Treasure In Clay Jars

(John 9:1-7 NLT) As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.* The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

I was having a conversation with a friend today and she described a close relative who is going through chemotherapy to treat an inoperable brain tumor. In inquiring how I could pray for the relative, I happen to ask if she was strong in her faith (since she was described to me previously as a Christian). My friend replied that no her relative was not very strong in her faith and was infact angry at God for causing her to go through such misery. This did help me to understand how to pray more specifically for this lady. Not only do I pray (to God) for healing of her tumor, but I pray just as much for understanding about how much God loves her as she is going through this difficulty. This issue is a very common one for many people, Christian and non believers alike. Either they or someone they know is going through deep difficulties, maybe even the loss of a loved one. They are perplexed and angry at the so-called loving God who is putting them through this misery. What kind of lo...

I was speaking with a co-worker today (who represents himself publicly as a Christian) and he happens to be telling me a story of an incident that occurred recently on a plane ride. During the flight, a man seated across from him had a heart attack. To make a long story short, the plane was diverted from it’s ultimate destination and the stricken man was removed (alive) from the flight. My co-worker in finishing up the story remarked…”all I could do was pray for him”. When he said that, it brought to my mind similar sentiments that I have heard from other people, usually stated such that there was nothing ‘more’ that they could have done, so prayer was all that was left. Now I know that my co-worker had nothing but the man’s best intentions, and he offers to pray for people’s circumstances quite often, so this post is certainly not meant as a critique (far from it), but it does raise a point that I think is emblematic of a persistent ‘negative’ on the part of some of us Christians. Why...