John 5    1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie–the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”   8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

 

Do you want to get well?

What?

Why would He ask that?

Did my Savior just ask a dumb question?

 

Unfortunately, he did not………..

 

This is an awesome scripture on so many levels…..I love that Jesus healed the sick and performed many miracles.  But I would like to focus on something within the story that I believe God is trying to point out to us……and that is:

The question of whether or not we want to get well.

 

I don’t think that it is a question for a lame man at a pool…..I think it is a question that each of us must answer……

 

Do You Want To Get Well?

 

It is no secret that God warns us of many things……

When asked about adultery, Jesus brought up thought life.

When asked about murder, Jesus brought up anger and being hateful.

When confronted with social issues and hanging out with the “uncool”, Jesus embraced not being cool and hung out with anyone He felt convicted to be with—-not worrying one bit about what others thought of it.

 

Why these points?

 

Because I think that small things can lead to big things.  And sometimes we walk into our own sickness…..and we live in it.

 

How many of us have walked into our own sickness … our own issue  … our own sin … and there we lay—-spiritually crippled and miserable and blaming others for not helping us down when the water is stirred.

 

Sometimes we must face the fact that we have put ourselves in the very situation that we now live in…..

 

Crippled

Victimized

Broken

 

I am sorry if this is a hard word…..but when the Lord asks me to release something—it goes straight into my heart and makes me cry and then I begin to type.  (if this is in your kitchen…..I have to say:  it’s in mine too!)

 

So many of my issues or problems are simply my inability:

To be patient

To love

To forgive

To give more than what I take

 

But there is good news…..there is grace for today!  (and tomorrow too!)

 

He can make us well.

 

But we must choose to be a participant in our own rescue….we can, in fact, be delivered because we can die to the one thing that we need to……

 

OURSELVES.

 

How many times have I looked up and said to the Lord?

“Why don’t you come down here and feel what it is like to be on this earth?”

“Why don’t you go through this pain so you know what it feels like?”

“Why don’t you come and FIX THIS?”

 

Let me testify on this day——that in the person of Jesus:

He Did.  He Has.  And He Will.

 

In coaching I have been known to say:  “Get your butt going!”

 

Now I am going to do it in my BLOG.  The world is dying out there….people need you to live out the call on your life……and it isn’t small….it involves bringing God’s Kingdom into your everyday world.

 

If you have Jesus…..you can truly do that……He has a plan bigger than anything you could ever do yourself…………

 

If you haven’t done it…..You can RECEIVE Him……and He can begin that work tonight!

And if you have……but you are crippled and wallowing in the misery that can only be healed by Him……..then I have to ask:

 

Do You Want To Get Well?

 

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

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Coach J