The Sick Woman (Mark 5:24-34)

Our current Bible Reading Plan in on Leviticus and though hard-going it may be, it will come in handy when we interpret the gospels. I preached last weekend on the above passage and if we have Leviticus 15 in mind, this story comes alive.

In this short passage (Mark 5:24-34), we note the condition the nameless woman was in.

·         She had a medical condition that caused her to bleed continually for 12 years. We do not know what her medical problem was.

·         She suffered a great deal and will definitely be anemic and weak due to the continual blood loss.

·         She had spent all her money going from doctor to doctor. She is also therefore poor by now.

·         She was religiously impure (unclean)

God instituted a strict code of hygiene conduct for the Israelites in terms of dealing with diseases and bodily discharge in Leviticus 13-15.

Leviticus 15:19-24 talks about women’s menses when during the next 7 days from the initial flow, women are considered unclean and are not to touch or be touched. These laws probably worked very well for healthy women who had a menstrual period of five – seven days. It was a time out for them, when they were relieved of their normal duties and could rest.

Leviticus 15:25-27 brings another situation where it says that a woman having a bloody discharge other than her monthly period is unclean for as long as the bleeding occurs.

Anything and anyone she touches during this time will be unclean as well yet, here she was, in the middle of the crowd, determined to touch Jesus. It was a risky venture.

As harsh as it may sound then, the Pharisees had probably turned Leviticus into a system of man-made laws that had become oppressive and separated people, especially women.

·         She was therefore a social outcast. She’s not welcome anywhere and had to live alone.

·         She was carrying a huge burden of guilty which definitely led to a severe low self esteem problem. She wondered if God had left her and Jesus was her last hope. Women during those times had no personal worth. She had nobody. A total outcast. One of the greatest shames of a Jewish woman was the lack of a socially accepted status of motherhood. Motherhood was her future security that her children will take care of her. The Jews commonly referred to sickness as a chastisement from God.

Here you have a sick woman, described in the context of Levitical laws, a woman of great and desperate need. My heart goes out to her. Understanding the Levitical laws have helped me appreciate this story in ways I could not otherwise.

Her greater need was to be socially accepted back into her community and to know she was affirmed by God. With a crowd surrounding Jesus, it seemed foolish to the disciples that Jesus should ask who touched him. He had the woman in mind. He needed to draw her out into open for three reasons.

1.      She’s accepted by God. “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Note the word “Daughter”. With a single word from Jesus, 12 years of pain and isolation were swept away. In no other gospel account does Jesus use this term of endearment and respect.

2.      He did this in the presence of Jairus, a synagogue leader. Whether he will be a testimony for her later, we don’t know. But it was necessary as part of the reconciliation process to the religious community.

3.      He did this in front of the crowd. This was necessary for her acceptance into her social community.

She was a member of the family now, restored to her community, setting an example for others. We find others later doing the same, showing others that their faith, no matter how small, is good enough for God as it is really about God’s grace, not so much our faith. (Mark 6:56) And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Matthew 17:20

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

This woman had left a legacy of faith.

Leviticus

I can almost see the frown on your face as you plod through the first four chapters in Leviticus in our Bible Reading Plan. What in the world are all these offerings about? How do I even apply what I am reading? Are there any relevance?

If you have not gotten any help from any Bible tools, I don't blame if you want to give up, or just simply read through it for the sake of keeping to the plan.

I have mentioned before a great resource in David Pawson's book. There's another book that will be an absolute delight to help you:

The Way to Wholeness - Lessons from Leviticus by Ray C. Stedman.

You can view his site here as first reading. 

http://www.raystedman.org/bible-overview/adventuring/leviticus-the-way-to-wholeness

This will make your Leviticus reading come alive!

Fathers Club

I preached last weekend during Fathers' Day. It created quite a buzz in facebook and twitter. I think it is simply that there's something about the subject of fathers that is dear to our hearts. Check out my sermon summary if you interested in my newly created blog "DUMC Fathers Club".

Interestingly, I received about 100 forms from fathers and even single young adult men who are interested in this club. This has been on my mind for a couple of years and I believe it is the right time now to create a local movement in DUMC for fathering. I believe it will have a systemic effect on marriages, parenting, family life and church as a whole.

There are many resources out there and pray that we will be discerning which to use that will really move us fathers up a notch.

Happy Fathers' Day!

A song as I journal

Today's reading is a reminder of our fundamental doctrine of faith and it got me into singing a song :)


1 Cor 15:1-7
 ¹Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
 ³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.


Apostle Paul said this is of first importance .. meaning, high on the list! Three simple words that encapsulate the Christian faith: DIED - BURIED - RAISED.


And as I meditated on this passage, I started singing this old song:

Living He Loved me

Dying He saved me

Buried He carried

My sins far away

Rising He justified

Freely forever

One day He’s coming back

O glorious Day

Casting Crown did a wonderful modern version of this song with this part in the chorus.

Here's the song in YouTube.

Here's a jazz version - Coooooool ...... YouTube

May we reminded how precious we are to Him!

Why not rather be wronged or cheated?

