Following the One Who Heals

Following the One Who Heals

READ: JOHN 5:1-11; ACTS 5:29 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=JOHN%205%3A1-11%3B%20ACTS%205%3A29&version=NIV] “Stop. You can’t do that.” “Don’t do that, you’re embarrassing yourself.” “Come on, it’ll be fine.” We’ve all heard messages like these at some point. The people around us often have an idea of how they think we should be living. So who should we listen to? In John 5, Jesus takes the time to heal a man who was unable to walk. After giving the man the ability to get up, Jesus tells him to take his mat and go. The man stands up with his mat but is immediately met by those who accuse him of doing wrong. They tell him that he shouldn’t be carrying his mat on the Sabbath. What does the man do? Does he drop his mat and apologize? The man responds to his accusers by letting them know that he is going to listen to the one who healed him, rather than to them. God has done so much for us. Will we listen to Him or those around us? Will we listen to the one who healed us, who died for us, who has promised us eternal life? Or will we listen to those who tell us we need to act a certain way, do what the crowd is doing, or live a life free of embarrassment? May we all live like the man with the mat, listening first and foremost to the one who can heal, the one who has saved us. • Emily Acker • When someone tells you that you should be living a certain way—whether it’s a person you know, a speaker, an author, or someone online—how does it make you feel? • When we’re feeling pressured to do things we know aren’t good—whether that pressure is coming from Christians or non-Christians—Jesus invites us to come to Him for help. How might remembering that He loves us, more than anyone else ever could, help us follow Him? • Jesus calls us to listen to Him first and foremost, and yet one of the ways He often guides us and helps us grow is through advice from trustworthy people. In addition to talking to Jesus, who are trusted Christian friends and mentors you could talk to—people who can listen with compassion, offer wisdom and encouragement and prayer, and potentially help you get out of tricky situations? • If you want to dig deeper, read Proverbs 1:5; 9:9; 12:15; 15:31; Matthew 11:25–12:28; 17:1-9; Acts 3–5; James 1:19-27; 3:13-18. But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” John 5:11 (NIV)

Joseph Scriven: What a Friend

READ: PROVERBS 18:24; JOHN 15:9-17 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=PROVERBS%2018%3A24%3B%20JOHN%2015%3A9-17&version=NIV] Sometimes, when we walk through dark valleys, we can more fully grasp just how faithful a friend the Son of God is to frail humanity. Joseph Scriven left his mark on the church after tragedy had left its mark on his life. Born in Ireland in 1819, Joseph loved the Lord and was full of aspiration. He was engaged to a young lady he’d grown up with, and soon their long-awaited wedding ceremony was only a day away. But their dreams together were suddenly dashed when his fiancée was thrown from her horse and drowned in the River Bann. Overcome with sorrow, Joseph became a wanderer, eventually making his home in Canada. He quickly became a well-respected tutor and unexpectedly fell in love again around age twenty-five. But tragedy struck again, and pneumonia stole his fiancée from him shortly before their wedding. Utterly broken-hearted, Joseph sold everything and dedicated his life to helping the financially destitute and physically disabled. Later in life, a friend visited Joseph during a short illness and discovered a poem lying on the nightstand. Joseph admitted to being the author, having written the poem for his lonely mother in the hope of providing her some spiritual comfort. This poem has since become the well-beloved hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” It goes like this: “What a friend we have in Jesus / all our sins and griefs to bear! / What a privilege to carry / everything to God in prayer! / O what peace we often forfeit, / O what needless pain we bear, / all because we do not carry / everything to God in prayer!” The many tragic sorrows Joseph Scriven experienced in his life seemed to drive him closer to his dearest friend, the Lord Jesus. May we too draw nearer to our friend Jesus during our trials and temptations, seeking His peace during our pain. • Jaela Deming • Jesus cares about our pain, and He faced the deep pain of the cross to make the way for us to be with Him forever. Once we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we can know He is always so very near to us. And He promises that when He returns, all our pain will be over. Can you think of a time you experienced the closeness, comfort, and peace of Jesus in the midst of a painful situation? • Consider taking a moment to look up all the lyrics to “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” or find a recording of the song. Which lines stick out to you today? One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 (NIV)

God Is with You When You Fear

READ: PSALM 94:16-19; MATTHEW 11:28-30; ROMANS 8:38-39; 1 PETER 5:7 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=PSALM%2094%3A16-19%3B%20MATTHEW%2011%3A28-30%3B%20ROMANS%208%3A38-39%3B%201%20PETER%205%3A7&version=NIV] What makes you worry? Some people fear being in crowds—afraid that something bad will happen to them when they’re in a large group of people. It’s understandable. A lot of horrible things happen in our broken world. But is there a peace we can find even when we’re in situations that make us nervous? Other people have faced health scares in their families. They’ve seen how bad things can get, so now they worry about every little sickness. It’s understandable for them to be nervous about health stuff because they’ve dealt with such serious issues in their lives before. What peace can we rest in— no matter what happens health-wise? This world is a scary place because it’s been broken by sin and its effects. In our lives, so many things can cause our hearts to beat fast. So what hope can we cling to? Because Jesus has come to save us, we can know that God is right here with us. When we’re worried, God invites us to tell Him our concerns. When we’re on edge, God stands with us. No matter what happens—good or bad—we have Jesus with us. We are never alone. • Emily Acker • We all feel worried or anxious from time to time, but God has so much compassion on us, and He wants to help us. Consider taking a moment to talk to God about any worries on your mind. • How could it be comforting to know that—because Jesus died and rose again for us—we can rely on His promises: to one day get rid of everything that is worrisome, and to be with us every day until then? (Matthew 28:20; Revelation 21:1-5) • Sometimes we experience thoughts and feelings that are too much for us to handle on our own, even by praying and reading the Bible. Thankfully, one of the ways God wants to help us is through other people, such as friends, parents, pastors, and medical and mental health professionals. If you find yourself feeling afraid, stressed, or worried a lot of the time, or if you’re finding it difficult to rest, who is a trusted adult you could talk to? • If you need someone to talk to, you can request a free conversation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department by calling 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time). Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. In Canada, book your appointment by calling 1-800-661-9800 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) and ask to speak with the care associate. [Jesus said,] “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27 (NIV)

