One Touch Can Change Everything

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me." Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace." ~Luke 8:43-48 (NIV)

I touched on part of this scripture when I wrote last week. But it is so incredible. Here is this woman who had been struggling for years. And she didn't spend hours begging Jesus to heal her and He didn't spend hours discussing it with her. It was just her touching Him in faith that healed her.

A simple touch can say volumes: it can comfort a small child and relieve their fears, it can reassure someone having a difficult time, it can bring joy, hope, and encouragement.

I think many of us, myself included, have gotten into thinking that change and healing are always a huge process. And sometimes they are. But I just wanted to throw out the fact that one touch from Jesus can change EVERYTHING! And so I encourage you to just be with Jesus and let Him touch you. :-)

An Attitude of Expectancy

Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. -Luke 8: 43 & 44

I know that these verses are often used in talking about healing, but that's not quite what I'm thinking about tonight. For a few months now, I've been pondering the idea of expecting God to show up/meet with us/do amazing things. I think it could be easy to get in to a mindset of just going to church or just waking up in the morning with no expectations. But why not expect Him to show up and do incredible things?

I was thinking tonight about places in the Bible where people were expectant. I was first thinking of John the Baptist. He was preparing the way because He knew Jesus was going to do incredible things. He expected something great.


Expect= thinking or hoping something [good] will happen  (Oxford Dictionary)

But then I remembered this woman with the issue of blood. What did she have to lose? She'd already been living that way for twelve years. But would she really have tried to get close to Jesus if she didn't expect something to happen? I think this woman was expecting something to change in encountering Jesus. And that makes sense because Jesus changes lives. I guess my question then becomes, are we just going throughout our day as normal or are we living life expecting to meet with Jesus?

I'm excited about what God has been doing lately and I'm expecting good things to happen! I'm expecting to meet with Jesus this weekend and to keep meeting with Him and keep seeing His hand move in amazing ways!

 

January 2010 out of the back window

my incredible best friend.

so, i want to take a few minutes to brag on God's crazy goodness. i would like to share a piece of my life-that piece being my best friend. i have three absolutely amazing, really close friends (and many other good friends), but tonight, i'd like to talk about Katie and how awesome Jesus is!

Katie and I don't have a normal story...we don't have a normal friendship...and hey, i don't think we're normal. haha. God had to teach us a lot before we could have the incredible friendship we have now. We spent two years frustrated with each other, getting on each other's nerves, driving each other crazy, basically. Things progressively got worse...and worse...and worse. To make a very long story short, we hit a point where we were totally nasty to each other. I mean, NASTY. Had you saw us about a year and a half ago, you would NEVER imagine we could have the friendship that we do now. There is no natural way that our friendship even exists. We treated each other like crap and both acted in a way that was a far cry from the way Christ would ever treat anyone. We eventually hit a point where Katie was feeling God telling her she needed to step back from me. We spent the summer not talking to each other....and learning...learning many things God had to teach us both about finding everything we are in Him. It was not easy. But it was necessary.

When God redeemed our friendship...yes redeemed...that's the word I'm using. We used the word restored for quite a while. But restored doeesn't fully explain it. See, to restore something is to make it like new again. To make it was originally. You restore an old car and it looks like it did when it first came out. I don't think our friendship was restored because God did not make our friendship like it once was. It is far better than that. No, God redeemed our friendship.

Redeem: 

to save from sin or error, to do something that compensates for poor past behavior or perfromance, to make up for faults

God totally saved our friendship and helped us to talk through things, to pray together instead of fight, to love unconditionally...not dependent on any circumstances or situations.... to forgive and not hold offenses. And don't get me wrong, we're still learning. But God is soooooo good.

And I wanted to tell you that my best friend is INCREDIBLE! Do I need her to survive? No. Do I need her to live and function? No. But let me tell you this:

I value Katie.

I value our friendship.

I love praying with her.

I love hanging out with her.

I love walking life with her.

She is so much fun to be with.

She is such an encouragement. 

She has such a heart for the Lord and people. 

I am completely blessed that she is my friend.

I love sharing with each other about what the Lord is doing.

She has tremendous value and God has such an incredible plan for her life! 

I love Katie

&

I thank God for our friendship!

Thanks for reading about my incredible best friend and the awesome testimony we have because of what God has done in both of our lives.

“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth.” ~Unknown

i dare you to MOVE.

my brother, Joe, jumping off our deck into a huge snow pile

Back in October or November, a friend of mine (I believe it was Hannah) was talking about how she makes goals for each day. It really got me thinking. Especially in my half a month without a job, I needed to have a reason to get up. Before I had to get stuff done, I had to be to work, I had places to go. But with no job, I'm trying to spend the money I have wisely (which most of the time, means not at all). And I've spent a lot of time with my Gram, which I am so grateful for.

If you read my last two blogs, you can see how I am learning about how I need to care more for others. I had a friend who used to tell me that there was always someone worse off than her. At the time, it drove me nuts. But there is some truth to it. And it's always miserable for anyone to get caught up in their own problems. I find the best way out of that is always to help someone else or encourage someone else. And so, I think back to the words of my friend, setting a goal for each day. And so my goal has been to encourage someone, in some way, each day. I've never been incredible at setting New Year's goals. But I want this to be a life goal of mine and we'll see where it takes me. But I want to constantly be investing in to other people's lives, praying for people, and encouraging them.

I've never been one to watch the news (and I can't guarantee that's going to change), but lately my heart has really gone out to the people in Haiti. And I haven't wanted to watch or listen to the news because I often find it terribly depressing. And I don't see how constantly flooding my thoughts with negative things could be productive. In fact, the Bible speaks of thinking on positive things.

(Philippians 4: 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things.)

On the other hand, I believe God's heart is totally for people. And so, I have been watching a lot on Haiti and praying for the people there and their families. I do care about people's lives that are in the news. So, this is my challenge to you, whoever you may be:

i dare you to MOVE

move and do something good.

do something good for someone else.

today.