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I am reading in John 9:1-41 this morning. It is a very long passage, so I am either going to have to summarize much of it or I am going to have to break this into more than one writing. So, we’ll see where the Lord takes this. But please go read it for yourselves. It is a beautiful story, for it is the story of a man blind from birth whom Jesus healed of his blindness.
The sovereignty of God is a difficult concept for many people to grasp. But that is what this is talking about. God, in his sovereignty, arranged or allowed circumstances to be such where this man would be born blind. Why? That the works of God might be displayed in him. And God may arrange or allow particular situations in our lives for the same reasons. For he is the one who knit us together in the wombs of our mothers, and all the days ordained for us were written in his book before one of them came into being.
For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And he saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. And he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. So God had a plan for our lives even before he created the world. And he arranged certain things in our lives to fulfill his purpose.
[Psalms 139:13-16; Romans 1:6-7; Romans 8:28-29; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 1:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3]
And this was the message which Jesus was relaying to his disciples. It was not the fault of the parents or of the unborn child that he was born blind. They did nothing to cause this. But it was in the sovereign will of God that this man should be born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. For God had a plan and a purpose for this man’s life which required that he be born blind, and not just so Jesus would heal him, but perhaps so that he would bear testimony to Jesus Christ, that he is the Christ.
For the past several days the passages of Scripture I have been studying have fit perfectly with situations in my life that I was going through. Like I didn’t know I would be writing on the sovereignty of God this morning, but yesterday I was in a conversation with someone about that subject. I didn’t know yesterday that I would be writing about people who pervert the grace of God for nefarious purposes, but before that I experienced a situation where someone willfully altered a conversation to change the content.
The point is, if we would open our eyes to see, we should be able to see how God is working in our lives, and how he is arranging situations to coincide with lessons he wants us to learn and/or to teach. He even reminded me of something that happened in my life 55 years ago and he used that story a day or two ago to teach a lesson on standing strong on our faith and not giving up and not running away when we are opposed or laughed at or when we face opposition. Maybe he arranged that for that exact purpose.
The point is, our God is absolutely amazing in how he works in our lives and in the things he allows in our lives for his purposes to make us into the people he wants us to be so that we might be used of him to give testimony to him of his love and his grace and of his healing in our lives, just like this man did. And some of those things will be hard lessons, and painful circumstances, but they are necessary in our lives in order for God to make us into the people he wants us to be.
And then I love how Jesus healed the man. He could have just touched his eyes and the man would have seen. But he chose to put mud on the man’s eyes and then to tell him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. And what this reminds me of is how God doesn’t heal us every time in all the same ways. And healing isn’t always instantaneous, but sometimes it is a process. Now, some people use this as an excuse to continue living in sin, but that is not the message we should get from this.
But if we are born into situations where we are physically and emotionally abused, for example, when we come out of those situations, it may take some time for us to work through all the damage that was done to us. And especially if more abuse is piled on top of that, it may slow the process of healing. But we need to be moving in a forward direction. But I think, too, that this helps prepare us for life, especially as followers of Christ, that people are going to do evil against us, but we have to overcome it.
And really, much suffering early on in our lives can be a blessing, because we have had to learn to keep going and to overcome and to not let how others treat us impact who we become. And this prepares us for when we begin to share the truth of the gospel, and when we call people to repentance and to obedient walks of faith, and for when we are refuting the lies of the enemy. For we have learned to endure much but to keep going in the strength of the Lord. And we are going to need that.
And I believe that is the message here. This man literally was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. For those of us who have gone through much hardship, and have survived, we are better prepared to stand strong in our faith against the attacks and the persecutions of the enemy against us because of our testimonies for Jesus Christ. And this is similar to Paul’s thorn in the flesh given him by God to keep him humble, and so he learned to rely on the strength of the Lord in all things.
When I Go Home
By G. M. Eldridge
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4
In the moment He appears
And the light from heaven shines,
I’ll forget ev’ry fear,
Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.
Then I’ll see Him as He is
And I’ll know Him as I’m known.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
Ever present is the tho’t
That a moment waits for me
When unworthy as I am,
His glory I will see.
