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Tag Archives: Bartimaeus

Obtaining a Blind Man’s Faith

03 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Luke, Our Spiritual Process

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aflame with the fire of God, Bartimaeus, beggar, blind, Divine Power, Elizabeth Browning quote, faith accesses God, faith comes by hearing, God is real, have mercy on me, illustration of the sun, Jesus, Jesus is alive, Lazarus, Luke 18:38, Romans 10:8-11, Son of David

 

aflame with the fire of God

 

The story of blind Bartimaeus reminds me a lot of Lazarus, the poor beggar who sat outside of the rich man’s house everyday begging. Lazarus had a meager existence. No one really cared about him. His medical care consisted of dogs licking his wounds. Bartimaeus was a beggar too, but blind. Both had the daily routine of begging others for sustenance. In Jesus’ time, beggars were at the bottom of the social ladder, only slightly more important than dogs.

 

Faith Doesn’t Need Eyes – Faith Comes By Hearing!

Blind Bart couldn’t see, but as with many blind people, he had a keen sense of hearing. On this particular day, he could tell from the rumble of the mob that “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” No doubt, Bart had heard of Jesus. Perhaps he heard about how Jesus healed people, even restored sight to the blind!

Even though Bart couldn’t see Jesus with his own eyes, he believed based upon what he had previously heard. He didn’t just believe Jesus was in his city: he believed Jesus had the power to change his life. So he cried out, “Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me!”  (Luke 18:38) The term “Son of David” was a term reserved for the coming Messiah, the King. It was a title of Divine Power. Bart was confessing Jesus was more than a mere rabbi or teacher–He was the King! Bart had more insight to Who Jesus really was than almost any other figure in the New Testament! Wow!

Faith Accesses God

Faith is the first step everyone must take to receive mercy from God. Faith is not just believing God exists, it is acting on that belief. Real faith causes your heart to leap and your mouth to open in confession. This is why I like to read and re-read Romans 10:8-11.

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.

 

These verses remind me how I accessed the Lord with faith the very first time. They also remind me that I can access the Lord over and over again with that same faith. I call it working my faith muscles. The more I work them, the larger they grow.

Bartimaeus is a great picture of people in the 21st century. We have never seen Jesus with our physical eyes, but we have heard about Him. Faith then comes by hearing… It is not just believing facts about Jesus, it is trusting Him with our whole life. When people ask me “how do you know Jesus is real?” I know He is real because I have met Him and He lives within me. In fact, I have talked to Him today. He is not just some historical figure, another man of religion who died long ago… Jesus is alive and I have a relationship with Him. Like Bartimaeus, I was blind before I met Him but now I see.

The Good News was Jesus wasn’t too busy to take time out to minister to old Bart. He was just a week or two away from sacrificing Himself on a cross for the sins of mankind. I am sure there were hundreds of people vying to get Jesus’ attention, but one lone beggar crying out in faith caught the Lord’s heart. Faith will access God every time.

You may think that in the larger scheme of things you aren’t very important. In comparison to the entirety of the cosmos, our planet is just a small rock circling a minor star.  You are just one of over eight billion human beings sharing space on the third rock from the sun. In spite of this, you are of such great importance to God, that when you call out to Him, He pauses to help you!

The mighty sun burning 93 million miles away provides the gravitational pull that keeps all the planets in orbit. Yet that same sun will still warm your face on a cold day as if it had nothing else to do. Likewise, the creator God who keeps the entire universe running will stop and answer your cry for help as if He had nothing else to do. God isn’t distracted by the millions of other voices. He always has time for you.

 

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

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Beware of Religious Gatekeepers

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Luke, Our Spiritual Process

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Bartimaeus, being blessed, being told to shut-up, blind Bartimaeus, crowds, decision makes you, feeling spiritually uncomfortable, friends, genuine faith, getting loud, God's word, Jesus, no concern for others, not receiving God's best, over-exaggerate our own importance, status quo, Sumrall quote

 

the decision makes you

 

What if I told you there are people, even well-meaning people, out there preventing you from receiving God’s best. These folks are not hidden, unscrupulous, vicious individuals skulking around dark corners. They are some of your closest friends traveling the road with you. The problem is the noise they make.  It is the rabble from their wake. They never shut-up long enough for you to hear or be heard. God has a word for you today … and everyday. Some of His messages are more important than others. There is a high likelihood you cannot hear God’s revelation for the confluence of voices surrounding you. This was exactly blind Bart’s problem. Yes, he was blind. But his biggest problem was the crowd.

