Blessings to you, friends.  My prayer for us this week is that we boldly proclaim the truth in love.  The giants will be powerless against it.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of our ministry.  We’ll always have a focus on ministry to people with disabilities, but why is it that we do that?  It is because everyone needs Jesus, and we want to make sure everyone gets the opportunity to meet Him.

We need to see people the way God sees them.  We need to see people the way God sees us!  In this kind of ministry, it’s easy to get distracted from the main thing.  We see the need, and we focus on the need we can see.  Everyone wants to be seen for who they really are and loved anyway.  We must avoid our natural tendency to stop at the surface.  It makes us feel good to do something immediate and see a result, but often we miss the real need in so doing.  Many of us are facing some kind of disability.  Some struggle with financial problems.  Others battle internal enemies we cannot see, but that sometimes manifest in unpleasant behavior.

One time, Jesus was preaching to a packed house.  It was so crowded that no one else could get in.  He had already performed healing miracles, and everyone was flocking to him.  Among them were 5 men, one of whom was paralyzed.  They were determined to get to Jesus, knowing that He could heal the paralyzed man.  Finding that they were never going to be able to carry the man through that crowd to get to Jesus, they got up on the roof and broke through to lower him right in front of Jesus.

There are many things we can learn from this story, but what happens next is what I want you to see this time.  It is pretty obvious what these men want and they will get it, but that isn’t where Jesus starts.  His first words to the man who is paralyzed are, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”  Jesus sees past the apparent need to the real one.  If He ad only healed the man, it would have done him no lasting good.  He might enjoy his life a bit more while he had it, but he would have died with no hope.  The Bible tells us we’ve all sinned, and we all need forgiveness.  Jesus, through the pronouncement of forgiveness and the act of healing, establishes that He is the one who can offer it. (Luke 5:17-26)

We have been commissioned by our Lord to make disciples of all the nations.” (Mt. 28:19) We can start right here in our own community.  It is uncomfortable, but God did not call us to be comfortable.  There is great need, and we do what we can to meet it, but the greatest need of all is the saving power of Jesus Christ.  We must see people the way that God does, and love them that way, too.

I hope you will join us this Sunday.  I sure enjoyed our fellowship last Sunday.  Lets keep bringing them in!

Love y’all,

Larry