We're in an era of mega churches. The Hartford Institute shows that there are over 1,300 non-Catholic churches in the United States with a weekly attendance larger than 1,000 people. The Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea claims more than 830,000 members. That's an extremely large number of people who all read the same book and follow the same Lord. At my church, I'm one out of thousands. Based on studies, I'm one out of close to a million people in my state that go to church on the weekend. More reasonably, I'm probably one of 100's of thousands of people that go, since there's studies that show people exaggerate how often they attend church.
Biblical historians assume there were probably close to 2 million Israelites who crossed the desert with Moses. There's some argument about the translations of the original text, but regardless of the actual amount, it was a very large amount. How did God choose Moses? In our churches, our country, or even our religion, how do we get the opportunity from God to serve Him in a large capacity. I think a majority of that answer is humility, but I think there's some information in Luke 8 as well.
Jesus had returned home to a welcome party and was immediately met by a man who had requested Jesus come to his house to help heal his daughter. Luke 8:42 says "As Jesus was on His way, the crowds almost crushed Him." There were so many people surrounding Jesus and touching Jesus that He was being pushed in on all sides, feeling crushed!
Here's the cool part - As Jesus was walking through this crowd, which I picture as the area right under the stage of a major concert, a woman who had been bleeding for years touches His cloak. Most likely, simultaneously with about 4-10 other people as He felt Himself getting crushed by people on all sides, YET He asks His disciples who just touched Him!!
Imagine walking through a mosh pit at the front of a concert with a friend and they grab you and ask you if you know who just touched them. First of all, I would think my friend was crazy and had possibly accidentally taken some drugs. Then, I would most likely ignore their very strange question and pretend it never happened. That question would just be too ridiculous for me to come up with an answer.
Peter must have trusted Jesus a little more, because He gives Him a real answer and tells Him that He's being pushed on all sides by people. Jesus responds, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."
Now, recognize that Jesus has been traveling around healing people for a while. The word has spread and most of these people surrounding Him are probably there trying to get some sort of healing or wisdom. I think of this crowd as the one at one of these churches, or maybe even the entire church body. Why was it that when all of these people were there with faith that Jesus could do something to help them, it was the faith this woman had that caused her to receive healing without Jesus even acknowledging her presence until after He had healed her?! Lots of the other people touching Jesus are probably hoping for the same thing. They are approaching Him, expecting a healing or hoping for some sort of miracle in their lives, but the only power we know Jesus feel leave Him was when this one, very specific, woman touches Him.
I want to be that woman in my faith. Not that I want to stand out in public or do miraculous things that the world hears about, but I want to have such a strong faith in God that He chooses me to use. When there are so many other people attending church and worshiping God, I want my faith to stand out as strong. I want my faith in the power of Christ to be the faith that moves mountains and the faith that just believes in His power without needing to ever see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment