Weird Things WORD PICTURE: Weird Things
Scriptural Reference: Mark 9:17-24
A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."
"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
“From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
1. Have someone(s) read the scriptures from various translations.
2. In an authoritative voice, read the following “believe it or not” items found in an e-mail:
A duck’s quack does not echo, and no one knows why.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
It is physically impossible to lick your elbow.
No word in the English language rhymes with “month.”
All polar bears are left-handed.
Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
Almost everyone who reads this list will try to lick their elbow.
3. My sharing, offered to spark sharing by others.
What I Shared
First, you need to know that only some of the “facts” on that list hold up to scrutiny. Most people who read this list will try to confirm or deny a few of these statements by trying them or researching them. But what are we supposed to do with the scriptures we read that just don’t make sense to us?
Sometimes there are things I cannot comprehend -- I just have to suspend my disbelief and say, “Well... “I guess!” Recently I had to do this in a much more serious -- indeed painful way, when a spirit-filled new Christian went “unanswered” and the woman died of cancer at age 42. We had been confessing the Word for eight months over this woman -- she was SOAKED in it and she was awesome in believing it and knowing God would come through. It just seemed incredible to us -- like a broken promise -- when the healing did not manifest here on earth.
What happened to me next was not pretty -- I simply could not understand how God would tell us one minute (in James 5:15) that ... the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.... and then -- the next minute -- simply not do it. This outcome shook me big time. Why?
*Because God says His Word is true, and we took Him at His Word -- and then, He simply did not do what it said.
*Because it made me think there was a semantic trick in it someplace -- like healing doesn’t really mean what we think it means or “the Lord will raise him up” really means death.
*Because I so much did not want to return to my old “works mentality,” where it all depended on my faith -- and was my fault she died therefore unless my faith was sufficient.
Where I came out on this was Daniel 3:17-18 where Nebuchadnezzar is going to throw those three guys into the fiery furnace because they refused to worship his golden idol. Listen carefully to what they said: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
For me, the key is “even if he does not.” I had been uncomfortable with the idea that we were standing there waving around the Word of God like a magic wand. I understand that God is in charge -- that He is sovereign, that alone He sees the full picture through infinity. So I knew about “even if he does not” but was counting it as doubt and unbelief. Sin. On my part. If you follow that reasoning, you end up that why Karen died is this: it’s your fault!
Then one morning I woke up with two words from God. One was from Daniel 3 and the other was from the book of Job 13:15: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.”
When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, “Even if he does not....” that was not unbelief!
When Job said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him,” that was not unbelief either!
In fact, it was faith! Righteousness! And I knew I had not doubted or disbelieved -- I had been rightly dividing His word.
For the first part of the time, I just had to suspend my disbelief. I did not understand it at all -- and I still do not. But I much more fully see that many things can appear really weird, and I can think, “How can that be true?” But, nevertheless, some weird things are true.
And so -- like this list of weird things, I ask today’s question. Are there are areas in your faith walk where YOU have stumbled -- where you just don’t get it at ALL? Have you met people like that -- whose mother died a slow and painful death, and the child just turned turn away from God in anger for the rest of his life convinced that he doesn’t want anything to do with a God who does things like that. Or whatever?
Can you identify with the need to occasionally suspend disbelief -- to trust that God is good no matter how hard it is to see that in the circumstances? For me, I find myself saying, “It’s hard to believe that no word in the entire English language rhymes with month” but I suspend my disbelief and ask God to help me. In the death of my friend Karen, He allowed me to suffer -- even take myself to hell and back -- but He has assured me what the lesson for me was about.
And so -- I want to know -- have you tried to lick your elbow? Some people actually CAN!
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, February 2008