I will empty all my praise
Before my Father’s throne.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
If the trial I endure,
And your presence I can’t find,
Be near me, Lord, I pray,
Bring back unto my mind
That your promises are firm
And I’m never on my own.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
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“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.” (John 9:1-7 ESV)
The sovereignty of God is a difficult concept for many people to grasp. But that is what this is talking about. God, in his sovereignty, arranged or allowed circumstances to be such where this man would be born blind. Why? That the works of God might be displayed in him. And God may arrange or allow particular situations in our lives for the same reasons. For he is the one who knit us together in the wombs of our mothers, and all the days ordained for us were written in his book before one of them came into being.
For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And he saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. And he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. So God had a plan for our lives even before he created the world. And he arranged certain things in our lives to fulfill his purpose.
[Psalms 139:13-16; Romans 1:6-7; Romans 8:28-29; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 1:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3]
And this was the message which Jesus was relaying to his disciples. It was not the fault of the parents or of the unborn child that he was born blind. They did nothing to cause this. But it was in the sovereign will of God that this man should be born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. For God had a plan and a purpose for this man’s life which required that he be born blind, and not just so Jesus would heal him, but perhaps so that he would bear testimony to Jesus Christ, that he is the Christ.
For the past several days the passages of Scripture I have been studying have fit perfectly with situations in my life that I was going through. Like I didn’t know I would be writing on the sovereignty of God this morning, but yesterday I was in a conversation with someone about that subject. I didn’t know yesterday that I would be writing about people who pervert the grace of God for nefarious purposes, but before that I experienced a situation where someone willfully altered a conversation to change the content.
The point is, if we would open our eyes to see, we should be able to see how God is working in our lives, and how he is arranging situations to coincide with lessons he wants us to learn and/or to teach. He even reminded me of something that happened in my life 55 years ago and he used that story a day or two ago to teach a lesson on standing strong on our faith and not giving up and not running away when we are opposed or laughed at or when we face opposition. Maybe he arranged that for that exact purpose.
The point is, our God is absolutely amazing in how he works in our lives and in the things he allows in our lives for his purposes to make us into the people he wants us to be so that we might be used of him to give testimony to him of his love and his grace and of his healing in our lives, just like this man did. And some of those things will be hard lessons, and painful circumstances, but they are necessary in our lives in order for God to make us into the people he wants us to be.
And then I love how Jesus healed the man. He could have just touched his eyes and the man would have seen. But he chose to put mud on the man’s eyes and then to tell him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. And what this reminds me of is how God doesn’t heal us every time in all the same ways. And healing isn’t always instantaneous, but sometimes it is a process. Now, some people use this as an excuse to continue living in sin, but that is not the message we should get from this.
But if we are born into situations where we are physically and emotionally abused, for example, when we come out of those situations, it may take some time for us to work through all the damage that was done to us. And especially if more abuse is piled on top of that, it may slow the process of healing. But we need to be moving in a forward direction. But I think, too, that this helps prepare us for life, especially as followers of Christ, that people are going to do evil against us, but we have to overcome it.
And really, much suffering early on in our lives can be a blessing, because we have had to learn to keep going and to overcome and to not let how others treat us impact who we become. And this prepares us for when we begin to share the truth of the gospel, and when we call people to repentance and to obedient walks of faith, and for when we are refuting the lies of the enemy. For we have learned to endure much but to keep going in the strength of the Lord. And we are going to need that.
And I believe that is the message here. This man literally was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. For those of us who have gone through much hardship, and have survived, we are better prepared to stand strong in our faith against the attacks and the persecutions of the enemy against us because of our testimonies for Jesus Christ. And this is similar to Paul’s thorn in the flesh given him by God to keep him humble, and so he learned to rely on the strength of the Lord in all things.
When I Go Home
By G. M. Eldridge
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4
In the moment He appears
And the light from heaven shines,
I’ll forget ev’ry fear,
Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.
Then I’ll see Him as He is
And I’ll know Him as I’m known.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
Ever present is the tho’t
That a moment waits for me
When unworthy as I am,
His glory I will see.
I will empty all my praise
Before my Father’s throne.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
If the trial I endure,
And your presence I can’t find,
Be near me, Lord, I pray,
Bring back unto my mind
That your promises are firm
And I’m never on my own.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
