A New Friend

I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. —John 15:15

While flying from Europe back to the US, I found myself sitting next to a little girl who never stopped talking from the moment she sat down. She told me the history of her family and all about her puppy, who was in the hold of the plane. She pointed excitedly to everything around us, “Look at this! Look at that!” I couldn’t help but think that 8 hours of this could make for a very long flight!

We chatted for a while until she suddenly got quiet. She pulled her blanket up around her, so I thought maybe she was going to doze off. I quickly took advantage of the break and reached for the nearest magazine. But before I could open it, I felt a little elbow in my side. I looked down at her, and she threw out her little hand and said, “Hey, Joe, wanna be friends?”

My heart melted. “Sure,” I said, “let’s be friends.”

In the midst of the turmoil of life, when we think all we want is to be left alone, Jesus extends His nail-scarred hand and invites us to be His friends. He says, “I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). We have a choice: to keep to ourselves, or to open our heart to a friendship of unlimited love and guidance.

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer. —Scriven

Jesus longs to be your Friend.

http://getmorestrength.org/daily/a-new-friend/

The Cure of the Nobleman’s Son

And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son for he was at the point of death–Joh. 4:46-47

The Beginning of His Ministry

It is to be noted that all the miracles in this Gospel, with the exception of those of the loaves and the walking on the sea, are found in this Gospel only. We know that if all the works which Jesus did were written, the world itself could not contain the books thereof, and John was led to choose for us such deeds and such words of Jesus as should embody great principles in themselves and should not overlap the testimony of others. The life of Jesus is like the world we live in; there is room in it for the joyful use of all our gifts, and when we are rooted and grounded in love, as this apostle was, we shall have little heart to interfere with others. The miracle of Cana was the beginning of the showing of His glory. This miracle is a beginning too–it is the beginning of the Galilean ministry. A thing well begun is half-done, we say–note the noble beginnings of our Savior’s ministry. Observe, too, that our Lord began exactly as He meant to go on. I have known folk beginning with enthusiasm, but in a little while how listless and dull they grew! Remember that whether it be in work or play, that is not the spirit of our Master. All through His life, and all through the after-centuries, our Lord has been turning the water into wine; He has never ceased to respond to the cry of faith nor to be a healer of worse sicknesses than fever. It is no chance, then, that with such displays of power His glory and His Galilean ministry began.

Illness May Lead Us to Christ

So Jesus was at Cana of Galilee again, and you can hardly wonder that the people received Him eagerly. You may depend upon it that the servants who had borne the waterpots, as they sat of an evening in the inn at Cana, would never weary of recounting what had happened when they had filled the vessels with water to the brim. The news of this mystery had traveled far; it had entered the doors of the palace of Herod Antipas; and some had wondered, and some had scoffed, and some had jestingly wished they had been there. But there was one courtier, or king’s officer, at Herod’s court, who pondered deeply on this so marvelous story, and when rumors came of Jesus in Judaea and of all He had done at Jerusalem during feast-time (Joh. 4:45), he sifted them out and dwelt on them in secret, until at last, in the court of Herod Antipas (one of the unlikeliest places in the world), there was a heart that had begun to clamber upwards into the first glimmerings of faith. And then the son of this nobleman fell ill; physicians were useless; he was at the point of death. How vapid and vain was all the showy courtlife when there rang through it, in a voice he loved so well, the wild and delirious cries of raging fever! So oftentimes an illness may be used to tear away the tapestries around us and to lead us from the chamber of our worldly hopes into the presence of the living Christ. The nobleman came to Cana and we know what followed. If there is life in a look, there is life too in a word. The smoking flax was handled as only Christ could handle it till the flame of faith in this strong heart burned clear. The incident took place at one o’clock; the courtier set out for Capernaum immediately. The sun set, and a new day began, for with the Jew the day begins at sunset. And then his servants met him with faces of such radiance that the father had not to ask what was their news; and “Yesterday” they said (or as we should say “Today”), “at one o’clock the fever left him.” That was an hour (to use the words of Jesus) when Capernaum was exalted unto heaven. In one of its homes, at any rate, that evening there was a very heaven of joy and love and gratitude. It was the second miracle which Jesus did in Galilee, and it also was a turning of water into wine.

Our Neglect of Christ in Our Quiet Years

Note first, then, as springing from this matchless story, how we may neglect the evidence of quiet years. “Except ye see signs and wonders,” said Jesus to the courtier, and as He spoke He would turn to the people also–”Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” Now what, think you, did Jesus mean by that? I think He meant something of this kind. “I was among you,” He meant, “during my years of childhood. I spent my opening and my ripening manhood here; and I was the same then as I am today had you only had spiritual eyes to recognize Me; but you would not receive Me. I had no honor among you till I went to Judaea and wrought these mighty deeds, and now (though I am the same yesterday and today) you welcome Me gladly for the signs and wonders.” Let us learn then to have an open eye in the years when God is moving among us quietly. Let us not wait for occurrences that startle ere we give a welcome to the Light of men. In the countless providence’s of the common week, in the texts we read in the quiet of eventide, in the hymns we sing, in the preaching we hear, in all God’s daily love and kindness to us, there is a call to everyone of us, “My son, give Me thine heart.”