This is a tough one. This is an interesting position Apostle Paul had taken. He argued that there's much at stake here. Even our rights can and should be sacrificed for the greater good of the Name of Christ. Remember, this is said in the context of much disunity in the Church and other compromises mentioned in Paul's letter. The Corinthians have become very carnal and were going back to their old ways. They forgot their position in Christ, as Christians. There were lawsuits taken against each other. Paul sarcastically said that even the least in the church ought to be able to judge the case, than bringing it to pagans.

Paul took such a strong position that he went on to say "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?"

This is radical and if we understand this in the context of the previous post I had on being a willing slave, how then do we die to our rights? If we have died to ourself and live for Christ, dead men have no rights! Isn't that's what missionaries do, dying to their rights for a comfortable life and moving to foreign culture for the sake for the Gospel? Isn't that's what many in our churches who give up what is their right to a comfortable private life, give it up instead to serve others regularly, within or without the church?

I think Paul's hitting the nail on the head, by basically saying that the heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart. We are inherently SELF-CENTRED!

1 Corinthians 6:1-8

¹If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? ²Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? ³Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! ⁴Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! ⁵I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? ⁶But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!

 ⁷The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.

Adjusting the Sails

This came from the Maxwell Leadership Bible. I was drawn to the reminder of what it takes to be a great leader.

WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR ATTITUDES

Our destinies in life will never be determined by our complaining spirits or high expectations.

Life is full of surprises, and the adjustment of our attitudes is a lifelong project.

              The pessimist complains about the wind.

              The optimist expects it to change.

              The leader adjusts the sails.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice. I am amazed at the large number of adults who fail to take responsibility for their attitudes. If they’re grumpy and someone who asks why, they’ll say, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed.” When failure begins to plague their lives, they’ll say, “I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.” When life begins to flatten out and others in the family are still climbing, they’ll say, “Well, I was in the wrong birth order in my family.” When their marriages fail, they believe they married the wrong person. When someone else gets a promotion they wanted, it’s because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Do you notice something? They are blaming everyone else for their problems.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.-Developing the Leader Within You

CHOOSE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW YOU VIEW YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

1 Corinthians

Those of us who have been following our Bible Reading Plan since 2009, you have so far covered these books:

OT: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Ezra, Nehemiah, Micah

NT: Matthew, Mark, John, Acts, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Philemon, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 2 3 John, Jude

Our current reading is 1 Corinthians.

Congratulations! You have faithfully read the Word of God and journal down your thoughts and applications of God’s revelation to you. I am reminded in today’s reading (1 Cor 2:6 – 3:4) that spiritual truth can only be understood by the spiritual mind. Therefore intelligence is not equivalent to spiritual insight. You can be super intelligent and are able to regurgitate every known fact around, yet you can be spiritually blind to the things of God.

Yesterday we read “ ²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Cor 1:26-31

Therefore we have the Spirit of Revelation in each of us, the Holy Spirit, who comes and guides us into all truth (John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.)

Pray before you read the Word of God, because it is not only with our human minds that we understand, it must also be the spiritual mind that helps us grasps the truth and applies it to our lives. That’s why a person can know the word of God well and can quote effectively from the Bible, yet we see no real effect of the Word on his life. This the Bible calls a carnal man (as opposed to the spiritual man).

As you move into 1 Corinthians, here’s some quick background:

Of all the churches Apostle Paul founded, the Corinthian church is the one that gave him the most headache. That’s why they need two long letters from him. Their problems were serious.


1. They were deeply divided, different groups following different leaders.
2. They were very immoral, to the extent that a man was living in sin with his mother (possibly his stepmother). Even the pagans of the day would have condemned it.
3. Some were drunk while having Holy Communion and were not gracious and considerate towards their poorer Christian brethren.
4. Others practice an aggressive form of feminism.
5. They certainly were not clear of basic  Christian doctrines.

Let me quote from “Unlocking the Bible”, page 956

The city that Paul visited was very wealthy and terribly pagan. The inhabitants worshipped the gods of Greece and Rome, including Poseidon, god of the sea, and Aphrodite, goddess of love. The huge temple of Aphrodite housed 2,000 priestesses who were effectively prostitutes, since worship there involved intercourse with a priestess. Indeed, ‘to Corinthianize’ became a verb in the Greek language, meaning ‘to have promiscuous sex’. So this background explains in part why Paul needed to concentrate on male-female relationships in his Corinthians letter.

In fact he dealt head-on on this subject of worship at the temple of Aphrodite in 1 Cor 6:9-20.

With this background, you will appreciate Paul’s letters more.

Poseidon

Temple of Aphrodite

A painting by Andrew Annenberg 

Gateway to the Temple of Aphrodite

Ruins of Temple of Aphrodite

BECAUSE YOU ARE WILLING

1 Peter 5:5 Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;

In my journalling on 10 May, the verse above reminded me of my attitude towards serving God. I remember when I was a young Christian at the age of 17, I was quite affected by my some older Christians who would come out committee meetings "sour face", complaining about the meeting being long, about someone who is not in agreement with them, or simply unhappy being there. I made a promise to myself since, that in whatever I do in serving God, I will not be a reluctant servant. In fact, I recognize the importance of my influence of the people around me, just as I was affected by those coming out from the meetings. If I want to affect people positively, I must find joy in what I do. That's why my vision and mission, written in 1994, is written this way:

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MY VISION

To inspire, equip and model a life of joyful worship and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, both in person and as a family, to the community of people around me.

