With all that Mud, what do we really KNOW? Part II

“When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay (mud) with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay (mud).” – John 9: 6-7  

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Continued from the Blog Post of 9/26/2018. In this post we further explore the question – “What do each one of us really know about God? What is it I really know of Jesus?”

Lets look at the episode in John Chapter 9 – The Mud Healing from the standpoint of what is KNOWN or UNKOWN

John chapter 9 opens with Jesus passing by a man who was blind from birth. His disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The Disciples understood the common knowledge that someone in the family must have sinned resulting in this man being born blind. In this culture the family’s name was MUD, being stigmatized by guilt and shame for some unknown failure.

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” Jesus is responding to the disciple’s question and correcting the record. He is the Rabbi making things known by teaching.

The story continued, “After he answered, Jesus spat on the ground and made clay (mud) with the saliva and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay (mud).

(note: One of the unique elements about this recorded healing episode is that of the 25 or so recorded healings, this is the only one where Jesus is not solicited or that Jesus does not make his intentions KNOWN)

Jesus hocks a loogie (spits):

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Saturday Morning Men’s Prayer Report – SM²PR

^“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” – John 15:12

“The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” – Psalm 92:12

Dan shared this exchange that took place a couple of Saturday’s ago  between him and a brother (we’ll call DB) at the Saturday Morning Men’s Prayer meeting:

DB broke from worship and addressed Dan saying, “I’m hearing God telling me that you, Dan, are a post!”

Hmmm, Dan wondered. Doesn’t sound very exciting. What does that mean?

DB continued, “It’s not like your basic 4X4 wooden post but something much thicker.”

Dan’s eyes widen. What he was hearing began to take on meaning.

“It’s thicker, stronger, more like an 8X8 post.” DB hesitated and then added. “Yes, God has made you into a strong 8X8 post!” He mused, “Why? For the benefit of others.”

Dan chuckled and whispered, “Very cool.”

“God has made you this way – for the benefit of others so they can lean on you as a sturdy foundation.” DB concluded. “God has made you this way and for this purpose. So, let this foundational beam carry other’s weight.”

Dan wondered, Did I say anything about what I did yesterday? He shook his head, Nope!

What DB didn’t know was that Dan on this morning was sore and tired with hands rough and worn from over-exerting himself the day before. Dan is renovating a house as a family project and the property has a steep incline from the driveway up to the front door. Dan’s idea was to create some terrace steps that would gradually lead up to the house.

They would be large platform foundation steps. But, how was he going to make it work? What could he use as the foundation and form for the structure? He had decided to use railroad ties – big, thick, heavy 8X8 pieces of lumber!

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Another Miracle by The Lake

In my Post of July 24th I ended by saying that there’s more to the story. One of the long distance runners, physically, has no right to be straining his heart doing 100 mile endurance races. Now, Alex Tucker will tell the rest of the story.

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Guest Blog Post from Alex Tucker:

” . . . Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” – Malachi 3:10

“But now the Lord says: ‘ . . . for those who honor Me I will honor . . .” – 1 Samuel 2:30

I was never the most athletic kid growing up. I played team sports as a child; baseball in spring, swimming in summer, and soccer in the fall. At an early age, the doctor discovered a heart murmur from a congenital heart defect which he monitored throughout my youth. The murmur never really impacted me and while in High School I starting running to stay in shape. I thought that’s what you did to stay fit. The idea of running for fun was a ludicrous concept for me. It wasn’t until I was in my early-20’s when my spiritual life collided with the physical. I began to go out for runs which evolved into times of worship, prayer, and intercession. What the Christian Olympian, Eric Liddell was quoted as saying in the movie Chariots of Fire rings so true, “And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

As my time with the Father grew deeper and more relational, my time running became longer and more intense. The running led to training which, over time, led to racing. The relational aspect also grew as I often trained and raced with my running buddies Mike and Andy. Since I was already putting in long distance efforts I began to run marathons and ultra-marathons.

One day in June 2014, I was 35 miles into a 100 Mile race in Massachusetts. The day was hot and the course was hard. I began to feel my heart lose rhythm and my head went dizzy. The EMT gave me a scary on-site diagnosis; I was in atrial fibrillation, the result of the congenital heart defect diagnosed back in my childhood. Although it had never caused any serious issues before, it was now proving to be a major inhibitor. I not only had to quit that race but was forced to take time to rest and pray about what this would mean over the long term. I could keep running in small doses but the long distance training was over for me. My spirit was crushed. The next few months were a season of grieving as I contemplated what new spiritual and physical path I would take.

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