Josiah took reform seriously because He discerned the truth
about the Lord. He didn't stop at
Jerusalem, he went all over the land tearing down idols and defiling their
altars that they might not be used again or re-consecrated for worship. He went back all the way to the things
Solomon had built and tore them down. These
had apparently remained in the land even in the time of Hezekiah but Josiah
ripped it all out, root and branch back to when Israel first learned to sin in
the time of Solomon. We are told here of
the sin of multiple kings before him whose work he now destroyed in the name of
the Lord. Josiah cared about the Lord
and he cared about the people, no matter that the prophecy of destruction was
sure and would be carried out after him.
His zeal for the Lord was greater than anyone who lived after
David. Not on his watch would the people
turn away from their God.
Both the woman with the issue of blood and the synagogue
ruler knew that there was only one place to go in their need, Jesus. It didn't matter that He had been in tombs,
among the demon-possessed, with pigs, in the country of the Gadarenes, all that
religious stuff didn't matter now, their need for healing surpassed their need
for respectability. They came to Jesus
hopefully, in faith believing that He could do what was necessary to remedy
their situations. The woman had suffered
from this condition for twelve years, twelve long years of being an outcast,
not being able to worship in the temple, not being able to be among people, not
welcome anywhere, not able to be touched for risk of contracting her
defilement, and now she believed it was possible that it could all be fixed and
so she took the risk and touched His garment and received healing. The ruler knew that the others had rejected
this Jesus as a phony, a blasphemer, a dangerous man and yet his daughter lay
dying and it no longer mattered what the leaders thought, perhaps what he had
heard was indeed true and he took the risk.
He too was rewarded for His risk of faith. Where have we settled for respectability and lost
our sense of desperate need? We need Him
no less today than when we first received grace.
Paul begins his discussion of spiritual gifts by dismissing
the idea that if you don't have a particular gift you don't have the Spirit. If, he says, you confess Jesus is Lord then
you have the Spirit. He continues by
saying simply that just because there is variety, that all don't have the same
gift or gifts that they don't have the Spirit.
There is but one Spirit from whom all the gifts flow, don't expect everyone
to have or share the same gift, celebrate the differences among you as
manifestations of the greatness of the Spirit.
The work of the Spirit is manifold, He is the one who knows not only
what you need but what the church needs, filling out the body of Christ that it
may function perfectly, lacking nothing.
All we need do is discern the body and pray for any lack to be supplied
through the empowerment of the Spirit.
Where are we weak? Ask Him to
provide strength that we might be perfectly able to do all He has given us to
do.
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