhile, the television was on and the volume was quite high, his door was equally closed which i couldn't complain about initially because of the noise emanating from the power generating set just outside his door. So I started rehearsals in my mind of how I'll overtake and conquer...lol.
I removed his hand, shifted a little bit and soon he came close again with his hand rubbing against my skin. I rebuked him and was like please stop that, I don't like it and he just sat there smiling sheepishly, saying sorry, relax. Friends, before I could say Jack, the dude was all over me and did I mention he was only in his boxers? Yea, you heard me, only his boxers because after he bought the stuffs, the weather was hot, it's his house, he removed his clothes, I didn't complain, how could I...another bad idea.
So, the war began, i started fighting and struggling for my dear virginity not to be snatched away from me by a rapist in the cloak of a friend. It wasn't funny and I couldn't shout because I was ashamed to be in that mess in a man's room and even if I did, no one would here me because of the television and noise outside. Remember when I said I was rehearsing? well, at this point, I couldn't remember what it was I actually rehearsed and all I saw myself doing was begging while the struggle was going on. I stood up so many times but he'll lift me off the floor and throw me back to the bed, he was older and as a man obviously stronger than I was. I pleaded and pleaded, stretched and struggled and at some point I stood, begged him to open the door for me to leave but he refused. He stood up, lifted me and threw me back, then I knew he was mean and desperate and to make matters worse I was putting on a flay skirt, I didn't like tight wears then and I don't wear them. So each time, I fell on that bed, my skirt flew up exposing my underwear and I was struggling to cover myself up and yet keep holding him off. Eventually, I was helpless, running out of strength, I knew there was nothing more I could do and just then it hit me. I started doing what I should have done thirty minutes ago, I started praying and crying out to God for deliverance. I stopped begging him and just kept praying, turning about the whole bed. I didn't want to lie steadily, i didn't want to give up or yield, I kept trusting God for a miracle. Then, few minutes later, the unexpected happened, he just stopped, yea, just like that, stopped and left me. I stood up, tidied myself because I was really looking scattered, picked up my hair packer from where it fell and my other stuffs and I said please open the door, I want to leave. He started apologizing, saying he was sorry, that he thought I was that kind of girl and I said, oh! no problem, it's okay but just open the door. He dressed up, opened the door and I ran out and that was when I had the nerves to show my anger, I was so mad and furious. I wasn't violated, but it felt like I was. My entire body was in pains due to the long scuffle.
I expressed my anger and disappointment, told him thanks for teaching me a very strong lesson which is "by strength shall no man prevail".
I appreciated God for saving me from that nightmare and for not allowing my life to be ruined, thereafter I began to trust God completely for protection. Isn't God faithful? you don't have to pass through terrible things before you start trusting God. Be very careful of who you call friends, you can meet them in an open place but if you must visit, go with someone.
Trust in God in all your ways and he shall direct your path. Thanks for reading my story, I hope it blessed you. I love you all, friends...God bless you!
You can use the comment box for questions, concerns, contributions and comments. Thanks.
Experience the glory of His presence with the word based singer Sinach, Eben, and Psalmos at Rhema Chapel International Church, Yaba on Saturday, December 19, 2015 by 4:00pm. There's no better place to be than his presence and God's glory depicts God's wealth. You're invited! Stay Blessed!!
Opens in a new window“I Shall Be Whole” { The Woman with an Issue of Blood } Painted by Al Young http://alyoung.com/art/work-hem.html
“If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.” Mark 5:28
Woman with the Issue of Blood
At first I thought it was my time of month.
Blood in my sheets.
I am so tired of blood in my sheets, but now I am too weak to even care.
My little one was only three then; now she is a young woman, and she is probably finding her own blood in the sheets. It’s strange to think of my daughter in that way, but to me it is always blood.
I have not been able to live with her in over a decade. She and my husband live in town, in our little home right down from the market. Oh how I miss the market!
I was selling my olives there when I first noticed the twinge of pain I now know is my hemorrhage. It was the first night of thousands strung together to make up who I am, who I have become.
I was Gilda the olive girl. I sold olives in the market. I was beautiful. People always remarked about the color of my eyes. They said my eyes matched my olives.