True Faith Is Followed by Activity

Then note, as signally illustrated here, how true faith is followed by activity. It was a journey of faith from Capernaum to Cana; it was not less so from Cana to Capernaum. All the love in the world for the poor boy would never have led the father Cana-wards unless within him there had been some spark of faith in the power and willingness of Jesus. Remember then that when a faith is real, working by love it will go forth in action. Remember too that there is no such source of action, nor anything so sure to make it high and noble, as an underlying faith in God’s dear Son. It matters not what the children are going to be–sailors, soldiers, teachers, mechanics, nurses–whatever it is, they will do it all the more worthily, with purer motives, with more victorious gladness, if they begin life with the prayer of him who cried, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/george-h-morrison-devotional-sermons-devotional.shtml

Jesus Tells How One May Become Great & Jesus Makes The Wicked Zaccheus His Friend

Jesus Tells How One May Become Great

Leaving Cesarea Philippi, Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee; but he wished no one to know of this, for he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed and men will put him to death, but in three days he will rise from the dead.” But they did not understand his meaning and were afraid to ask.

When they had reached Capernaum and were in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they made no reply, for they had been disputing on the way about which of them was greatest. Sitting down, he called the twelve disciples, and said, “If any one wishes to be first, he will be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and set him by his side and with his arm around him said to them, “Whoever receives a little child like this in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not only me, but God who sent me.”

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Jesus-Tells-How-One-May-Become-Great.shtml

 

Jesus Makes The Wicked Zaccheus His Friend

 

 

Jesus Is Kind To A Stranger

Certain Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Go away from here; for Herod wishes to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘See, I cast out evil spirits and cure the sick to-day and to-morrow, but on the third day I must go on my way; for it cannot be that a prophet will be put to death anywhere except in Jerusalem.’”

Jesus left Capernaum and went into the land of Tyre and Sidon. Going into a house, he wished that no one should know that he was there, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose little daughter had an evil spirit heard of him and came and knelt at his feet. Now the woman was a heathen of the Phoenician race. She begged him to drive the evil spirit out of her daughter, but he said to her, “Let the children of Israel first be fed, for it is not fair to take their bread and throw it to the dogs!” She answered him, “True, sir, yet the little dogs under the table do eat the children’s crumbs.” He said to her, “Because of this answer go to your home; the evil spirit has gone out of your daughter.” On returning home she found the child lying on the bed and the evil spirit gone from her.

Jesus again left the land of Tyre and passed through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, crossing the land of Decapolis. The people brought to him a deaf man, who also stammered; and they begged Jesus to lay his hand on him.

Jesus took the man away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears, touched his tongue with saliva, and looking up to heaven, sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha” (which means “Open”). And at once, the man could hear and could talk without stammering.

Then Jesus told them to tell no one, but in spite of what he said the people kept telling about it, saying: “How well he has done everything! He even makes the deaf hear, and the dumb speak.”

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Jesus-Is-Kind-To-A-Stranger.shtml

Jesus Calls Together His Friends And Helpers

Jesus went up on the hillside near Capernaum and called to him the men whom he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve to be with him and to go out to preach, with power to cast out evil spirits. These were the twelve disciples: Simon to whom he gave also the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, whom he called “Sons of Thunder,” Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of AlphÊus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who at last betrayed him.

Then Jesus went into a house and the crowd gathered again so that it was impossible even to eat a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to get hold of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Standing outside, his mother and his brothers sent word to him to come out to them. He was in the midst of a crowd seated about him when some one said to him, “Here are your mother and your brothers and sisters outside hunting for you.” He answered, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then looking around at those who sat in a circle about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Jesus-Calls-Together-His-Friends-And-Helpers.shtml

Jesus Cures A Man Who Cannot Walk

When Jesus entered Capernaum again, after some days, it was reported that he was at home, and so many people gathered about him that there was no longer room for them, not even at the door. While Jesus was preaching to them, four men came, carrying a man who was paralyzed and could not move. As they could not get near to Jesus on account of the crowd, they tore up the roof over his head. When they had made a hole, they let down the bed on which the man who could not move was lying. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to him, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” But some of the scribes sitting there said to themselves, “Why should this man say such a thing? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

