Sunday Scribbles

A few random thoughts before I go to bed tonight:

Pastor Gilbert preached from John 9 today. It’s about Jesus healing a blind man by dabbling mud made of spit and soil on the blind guy’s eyes. Yuck. Disgusting. I couldn’t even get anywhere near someone who sneezed, let alone allow anyone to put mud on my eyes. But maybe that’s one of the reasons why we don’t receive much from God. We are too icky about a lot of things that much of what God would have done are hindered.

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There are two things that could hinder God from performing a miracle in your life. First is when you think that knowing everything about God is a requisite to receiving miracles. It’s not. Second is when you simply know too much. The Pharisees thought they already figured God out. They didn’t have room for God to do something new. That’s why they were scandalized when Jesus did something good on a Sabbath.

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As long as we are alive, there will always be missing pieces- questions that will never be answered no matter how smart we are. Some people are so obsessed with trying to find deep answers that they miss the obvious revelations in the Scriptures. In trying to be deep, people fail to appreciate what’s right before them. This is wrong and unnecessary.

I have this imaginary file cabinet in my mind where I put all the unanswerable questions together. I named it “Deuteronomy 29: 29,” my codename for the stuff that I consider to be God’s secrets. Long ago, I have already accepted the fact that I can’t know everything and God has the right to keep things from me. Once something is already filed in this imaginary file cabinet, I’ll stop chasing after that question.

Some of the things I filed in this imaginary cabinet include why good people suffer, where Cain got his wife, whether Judas went to heaven or not, and why I can’t be as cool or as good looking or as rich as the guy next door. Filing difficult questions to this imaginary cabinet helped me keep my faith and sanity when I am down and out.

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Something interesting about the blind guy who was healed. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just there minding his own business when Jesus came along and offered him healing. He didn’t ask for it. He simply received it. Now the entire Pharisaical force was after him, asking pointed questions, casting doubts on his credibility,  hurling insults and lambasting his morality, all because he got a miracle.

Some people are nuts. There’s no other explanation.

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The ex-blind guy who was supposed to be welcomed to the community with open arms became an outcast (again) overnight. You know who threw him out? The religious institution that was supposed to validate his healing and declare him clean.

But then Jesus met him again. Feel the drama in this scene (John 9: 35- 39):

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

I already cried a dozen times reading this passage. The scene is just too powerful I could feel Jesus’ compassion in the pages of my Bible.