Topic: Worship
How many of us know Pastor David Ring? We might hear him on Christian radio and television. Pastor Ring is a physical disabled preacher in Tennessee who born with cerebral palsy. Unlike me, he can walk and talk without using any walker or communication device. I went to one of his meetings in Oakton United Methodist Church with my church friends on June 28, 2005. As I listened to his life testimony, there is a hope to go through any type of challenges in life—whether you are disabled or non-disabled person; old or young.
As you know, I have a physical disability like Pastor David Ring. But I’m not going to talk about my life with disability in this message. Many of you may familiar of my life story.
In this message, I would like to talk about our freedom from spiritual disability. I’m not talking about physical, but spiritual, because we all have disabilities that block us to see the light of the truth. The Bible says that we were corrupted in our sins and was saved by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Being a physical disabled may or may not be caused by our spiritual corruption. God did not bring His people into sins, but they brought themselves into the spiritual corruption in their own lives.
Let’s read John 9:1-5:
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. Imust work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
In this passage of John 9, disciples asked Jesus what cause a man was born to be blind of as disabled. They thought it came from his parents’ sins. Of course, we understand that God can give a curse to the person if he’d continually sin against Him. But in this passage, this man is being disabled not because his parents’ sins or his own sin. Nope! Read verses 4 and 5. Jesus said to them that the man was blind, so he could see the miracle of God in him. So he can be freed from the spiritual darkness.
As we read in I Corinthians 1:27-31, Paul says:
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”
Even though God know you would have weakest strength, He can use you and set you free from the spiritual disability—known as sins.
Pastor Ring contrasted the definition of his disability—cerebral palsy. In the dictionary says that he can do nothing with his disability, but in the Bible says that he can do anything through Jesus Christ who strengthens him (see Philippians 4:13). Not only that he can speak in the public arena around the 50 states, Jesus gave him the spiritual freedom from the spiritual warfare, because he chooses to live for Christ, not for the world system.
Even we may be in the spiritual blinded. We may not be realized how the world deceive us and lead us into Satan. We may like what President Bush is doing for his citizens, because of his belief. We may don’t realize what actually he stands for his faith; instead, we may accept him as a genius spiritual born Christian. For example, on May 4, 2002, President Bush invited Ozzy Osbourne, a Satanic Rock Star, to White House Ball and let him to sing one of the satanic songs at White House (see more details at Cutting Edge Ministries Headline Analysis).
As we know, God forbids let us associating with unbelievers through marriage, church fellowship, and friendships. Even though God says to us to go the other parts of the world and proclaim His message to unsaved ones, it doesn’t mean that we need to talk and act like them or let’s invite them to the party and let them to play the satanic song. God tells us that we cannot serve both the world and Him. We need to choose whom we should serve—God or World.
So how we can free from the spiritual darkness? Are we going to stay in the dark without light of the truth forever?
Jesus did not come to the world for the New World Order Peace Treaty, but to give us the eternal peace and live eternally with Him. Now, Satan is planning to develop a Peace Treaty with Israel through New World Order, One World Currency, and One World Government (see Revelation), but his treaty will last only for a season (the first half of 7-Year Tribulation).
But you and I can have a peace—peace that Jesus gives to each of us. Jesus said, in John 14:27a, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” The world peace doesn’t give us rest that what Jesus would like give to each of us. Matthew 11:28-30 say, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Are you a handicapped person, but wonder about when God would heal you? Or are you in a spiritual disabled situation where you cannot find the absolute truth in God?
God can heal you physically or not, but He can use your physical situation into wonderful and useful tool for His purpose. Although I am physically disabled man, God is still using me as a witness tool for His plan. But it is up to us to set free from the spiritual darkness and go into the light of the truth.
Even though we may let our children to watch Henry Potter Movie, we would do not know that we are still in spiritual darkness—witchcraft. In the next message, I’d like to talk on how we know the truth is real or deception.
Let me ask you this: Do you like to know Jesus Christ today and worship Him? This is not a political question or from our President. We would not hear this question from White House, because it’s for you alone and a chance to have relationship with our eternal President Jesus Christ.
Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)
If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, "That if you confess with your mouth, `Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