Knowing at once what they were saying, Jesus said to them, “Why do you say these things to yourselves? Which is easier: to say to the man who cannot move, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, take your bed, and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins” (he said to the man who could not walk) “I say to you, Rise, take up your bed, and go to your home.” Then the man rose and at once took up his bed and went out in the presence of them all, so that they were all filled with wonder and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Jesus-Cures-A-Man-Who-Cannot-Walk.shtml

Jesus Heals The Sick

Jesus and his disciples entered Capernaum; and on the next Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach. And the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

In their synagogue that day was a man under the power of an unclean spirit, who cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you are God‘s Holy One.” But Jesus reproved the unclean spirit, saying, “Be still, and come out of him.” Then the unclean spirit, after convulsing the man, came out of him with a loud cry. The people were so astonished that they began to ask one another, “What is this? Is it a new teaching? With authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” So the news about Jesus spread at once in every direction all through the country about Galilee.

After leaving the synagogue they went straight to the house of Simon and Andrew; and James and John went with them. The mother of Simon’s wife was ill in bed with a fever; so at once they told Jesus about her. He went to her and, taking her by the hand, lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to wait upon them.

In the evening, after the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick or under the control of evil spirits, until all the people of the city were gathered at the door. He healed many who were sick with different kinds of diseases, and cast out many evil spirits, but would not let them speak, because they knew who he was.

One day a leper came to him and on bended knees begged him: “If you will, you can make me clean.” Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said, “I will; be cleansed!” At once the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Then Jesus, after strictly warning him, sent him away with the command, “See that you do not say a word to any one, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded as proof to them that you are clean.” But the man went away and began to tell every one about it, so that Jesus could no longer enter a city openly, but had to stay outside in lonely places; and people from everywhere came to him.

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Jesus-Heals-The-Sick.shtml

Jesus Wins Devoted Friends

Herod seized John the Baptist and bound him, and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John said to him, “It is not right for you to have her.” And although Herod wanted to put him to death, he was afraid of the people, for they believed John to be a prophet.

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching God’s good news: “The time has come; repent of your sins and believe in the good news, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went to live in Capernaum, which is on the Sea of Galilee. As he was passing along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And they at once left their nets and followed him. And going a little farther on, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, with John his brother, who were in their boat mending their nets. He called them, and they at once left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men, and went with him.

Then Jesus found Philip and said to him, “Come with me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the home of Andrew and Peter. Philip, finding Nathanael, said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see.”

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said to him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig-tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” Jesus replied, “Do you believe because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig-tree’? You shall see greater things than these!”

http://kids.ochristian.com/Childrens-Bible/Jesus-Wins-Devoted-Friends.shtml

The Rich Fool

And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me …. And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth–(Luk 12:13-15)

What Jesus Did When He Was Interrupted

Jesus was often interrupted in His teaching, and some of the choicest sayings in the Gospel spring from these interruptions of the Lord. When we are interrupted at our work or play, you know how cross we generally are. But Jesus, in His perfect trust and wisdom, turned even His interruptions to account. He had to stop preaching at Capernaum once when the paralytic was lowered through the roof. But instead of fretting, He so used the moment that the crowd in the cottage glorified God. And here, too, as He is teaching, He is brought to a halt by an unlooked-for question. Yet He so answers it, and uses it, and preaches such a memorable sermon on it, that I am sure there was not a disciple but thanked God for the unseemly interruption. Christ felt that not one man could interrupt Him, without the permission of His heavenly Father. It was that present and perfect trust in God that kept Him in His unutterable calm.

Where Was This Man’s Treasure?

While He was speaking, then, of heavenly things–of forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Ghost–and when He paused, perhaps, for an instant to see if Peter and John had understood Him, there came a grating voice upon His ear, “Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me.” Now, whether this man was really wronged or not, it is of course impossible to say. And it was not that which stirred the wrath of Jesus–it was the betrayal of the speaker’s heart. A single sentence may be enough to reveal us. A single request may open our inmost soul. And here was a man who had listened to peerless preaching, and might have been carried heavenward on the wings of it, but the moment Jesus stops, he blurts out his petition, and his whole grievance is about his possessions. Does not that show what he was thinking of? Cannot you follow back the workings of his mind through these magnificent teachings that precede? It was that earthly mind that stirred Christ’s anger. It was that which led Him on to preach on greed. There was life eternal in the words of Christ; but this man, in the very hearing of them, could think of nothing but the family gold.

