relationship or religion

The Faith of a Roman Officer

5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officers came and pleaded with him,6 "Lord, my young servants lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain."
7 Jesus said, "I will come and heal him."
8 But the officer said, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.9 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, `Go,' and they go, or `Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, `Do this,' they do it."
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, "I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel!11 And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.12 But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, "Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened." And the young servant was healed that same hour.

matthew 8

lately, i've been really lazy in my faith. being brutally honest, i'm still finding my way out of my dry season. i'm still following Jesus out of this desert. i had an amazing conversation last night with thuy. we were both talking about how we don't like the people that we become when we're not connected with God. we talked about how big of a change there is from the thien and thuy that spend intimate and precious moments with our abba and when we're just too busy doing other things like worrying about school or work or whatever else. i lose my patience a lot easier. i get crankier easier. i end up drifting away enough from God that i enter spiritual dryness in a new way. i slowly just step further and further away from Him. i need to come back to that place. i want to find that boy again, fascinated by His father, waking up early every morning to meet with Him. so that's what thuy and i have decided to do together. we're planning on waking up every morning at 6 to spend time with the King. this is a special time that no one can take away. no matter what happens, we want to, we need to spend time with the Father. because we've seen what happens when we don't! it affects every single one of our relationships with other people and with each other. i encourage you to do the same, too. don't let satan drive you and God apart. take action. fight back.

alright, the faith of the roman officer. in the previous blog, we talked about the faith of the leper and how he completely believed that Jesus was the only one who could heal him and how he put all his faith in Jesus. Jesus, in turn, rewarded his faith and not only just healed the leper, but made Himself ceremonially unclean by actually touching the leper to heal him when He didn't have to. Jesus committed the taboo, but He didn't care. what He said by this was that He doesn't live by the rules and regulations of religion or of this world, He heals and saves all. this story is no different. the roman officer had extraordinary faith in that he knew the power of Jesus. the roman officer even affirms Jesus' authority over everything by sharing the authority from his superior officers and how he has authority over others. the fact that the roman officer was a gentile is what sets this story apart and is a key thing to note. by gentile, we just mean that the roman officer was simply not a jew. but Jesus didn't care, He marveled at the officer's faith and healed His servant immediately. this alludes to what he says later on in the same passage. that people from all over will come to feast in the kingdom, meaning gentiles, non-jews, people who were not welcome before. and the "sons of God" or the israelites will not be able to! Jesus remarks that it's not the religious people who are saved, the jews, but the people who have true faith in Him, the gentiles. not to say that jews aren't going to be saved and only gentiles are saved, but He's making the point that it's not religion that saves, but a true and genuine faith, trust, and relationship with Him that does!!

don't let your faith turn into a religion. don't let it turn into a bunch of rules and regulations that you half-heartedly follow because everyone tells you to. don't let it become just a routine. work on that relationship with God. that's the most important thing. so that when the day comes, and you ask Jesus if He recognizes you after all the "deeds" that you've done, He won't say, "come a little bit closer, i don't recognize your face." don't be a stranger. don't follow the rest of the crowd that turns Him into some, far-away, distant God. know that He is here and He wants to have a relationship with you. don't forget that.

we were learning about this at rock harbor, if you want to know about God. if you want to know what He's really like. if you want to know if He's jealous, or vengeful, or kind, or compassionate, or forgiving, or is brave, or stands up for His people. look at the image of the invisible God. look at the exact representation of the Father in the Son. look at Jesus. Jesus is God. if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. and if this is what God's like, this really is good news. =]