Growing in the Lord

READ: GALATIANS 6:1-10; EPHESIANS 4:1-16; HEBREWS 10:23-25 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=GALATIANS%206%3A1-10%3B%20EPHESIANS%204%3A1-16%3B%20HEBREWS%2010%3A23-25&version=CSB] When I was just starting high school, it was tough. I wasn’t getting the grades I wanted to get, there was so much more work than in middle school, and I didn’t fit in very quickly. It was such a hard transition, and I was just so confused. Why is this so much harder? I wondered. And then I started to compare myself to others. Why isn’t it this hard for everyone else? My sister is doing so much better than me, and she seems fine with the workload. So why am I struggling so much? It’s the same way in our walk with Jesus. When we struggle with sin, doubt, or hard passages of the Bible, we sometimes start to compare ourselves to other Christians. We can even start to believe everyone else’s faith is, well, perfect! But that’s not true. We all struggle with following Jesus, and different aspects of our walk with Him may be easier or harder at different times in our lives. The good news is, God calls us to community with other Christians—not comparison. Remember, we all need Jesus. He loves us so much that He died and rose again to save us, and we all need to be reminded of that gospel truth every day. Growing in Him is a process, and it’s a process we do in community as we preach the gospel to ourselves and to each other. Our struggles are easier when we share them with people close to us— whether that be our friends, our parents, our siblings, a pastor, a Bible study group, or someone else. When we share our struggles with other believers, we find that everyone is struggling with something. That honesty allows us to encourage each other as we all grow in the Lord! • Kaelyn Hartman • What’s one area of your faith you’ve been struggling with lately? Who are trusted Christians in your life you can talk to about your struggles—people who will listen with empathy and remind you of Jesus’s love, compassion, forgiveness, and help? (If no one comes to mind, you can ask God to help you identify someone in the future.) • Why is community such an important part of following Jesus? (Hint: reread today’s Bible passages.) But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part. Ephesians 4:15-16 (CSB)

Biblical Errors?

READ: PSALM 119:103-105; LUKE 1:1-4; 2 PETER 1:16-21 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=PSALM%20119%3A103-105%3B%20LUKE%201%3A1-4%3B%202%20PETER%201%3A16-21%20&version=CSB] Have you ever heard someone say that the Bible is full of errors? Biblical teachings can be tough, which is one reason a lot of people believe the Bible isn’t true. While some biblical claims are genuinely difficult to understand, other supposed errors are easily explained. Many of these kinds of objections fall into the pattern I call “The Corroboration Problem.” These arguments often go something like this: “The Bible refers to people/places/events that didn’t exist. If they existed, we’d have some record of it.” But lack of corroborating sources isn’t evidence of an error. Outside of the Bible, we may not find other sources showing that something did exist, but we also can’t say it didn’t. It’s just that biblical texts are the only historical record we have of some people, places, and events. Two points are worth noting here. First, the Bible itself is a record. There are plenty of other things we only know about the ancient world because they’re mentioned in a single, non-biblical text. So, if we’re willing to believe other ancient histories and stories, why not the Bible? Second, it’s possible that other records do exist, but we just haven’t found them yet. For example, some people used to say the Hittites never existed, but then we found their royal archive. Similarly, the book of Luke was criticized for using the title tetrarch, but then other writings were found confirming Luke’s accuracy. Another variation of “The Corroboration Problem” goes, “The Bible refers to a person/place/event by a name that wasn’t used until many years later.” But consider a similar scenario: If I said, “The Chippewa people historically lived around Lake Superior,” we wouldn’t say I made an error just because the lake wasn’t called Lake Superior yet. Similarly, the authors of the Bible used the common names their readers understood, even when telling old stories. The takeaway? Let’s not be too quick to believe accusations of biblical errors. It’s a stunningly accurate book, which God gave us because He loves us and wants us to know Him through Jesus. • Christiana Albrecht • God loves us so much that, over thousands of years and through dozens of authors, He gave us the Bible so we could know Him. It shows how the Father sent the Son, Jesus, to die and rise again to save us from sin and death. What questions do you have about the Bible? Who are trusted Christians you could talk to about these questions, such as pastors, parents, or youth leaders? So that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed. Luke 1:4 (CSB)