An Anxious, Selfish Fool

Then Jesus told the story of the rich fool, and as He told it His mind went back to Nabal (1Sa 25:1-44). For “Nabal” just means a foolish man, and as his name was, so was he. Like Nabal, too, this churl was not a badman. He had not stolen the wealth that was to wreck him. It was God’s rain that had fallen on his seed. It was God’s sunshine that had ripened his harvest. It was God’s gentleness that made him great. But for all that, his riches ruined him. He gave his heart to them: he gave his soul. Then suddenly, when he was laying his plans, and dreaming his golden dreams about tomorrow, God whispered, “Senseless! This night they want thy soul!” Who the they is–for so it reads in the original–we cannot say. They may be the angels of death; they may be robbers. In any case they are God’s instruments, and the rich man must say goodbye to everything. O folly, never to think of that! He had thought of everything except his God. “And so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, if he is not rich towards God.”

Now there are three things we must notice about this man; and the first is how very anxious he was. When we are young we think that to be rich means to be free from anxiety altogether. We can understand a pauper being anxious, but not a man who has great heaps of gold. But this rich man was just as full of cares as the beggar without a sixpence in the world. He could not sleep for thinking of his crops. That question of the harvest haunted him. It shut out God from him, and every thought of heaven, just as that family inheritance we spoke of silenced the music of Jesus for the questioner. Who is the man who we sometimes call a fool? It is the man with the bee in his bonnet, as we say. But better sometimes to have a bee in the bonnet than to have nothing but barns upon the brain. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.

See next how very selfish the man was. Do we hear one whisper of a harvest-thanksgiving? Is there any word of gratitude to God? You would think the man had fashioned the corn himself, and burnished and filled the ears with his own hand, he is so fond of talking of my corn. Do you remember what we learned in the Lord’s Prayer. It is never my there, it is always our. And the Lord’s fool is at opposite poles from the Lord’s Prayer, for he is always babbling about my. And then were there no poor folk in his glen? Was there no Naomi in yon cottage in the town? Did not one single Ruth come out to glean when the tidings traveled of that amazing harvest? If the bosoms of the poor had been his barns, he would have been welcomed at the Throne that night. O selfish and ungrateful!–but halt, have I been selfish this last week? There are few follies in the world like the folly of the selfish man.

Then, lastly, think–and we have partly traveled on this ground already–think how very foolish the man was. Had he said, “Body, take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry!” there might have been some shadow of reason in it. But to think that a soul that hungers after God was ever to be satisfied with food–is there any folly that can equal that? “The world itself,” says James Renwick, “could not fill the heart, for the heart has three corners and the world is round!” Let us so live, then, that when our soul is summoned, we shall say, “Yea, Lord! It has long been wanting home.” And to this end let us seek first the kingdom. For where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/george-h-morrison-devotional-sermons-devotional.shtml

 

Jesus Cures A Maid

When Jesus came back to Capernaum He found the crowd of friends at the little wharf full of concern about Him, and glad that no harm had come to Him during the storm. Among them was one who had watched anxiously for the boat, for he had a little daughter at home very ill indeed, so ill that she was “at the last breath.” His name was Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. He was so troubled that he fell at the feet of Jesus, begging Him to come and lay His hand on his child that she might live.

Jesus went with him, a throng of people with them, hoping to see Him do a great work.

While He was on the way a woman who had been sick twelve years followed close behind Him, and put forth her hand timidly toward Him.

“If I may touch but His clothes I shall be whole,” she said to herself, and she touched them with faith in her heart.

Jesus, who knew all hearts, turned straight around and said:

“Who touched My clothes?”

How the woman shrank back and trembled when she heard that, for she was afraid she had done wrong.

The disciples thought it strange that He should ask this, as the people thronged so close that they could not help touching Jesus But the woman knew what He meant and she came and fell down before Him, fearing and trembling, and told Him all the truth.

Jesus did not look sternly at her as she thought He would do, but He said gently,

“Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

While the woman was still at His feet full of gratitude and love because she felt herself cured, some friends came from the ruler’s house to bring sad news.

“Thy daughter is dead,” they said, “why troublest thou the Master any further?”

Jesus saw the looks of grief on the father’s face and said quickly,

“Be not afraid, only believe.”

So they went to the ruler’s house, and into the inner room where the little maid lay. Many wished to press in after them to see what Jesus would do, but he took only Peter and James and John with the father and mother of the maiden into the quiet, darkened room. As He went in He said to some who were mourning noisily in the outer room,

“Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.” Jesus loved to call death a “sleep,” for He knew that we never die. Then He took the little maid by the hand and called her. She had not gone so far into the country we cannot see that she could not hear a divine Voice calling to her,

“Talitha cumi!” (“Maiden, arise!”) At once she rose and walked. She was a little girl of twelve, and very dear to her father and mother, and there was no doubt great joy as well as wonder in the house of the ruler that bright morning after the storm. In their joy and wonder there was danger of forgetting to give her the food she was in need of, and so Jesus gently reminded them, commanding that something should be given her to eat, but he charged them not to talk about the return of their little daughter.

http://kids.ochristian.com/Children-in-the-Bible/Jesus-Cures-A-Maid.shtml