SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, in the Lord’s wisdom, mercy and generosity, we have been granted another day of life on planet earth. Please, let’s give thanks for it and do our best to walk worthy of God, for that’s all He asks of us. Turning to our Bit: ‘And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers (experts in the law) and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?’ Ah Friends, our Lord and Saviour wasn’t only strong spiritually, but also had much manly parts in His earthly makeup, because this situation arose one Sabbath day as He went to eat at one of the chief Pharisees’ house, with all the hypocrites and them watching Him closely to see if He’d slip up and give them legitimate cause to bring Him to trial. And as luck would have it, ‘there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.’ (Luke 14:2) Re the scholars, ‘Dropsy involves swelling due to a build up of fluid in tissues and cavities.’  Anyway, that’s when Jesus asked them if it was legal to heal on the Sabbath. But their response was one of uncharacteristic silence. ‘And they held their peace (kept silent). And he took him, and healed him, and let him go.’ (Luke 14:4) Ah mih people, I only wish that many more of us had the moxie, the chutzpah, the back and belly that Jesus displayed in His earthly sojourn. Granted, He was divine, and thus had more backbone than we’ll ever have, but if we’re truthful with ourselves, we can all come up with circumstances where we should have taken a bolder step, a stronger stand in Jesus’ name. And as I keep saying, that’s one of the main reasons why godliness, the church, and believers are running a distant second in a two horse race. Beelzebub and his cronies just have more get up and go, more enthusiasm for their evil doings, and consequently more action to further them, than we Christians have for Christ’s will. Our ascendancy lies in talk, not action. But getting back to Jesus healing this dropsy sufferer on the Sabbath day. After healing Him, knowing the Pharisees’ and lawyers mind set, He craftily asked them: ‘Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to (regarding) these things.’ (Luke 14:5-6) Ah Friends, yuh see the hypocrisy! None of then could say Him nay, for the law had been pushed to such a stringent, unworkable, unbalanced state, that it had become okay to help a beast in trouble on the Sabbath, but not a person. But that’s what happens when we take laws to the extreme. We need to remember that laws are made to help man, to improve his life, not to belittle, keep him in subjection or embarrass him. And sadly the hypocrisy was even worse when Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath who ‘had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together (bent over), and could in no wise lift (raise) up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her unto him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.’ (Luke 13:11-13) Yes mih Friends, the woman and most of those around were grateful for the healing, but the hypocritical ‘ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed (put to shame): and all the people (the multitude) rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.’ (Luke 13:14-17) Oh mih breddren, unfortunately a lot of that sort of nonsense still happens today; where the sick, the poor, the weary and the stranger suffer because of supposed higher ups hypocrisy, unfaithfulness and greed, by their interpretation of the law for their own selfish purposes. Please, let’s try and not be like them. Let’s try and do whatever we can to ease, to alleviate another’s plight, regardless of the man-made laws, opinions and prejudices that will possibly bring us scathing rebuke and unfair condemnation. The most important law is that of God, not that of man. And if we’re true followers of Christ, then we’ll try our best to emulate Him in all we do. More on this tomorrow, our God willing. Till then, let’s diligently search our hearts and minds to see if any of that hypocritical stuff resides there. And if so, sincerely ask the Lord to cleanse us of it, to make us more like Jesus. Much LOVE!…the law was made for man…not man for the law…