Faith to Go Further
“And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, saying, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Luke 18:40-41
The story of the blind beggar sitting by the road on the way to Jerichoused to puzzle me. Here was a man shouting and yelling to get the attention of Jesus. He heard the noise of a multitude and asked what was going on. When he found out that Jesus was passing by, he yelled out, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus heard him, stopped, and said something that sounds a little unnecessary; namely, “What do you will me to do to you?” I can almost hear the disciples saying, “What do you mean what does he will?”
Now in a similar situation involving two blind men nearCapernaumwhich is recorded in Matthew 5: 27-30, Jesus did not ask them what they wanted but if they believed he was able to do what they wanted. Why did Jesus “assume” what it was they wanted but ask the solo blind man what it was he willed or wished? Incidentally, the word Jesus used for “will” or “wish” was not a “wistful wish” but a wish with some teeth in it; it was the same word (theto) that Pilate used when he asked the crowd what did they “will” or “wish” him to do with Jesus.
There is another interesting difference in the two stories. In the case of the two blind men, Jesus said, “According to your faith be it unto you”; however, in the case of the solo blind man, Jesus said, “Thy faith hath saved thee.” There were also different outcomes in these two cases. The two blind men departed and went their way spreading Jesus’ fame. The solo blind man followed Jesus and glorified God.
When Jesus told the man his faith had “saved” him, the Greek word used by Luke was “sozo” which has a wide variety of applications. “Sozo” is used of physical and temporal deliverance from danger and suffering; of spiritual and eternal salvation granted to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; of the present experience of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin; of the future deliverance of saints at the second coming of Jesus Christ; of the future deliverance of Israel; and, of all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ. “Sozo” can be a very targeted and temporal or a very broad and eternal.
In the case of the two blind men, Jesus could see their “want” was limited to their sight. That was as far as their faith went and that was what they got. In the case of the solo blind man, Jesus could see a deeper hunger and a greater need in him than the need for physical sight. In both cases the men had addressed him as “Jesus thou son of David” but only in the case of the solo blind man was there a willingness to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, receive the Giver with the gift, the Son with the kingdom, and eternal life with physical healing. We don’t know what happened to the two blind men but we do know the solo blind man received Jesus as Lord and Savior.
There is an instructive story told of a modern street beggar inIndiawho had withered legs. One day he was completely healed by the prayer of a native street evangelist. He joined a local Christian Community but soon found that life as a beggar was much easier than life as an unskilled worker in a despised minority. Quietly and inconspicuously, he returned to sitting at his old post on the street and before long his legs returned to their formerly withered condition. God does not deliver us to make our life easier; He delivers us to make our life eternal.
By John Cathcart
www.wme.org
They Have Lost Everything but Their Faith
Refugee Women in Burma
They have lost everything but their faith.
The women in the Mae La refugee camp are sturdy. They know how to trek through a jungle and climb the side of a mountain, how to flee in the night and suffer thirst and hunger during the day. They have all had to abandon their homes and their relatives. Freedom and a new life are still a distant hope. For these women a “normal life” is a fantasy. Poverty is a daily, cruel taskmaster where water isn’t guaranteed and rice is precious. They carry these burdens as they hold their babies. They somehow endure with a tenacious, long-suffering spirit that conquers the tragedies of their lives.
What can we do? How can we change their futures? How can we give them the practical tools they need to change their environment? It turns out the answer isn’t that complicated.
With the help of WME we are building a Woman’s Center in the camp. It sets high on a hill. We’re equipping the facility with blackboards, chalk, desks and notebooks. We will use these tools to teach the women how to improve their quality of life. Qualified instructors will teach tailoring, weaving, nutrition and child raising. These are skills needed to cope in this harsh environment. The illiterate will learn how to read and write and young women will learn how to use computers. We are empowering the helpless, giving them the tools they need to hammer out a better life now and in the future.
Ma Sien Pah is one of the women who will study at the Women’s Center. She came into the camp with her husband and two children three months ago. I talked to her only days after her family had trekked through the mountains to the camp. She spoke of holding babies for hours at a time and having no shelter in pouring rain. She told me of great hunger and fear. She is relieved and happy to be safe in the camp, but still worried about how she and her family are going to be able to survive.
“My neighbors are sharing their rice with me,” she said. “We are gathering the wood to build our home, but we need mosquito nets so our children will not get malaria. We must depend on the good hearts for even these small things.”
You and I are “the good hearts.” We have been so blessed by God’s grace. Now we have a chance to be the Good Samaritan who stopped on his journey and gave of his blessings to help one soul that had been shattered by the injustices of life.
When you partner with WME in these vital projects to feed, provide shelter and education for the discarded people of the earth, you are also partnering with God in the dream of His heart for His children around the world.
World Missionary Evangelism 