belief – Page 17 – 300 words a day

do you want to get well?

(Today is a guest post from Rich Dixon, a new and frequent commenter here. I asked him to help me understand this text. He did. ) Jesus sees a man sitting beside a therapy pool. The guy’s been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Jesus asks a surprising question. “Do you want to get well?” I wonder […]

by Jon Swanson

sometimes faith means walking away

Jesus told a man that his son would be healed. The man took Jesus at his word and headed home. Perhaps the man was good at taking direction because he worked for the king. That was certainly true for another healing situation. A centurion (military commander of 100 soldiers) wanted a servant healed. Jesus offered […]

by Jon Swanson

Desperate faith

The man’s son is dying. This man is part of the administration at a time when rank has privileges, but it doesn’t matter right now that he has a great job. Those privileges may have connected him to the best possible care but it wasn’t helping. His son is dying. He finds Jesus and begs […]

by Jon Swanson

Jesus understands

(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday) During this year, Jon has been going through the book of John, showing us some of the ways Jesus relates to us unlike any other. Jesus is the only one who ever lived who is fully God and was fully man at the same time. That’s one of […]

by Jon Swanson

unlikely evangelist

No one in Israel would have said that the person to follow to a rabbi would be a Samaritan woman adulteress. The only people that she would have been able to lead anywhere were people who knew her and saw what that rabbi had done for her. People in and out of church know all […]