I can’t remember the last time anyone even looked at my eyes.
Now I am forgotten.
This blood—this hemorrhage—has robbed me. It’s as though a thief broke in and took everything.
Not my silver, and linen, and fine china, though those are all gone, too. We sold it all to raise money for the doctors. The doctors couldn’t do a thing. I went to doctors in six villages. I even went down to the hospital in Capernaum, but I returned much as I’d left, only bruised and penniless.
The thief I speak of did not walk away with my possessions; he stole my family, my dignity, my humanity, my identity. I was Gilda the olive girl. Now I am no one. I am invisible. I am a scar on the roadside, to be stepped around, avoided. Who am I? I don’t have an answer.
Not long ago, some lepers were talking about a man. This man, I overheard, was wandering all over the region of Galilee, doing things I’ve never heard of before except at the storyteller’s. Jesus, they call Him. He was opening the eyes of the blind, healing all manner of sickness, and even cleansing some lepers.
Oh that name! Jesus! The LORD is salvation. O how I need a Savior!
When I heard the stories, I felt something deep in my chest, something I had not known for ages. I felt hope. After twelve years of blood on the sheets, after a decade alone, an outcast, forgotten, I felt hope.
My first thought was to go to Him. I must have Him put His hands on me and command this blood to stop. But my own husband was unwilling to touch me. The last time he came and held my hand, they would not let him back in the congregation for a week.
The stories kept coming. He healed everyone in town, laid hands on the sick folk there. I even heard He forgave a man’s sins just a few days back.
Who is this Jesus?
I began to wonder if I could get to Him through the crowds that are always thronging Him. I wondered if I could get close enough to touch Him. I remembered a story from my childhood of the day they threw a dead soldier on the corpse of an old prophet, and the soldier came back to life.
If this Jesus is anything like the old Elisha, I bet just touching the hem of His cloak would be enough to stop my bleeding. As soon as this thought entered my mind, I felt warm all over, like the healing had already started, like the LORD Himself was telling me to do it.
I knew what I had to do. He was walking by, and the crowd, as always, spread around Him like a river flowing through the street. So I went for it. I wrapped my tattered robes around me, covering as much of myself as I could. I kept my eyes to the ground and edged my way into the mob.
I could not see Him yet, but I knew He was only a few paces ahead of me. I kept saying to myself the words I’d heard deep inside my soul: “Touch the hem of His cloak. Touch the hem of His cloak.” It was all I could think, all I could hear.
Then I heard a voice right in front of me.
“Master, where did Jairus say he lived? Do you think it is much farther?”
“Patience, Peter.”
That voice! The heat in my body doubled, and I knew it must be Him. I dove to the ground, my outstretched hand barely brushing the fringe of His robe.
Everything stopped. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest.
The Master stopped. The crowd stopped. My heart stopped.
To my horror, Jesus turned around and said:
“Who touched me?”
Peter laughed. “Who touched You? Everyone touched You. Maybe You should ask who didn’t touch You.”
“Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.”
I knew I was caught. I knew He was talking about me. I had broken the law. I had come into the crowd, making them all unclean like me. I had touched Him, and not only was I not allowed to touch anyone, but to touch this man who was not my husband . . . They could arrest me, or excommunicate me, or even stone me.
I was already on the ground, so I found my way to my knees, buried my face in my hands, and blurted out the whole thing. I waited for His verdict. What would He do? What would He say?
Then there was that voice again.
“Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.”
Then I understood. The heat I was feeling was right at the source of the bleeding. As the heat faded, the trickling of blood I’d felt for twelve years was gone. I knew right then and there my nightmare was over.
That was yesterday.
Today I awoke on my cot, and there was no blood.
Today I will return to my home, my husband, my beautiful daughter.
Today I will return to my life, my identity.
When Jesus healed me, He didn’t just stop my bleeding. He restored everything the thief had taken.
What manner of man is this?
~~~
To read the original story, see Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, and Luke 8:40-56.
The story above is a chapter from my book Encounters With Jesus, which is a compilation of forty such stories. It takes the reader from Christ's conception to His resurrection through the eyes of dozens who were touched by His ministry.
