[Discoveries] 10-15-07 Moving the line

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*"Why bother the Teacher any more?" -- Mark 5:35*/

While Jesus was sailing through the storm, a 12-year-old girl was 
getting sicker and sicker. While Jesus was delivering the man afflicted 
with demons, she grew weaker and weaker. Her father was frantic. Where's 
Jesus?

Jesus finally returned, and the father pushed his way through the crowd. 
He rehearsed in his mind what he was going to say. "Yes, many people are 
sick, but you don't understand. This is my daughter."

In a race against time, this father pleaded with Jesus to hurry. But 
what did Jesus do? He dawdled. He paused. He stopped to ask a ridiculous 
question, "Who touched Me?"

"Hurry!" the man was screaming inside. "Don't stop now! Hurry and heal 
my daughter."

And then, everything that man feared came crashing down on him. "Why 
bother the teacher any more? Your daughter is dead."

I get the sense of a father reaching out for his daughter and a daughter 
reaching out for her father as they are pulled apart, and drawn into 
separate universes beyond each other's reach.

Why bother the Teacher any more? It's over. It's time to give up.

All of us have a line inside -- a place where hope vanishes, where we 
see no options, where we can think of no other recourse than to give up. 
Sometimes the Lord asks us to visit that place in our souls just like He 
had this father visit that place of giving up so many years ago.

What does Jesus do? He moves the line. He says, "Don't be afraid; just 
believe." He says, "The child is not dead but asleep." Just before He 
raises the dead, He invites us to open our eyes and see that life, hope 
and possibility are here because Jesus is here.

Be encouraged!
Dwight



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