When you look at Jesus who do you see? Is it the man who hung on the Cross beaten, bloodied and broken or is He the friend that walks with you along life’s journey, alive and filling your and my life with hope, courage and determination to face all the complex challenges of our modern world ?
I have chosen 2 songs for the worship team to play for us on Sunday. The first being ‘Jesus you are my Healer’ and when we sing them pay particular attention to these words; “Lord Your name is great, a refuge I can run to. A shelter from the storm, faithful friend. And I can depend on You, my God, my king. I will lift my voice and worship.”
The second song titled, “With all I am” with the words; ‘I will walk with You wherever you go, through tears and joy, I’ll trust in You. And I will live in all of your ways, and Your promises forever.’
In Mark we see Jesus stop to give sight to Bartimaeus who had been blind since birth. It is said that he followed Jesus after his healing, not only physically as a ‘disciple’, but he followed Jesus’s way, practicing the disciplines of Jesus’s teachings and emulated Jesus’s lifestyle. He gave praise for what Jesus had done in his life.
Similarly the Prophet Jeremiah in verse 7-9 of chapter 31 gives a prayer which shows us the beauty of our God, our Lord Jesus who continually is with us; “For thus says the Lord: sing aloud with gladness….Behold I bring them from the north country and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, among them will be the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who labours in childbirth together: a great company, they will return here to Jerusalem. They will come with weeping, pouring out prayers (for the future). I will lead them back; I will cause them to walk by streams of water and bring them in a straight way in which they will not stumble, for I am Father to Israel…”
So this morning it is in our praise and prayers of acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord, He is King of our lives that we truly find not only the spiritual strength to struggle through life, but more so we have the assurance that Jesus walks with us. If we do our part He does His.
There is beauty in the name of Jesus. He is not the bruised and beaten man on the Cross, but the living God who walks amongst us in our troubles. Let’s praise Him and receive the real meaning of life.
Love and blessings always. Chris