 

35 As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. 36 Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. 37 They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38 And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him;  Luke 18:35-40

 

This company of onlookers following Jesus was like all the other crowds surrounding the Lord. Except…this bunch was preventing this man from connecting to his destiny! His new eyes were passing by on the road right in front of him. Bartimaeus was just five minutes from being able to see. In the middle of this crowd were some nay sayers attempting to keep old Bart from seeking the Lord. Jesus’ disciples attempted the same thing with children just a few verses earlier. What do disciples know? The Kingdom belongs to children and blind men.

Here is the point about crowds…. they have no concern about others. They really don’t care about what is happening around them until someone has the audacity to halt their parade. When they get the news that their parade is about to be stopped for someone other than them personally… this is when they get louder.

Every person in the crowd could have called out to Jesus on this occasion.  Only one audacious person was heard… blind Bartimaeus.  What did the crowd do?  They were audacious too, but not for Jesus. They sought to shut-up the one man crying out with all his heart for the Lord. They rebuked the seeker for being loud and boisterous.  Bartimaeus’ courage was met with a ferocious rebuke. These “gatekeepers” believe they know what is best for you and for Jesus.

Why is it that most religious folks and even non-religious folks don’t want other people healed, restored, or redeemed?  Everybody says they want the “good” from heaven to be passed around to all people.  But, in reality, the exact opposite is true.

The truth is we don’t want others to get blessed until we are blessed. We want the Lord to notice us first. It is like we feel the cupboard of heaven has limited supplies. God isn’t acting fairly unless we are served first. It is sad, but true. I think this is one of the reasons we feel uncomfortable in churches where some believers express emotions and worship passionately. Since we don’t worship in this fashion… no one else should either. Since we personally do not feel the urge to get passionate, neither should others. Since the blessings of God haven’t touch us personally, then no one else should be passionate either.

Someone wrote an article a while back on “why the other line at the grocery store always moves faster than the one you are personally standing.”  It really doesn’t but when you are in the line moving quickly, you really don’t think about all the poor stiffs sitting still. But, when you are stuck waiting, all you can do is think about why you are stuck and others are moving forward.  In other words, it is easy to fill victimized and never give serious consideration when others are stalled. We all have a tendency to over-exaggerate our own importance and rarely consider what others are going through.  Hey, if it is not happening to me, then it should not be happening to anybody. Right?

Not one person encouraged Bartimaeus to get louder.  They all told him to shut-up. We have all been yelled at or shouted down. This is why we too react like the crowd.  Religion even has the gall to say things like, “It is a sin to question God. It is wrong to plead, seek, and go after God like the blind man. It is wrong to be passionate!”

Wrong!!! The blind man proves it. It is not wrong to call out, to question and seek God like a mad man.  It might be socially and religiously unacceptable but it is never wrong in the eyes of Jesus. Blind Bart knew better on the road that day. He got louder.

We don’t like those who speak up, who leave the status quo, who refuse to keep quiet, who reject compliance as a way of life. We would rather have people shut up than say disturbing things from a genuine faith. So we tell people to be quiet…because in reality…genuine faith scares us to death. Since God has yet to answer us personally… He is not going to answer some unknown, blind man!

Have you gotten quiet? Have some of your friends discouraged you from seeking the Lord more passionately. Have they said something like… “It didn’t work for me, so it is not going to work for you. I tried praying like that but it didn’t work. God didn’t hear me, so He is not going to hear you. You should just settle down and get quiet.”

If blind Bartimaeus could speak to us again today it would be… “Seek the Lord with all your heart. Don’t listen to the crowd… get louder until the Lord hears you.”

 

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

 

 

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