MY MISSION

My God is a good and faithful God and I make it my mission to communicate this so that others may see Him as such. Through my life, I want people to see that obeying and surrendering to God is a joy, and not a chore. 

I want to be called a man after God's heart, a true worshipper.

The first place where I want to exhibit this is in my own home. I want Stella to know that I will love her the way God wants me to, and I want her to express to the fullest her potential and giftedness in serving God. 

I want my children to see that their dad loves God dearly and serve Him joyfully, and they would want to have what dad has. I want to see my children grow up to love the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. In this process, we will serve God together as a family and be an excellent model of a Christian family in every aspect of our lives.

I strive for excellence in my ministry so as to inspire people to excellence in the way they serve God. I will put in a process of equipping that will enable people to discover their vision in life and actualise this vision at home, in ministry and their secular employment.

It is my desire to end life’s journey with these thoughts in the minds of people: Here’s a man who loves God intimately, his wife and children dearly, people passionately, and life itself purposefully

Having said all this, I am fully aware that Jesus Christ must continue to be my central focus in all that I do and all praise and glory are due His Name.

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As a leader today, I realize the power of joyful worship and service. That's what Apostle Peter is saying: "Do it not because you must, but because you are willing". There is a world of difference between the two because it will show up in our attitude. People will sense it and although they may not say it, they will simply be affected in the same way in the way they serve God. I am therefore careful about what I say in front of people, especially my own family. Often because they are the closest, they are also the most vulnerable to our shortcomings. I am not advocating that we are not authentic with the way we feel. Rather, I am advocating "efficacy" - right words at the right time. Better still, we should deal with our attitude towards the way we serve. This way we guard against bad attitudes that naturally comes out when we are reluctant. Examine therefore why we do what we do. We do it because we love God. It is a love response. This is the gist of my last post. 

SERVE GOD JOYFULLY!

Ouchhhh .... !! Exodus 21:2-6

The reading for 1 April according to our Bible Reading Plan is probably fascinating to many of us when we consider the laws on slaves. As we know, the Old Testament is Christ concealed and New Testament is Christ revealed. Is there something we can learn about Christ here? Here the term servant and slave is used interchangeably. The Hebrew word for servant in Exodus is "eh'-bed", which means "bond-servant/slave". Paul called himself a "servant" (Romans 1:1), of which the Greek word "doulos" means "slave, a person owned by another." 

Exodus 21:2-6

² "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. ³ If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

 ⁵ "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' ⁶ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

This is repeated the second time in Deuteronomy 15:16-17 but more graphically "push it through his ear lobe into the door." Ouchhhh!

Christ had redeemed us through the cross. Our price for redemption is fully paid. He sets us free when we receive His forgiveness. In case we think that this redemption is one where there's a condition tied, like God saying "Now that you have received forgiveness, you have no choice but to submit to me for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not!" This sounds very much like someone out to trap you into a commitment. God's greatest gift to man is a "free choice or will". The essence of love is about this free choice, that we choose to love God, as much as God chose to give His Son that we might be saved. God will never violate this part of human dignity and even when He had saved you, He still gives you the choice to follow Him daily!

Gal 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature^; rather, serve one another in love.

I am sure you are very aware that each of us, although forgiven and set free from condemnation, have the choice of walking away from God. God will never hold us to ransom to follow Him. He wants us to choose. Christians are to be the freest person in the world because we recognize the importance of boundary and we choose to do things that are constructive for our lives. We learn to take personal responsibilities over the choices we make.

1 Cor 10:23 "Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive.

Very much like the slave when he is set free, he is free indeed but note what he does after he is set free: "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' ⁶ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life."

Because of a love relationship, the servant now choose to be a servant for his master and therefore creating an oxymoron term: a willing slave!

That's exactly what happened in our relationship with God. Once we were slaves in the kingdom of darkness but now we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and God says to us, "You are free to go. Do what you like from here on." But because we have come to know how good this Master is and we cannot think of a life apart from that, we now choose to follow Him for the rest of our lives, WILLINGLY!! How often we have seen, or ourselves become, unwilling servants! No wonder many have drifted away from God because they have not come to experience how good God is.

If you were to touch your right ear now, you will be able to feel a small hole on your earlobe through which the pierced awl have gone through. Try it now!

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KIDDING! :) It's a virtual piercing. Those of you who love the Lord, you would have willingly gone and allow the Master to drive that awl through your earlobe into the doorpost. Ladies (or men!), if you have a ear piercing, let it be a reminder that you belong to God! It may be 1st of April but we are certainly "Fools for Christ"! 1 Cor 4:10

Psalm 40

^6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but my ears you have pierced;

burnt offerings and sin offerings

you did not require.

^7 Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—

it is written about me in the scroll.

^8 I desire to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

BLESSED EASTER!