Get the book or e-book to go along with the study. We will be covering 18 teachings this summer by video. The book covers the teachings I am not able to make videos for, due to lack of time (I do have a "real" job too, by the way! I work on the special education team for our local school district.) The book, however, has nearly all Jesus's teachings in Mark and into Matthew, and it is on sale at the time of this posting. Get the book or e-book at Amazon by clicking HERE.
For a list of all free video teachings and transcripts in this series, go HERE.
HERE is the full video for Teaching 2 titled God Looks for You to Look at Him. A written transcript is right below the video again, if you prefer reading through it. Enjoy...and I would love to hear any feedback/discussion you have by commenting here, on facebook, or by sending me a message on facebook.
--------------Transcript -------------------------
Hello this is Sherry, and welcome back
to Summer with the Teachings of Jesus.
If you have not seen the first video
teaching, go ahead and go on back and see that one first and come
back; because the first teaching lays the foundation for everything
else we are going through this summer.
Some quick reminders – we are going
through 18 teachings this summer. 18 hopefully very brief videos.
They all come from this book He Called: 56 Daily Studies andReflections with the Words of Christ. This is my book. It is
pretty comprehensive. This, as the title says, has 56 teachings. It
starts in Mark and goes through all of the teachings, without
skipping any. Then each day there is a passage to read; there is
some information about the background of the passage, and then there
are some practical applications at the end of each day. The purpose,
remember – remember the illustration? [Showing the Bible
and the section of the Bible that has the gospels printed on it.] The purpose of
this study is to start us on our journey of knowing and mastering
“this” [showing the gospels and how it is not that long of a
section of the Bible.] The life and teachings of Jesus – mastering what he did, and what he taught,
mastering what he wanted us to know.
If you remember from day one, I hope
that you have done something to help yourself remember that "God is
Near". We start re-training our brain to recognize that God is near,
because the people who are walking with God, who are having spiritual
breakthroughs, and who are growing closer to Him, are those who have
mastered the skill, or the ability, to even remember frequently that
He is near.
Today, if you have the book – we did
Day 1 in our last teaching. Today we are skipping ahead to page 38,
which is Day 5 if you have the ebook, it's Day 5. And I'm going to
start; we are going to look today at one of Jesus' very first
miracles. This is when he healed the leper. And I'm going to read –
we are in Mark 1:40:
"And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching
him, and falling on his knees before him, and saying” – listen
carefully now to how and what he says – “' If you are willing,
you can make me clean.' Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out
his hand and he touched him; (he touched the leper), and he said, 'I
am willing, be cleansed.' And immediately the leprosy left him and he
was cleansed.”
Then look at this –
“Jesus sternly warned him and
immediately sent him away.” So Jesus is now warning the leper and
telling him sternly, “See
that you say nothing to anyone, but go – show yourself to the
priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a
testimony to them.”
But of
course, the leper – he went out and began to proclaim it freely.
And he began spreading the good news all around to such an extent
that Jesus could no longer stay in the cities. He could no longer
even publically enter into a city. But he had to stay out in
unpopulated areas, but still all the people were coming to him from
everywhere.
There
are so many directions we could go with this teaching. But I want us
to focus on two things. The first is this: God is near; however, when
you see Jesus and the way he helped people and healed people –
Jesus never strapped on his sandals and went out for the day and specifically went
looking for people to heal (physically heal.) And that can be a
little perplexing, because we wonder – if he had these abilities to
heal – why didn't he just go out and offer healing to everybody?
God is
near, and He is waiting for us to come to Him, so he can help us
immensely. So the first thing that we remember is that He is near,
and then just like the leper – we
don't just expect Him to help us or to heal us – we have to come to
Him.
And
then the second point is the way
the leper asked for healing. “If you are willing, you can
make me clean.” I will tell
you that is the prayer – that is the way a request is made – that
allows the Holy Spirit to flow through, and to work. When you come to
Jesus, not
with a sense of entitlement. It is always when the person comes with
a sense of humility and an understanding, that this man, Jesus – there is
something very special and divine about him and I need to respect him
for who he is. And I – I don't deserve anything; but if he is
willing, he can do it. That type of attitude is rewarded by God. And
we see that in all the physical examples of the people who approached
Jesus in the New Testament.
The
second thing I want to point out quickly – why wouldn't Jesus want
the leper – why would he tell the leper sternly, “Don't tell
anybody what happened here.” Here's why, and I had to research this
– this was perplexing to me. I had to do a lot of reading on the
background of this passage. And here is why. Jesus did not
want people coming to him for the wrong
reasons. His mission was
not a mission of physical healing on this earth. His mission was to
bring spiritual healing – to the people of Galilee and then to the
whole world.
And
I want to talk more but I promised to keep these short. So that is
all for today. Let's put our two teachings together:
Remember
that God is near – throughout the day. Do something to help
yourself remember His nearness throughout the day.
And
then come to Him. He's looking for you to look up to Him.
Bye
for now. I will see you next – our next teachings we will be
talking about how Jesus – we will be skipping ahead and talking
about how Jesus talked about how the relationship is more important
than religious tradition. See you next week – if you are watching
this on Thursday, have a good weekend.
Get the book or e-book to go along with the study. We will be covering 18 teachings this summer by video. The book covers the teachings I am not able to make videos for, due to lack of time. The book, however, has nearly all Jesus's teachings in Mark and into Matthew, and it is on sale at the time of this posting. Get the book or e-book at Amazon by clicking HERE.
For a list of all free video teachings and transcripts in this series, go HERE.