“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know anything about him! Well, God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Never since the world began has anyone been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do it.”

John 9:30-33

This is my favorite story in all the gospels, mainly because it pits the scribes, stuck in the intellect of faith, with a man who had experienced grace firsthand.  To me it serves as a constant reminder that, as much as I love diving deeper in my knowledge of God’s scripture and faith, it is the experience with God that truly transforms hearts.  God does want us to know him better, but if we just know Him and do not seek to experience Him, then we will never understand fully what we know.  There is a great difference between having our faith in our minds and letting Jesus reside in our hearts.  We can get so caught up in the things of faith that we fail to see God at work around us.  Jesus’ desire for us is not that we would know all about Him but fail to experience His grace.  We must be careful that our study of God’s word isn’t feeding our minds only, but also effecting our hearts as we seek to live out faith in Jesus Christ.

As for you, go your way until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you.

Daniel 12:13

Daniel, like Revelation, is a popular book for those seeking answers to the “end times”.  Go to any Christian bookstore and you will find shelf after shelf of books written to explain how our current world situation is exactly what the writers were writing about.  The problem is that you can also go to the used book store and find dusty shelves of books from generations past promising Jesus’ return in their eras.  Each generation has read scripture and found that their situation is exactly what the writers were talking about and, therefore, Jesus must be coming soon.  In the midst of all the panic, the main message is missed.  While writers are warning of the evils of modern government and culture, claims hard to deny, they miss the underlying message that God is delivering.  The basic message – Don’t worry.  If we have faith in Jesus, then we don’t really need to worry about His return.  We have nothing to fear.  We can stay on our way and live our lives without fear of God’s return because we can trust in the grace of Jesus.  His promises are true and He will not abandon us.  Jesus is our hope and we need not fear the future if we trust in His grace.

There was a man named Jabez who was more distinguished than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

A few years ago, there was a popular Christian book titled, “The Prayer of Jabez.” It was based off of the 2 verses above and encouraged everyone to pray the prayer, word for word, as a means of guaranteeing God’s blessings in their life. While I don’t think that there are any special power in these particular words or that saying them in any way guarantees rich, earthly rewards, I do believe that God does desire for us to seek Him and He desires to give us blessings. It is a basic spiritual truth that when we get closer to God, our lives are greater blessed. Now this blessing may not come by means of the things of this world. In my experience, those blessings are merely a secondary result of living rightly and being good stewards of what God has given us. No, our greatest blessings are deep spiritual blessings – a close, intimate, personal connection with Jesus. And when we seek God daily in prayer and choose to open our lives to Him, then He blesses us with greater blessings than this world could ever provide.

God does desire for us to seek Him and He does want to give us blessings, but not by the definition of this world. Our greatest blessing is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When we seek Him daily, His influence will extend in our lives and then we will know what it is to be truly blessed!

Ran across this great quiz on the website of fellow believer, Tim Challies:

Fortune Cookie or Joel Osteen? For each quote below, identify whether it comes from a fortune cookie or from Joel Osteen.

Question One

“Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”

Question Two

“Do all you can to make your dreams come true.”

Question Three

“Take time to make a difference. Think about how you can make somebody else’s life better.”

Question Four

“Avoid focusing on the negative aspects of the past.”

Question Five

“You have something to offer that nobody else can give!”

Question Six

“When you can’t naturally feel upbeat, it can sometimes help to act as if you did.”

Question Seven

“To affirm is to make firm.”

Question Eight

“Relationships are more important than our accomplishments.”

Question Nine

“Somebody needs your encouragement. Somebody needs to know that you believe in them.”

Question Ten

“The best things in life aren’t things.”

Question Eleven

“You will produce what you’re continually seeing in your mind.”

Question Twelve

“Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”

*****

Answers: Fortune Cookie, Joel Osteen, Joel Osteen, Fortune Cookie, Joel Osteen, Fortune Cookie, Fortune Cookie, Joel Osteen, Joel Osteen, Fortune Cookie, Joel Osteen, Fortune Cookie