Saturday, February 14, 2015

Morning Devotion for Sunday the 15th

Morning Devotion for Sunday the 15th
The Water is Stirred
Carolyn Dockter

Today we will spend an amazing day in the Old City of Jerusalem. As we leave the Temple Mount and walk into the Muslim Quarter of the Old City one of the first historic sites we will come upon is the Pool of Bethesda,

In John 5:1-9 we read:
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty- eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been i n this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "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." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. "At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked

John Calvin writes:
The invalid at the Pool of Bethesda does what almost all of us are wont to do; for he limits the assistance of God according to his own thought.... In this we have a mirror of that forbearance of which every one of us has daily experience, when, on the one hand, we keep our attention fixed on the means which are within our reach, and when, on the other hand, contrary to expectation, he displays his hand from hidden places and thus shows how far his goodness goes beyond the narrow limits of our faith. Besides, this example ought to teach us patience. Thirty-eight years was a long period, during which God had delayed to render to this poor man that favor which, from the beginning, he had determined to confer upon him. However long, therefore, we may be held in suspense, though we groan under our distresses, let us never be discouraged by the tediousness of the lengthened period; for, when our afflictions are long continued, though we discover no termination of them, still we ought always to believe that God is a wonderful deliverer who, by his power, easily removes every obstacle out of the way. 


Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

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