The emptying of our nest of 4 beautiful children has allowed us to reset our lives by living light for the sake of spreading the Light through the local gospel ministry of the Stillwater Community Chapel. (https://stillwater-chapel.org/) This blog is the musings and ministry of the Wolfgangs as we have gone wherever God leads. May we always live light and in the Light, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
The Centurion's Faith and more...Matthew 8:5-17
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Which way to go? On that day I headed to Watanga Lake. Next year I plan on continuing up the Roaring Forks trail to a couple alpine lakes over the pass. The lake was beautiful and the effort was worth it to have lunch in such a beautiful setting. It was a good choice. Here is what I think is my best picture of the lake and also another picture of Twin Peaks, a majestic mountain viewed on this trail.
In our passage we see someone, a centurion, take a different path than previously with the leper. The leper was cleansed but he did not follow Jesus' instructions to go show himself to the priest and be a witness that Someone great has come. The centurion does go at Jesus' command and heads home to find his servant healed just as Jesus said. One went one way and one went the other. We don't want to be too hard on the leper but it does show that the healings and miracles given to us in the word of God always have another truth that we are to see and learn.
The physical healings and miracles did happen and they benefited those who received them but they should point back to something we need to know about Jesus. In the leper situation, Jesus was not made unclean by serving someone who was deemed unclean. In the centurion case, the faith of the centurion rises to the top to accept Jesus' authority or His word over all other words. With Peter's mother-in-law, the focus is on her reaction to immediately start serving the One who healed her. With the demon-possessed and all who were sick who came to the door at evening, the focus is not only Jesus ability and authority but the fulfillment of Scripture of the coming Messiah. What is buried underneath that Jesus wants us to know?
Jesus statement that there will be people from the east and west sitting down together in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is huge. Also His statement that there are those of this kingdom who will not, actually they will be in outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth is embedded in this miracle. Who sits at that table in the kingdom of heaven? Those who, like the Gentile Roman centurion, accept Jesus as Lord and give Him superior authority over their lives.
One last observation is that Matthew goes back to Isaiah 53:4 to give Biblical evidence that Jesus is the Messiah because He is healing and restoring people but he only quotes the first part of the verse. "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried;" (LSB). Matthew doesn't give the second half of the verse at this time. The second half deals with how they would respond to the one who was bearing the griefs and the sorrows. It says, "Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." (LSB). As much as it was prophesied that the Messiah would heal and restore, it was also prophesied that they would say "Crucify Him" (esteemed Him stricken) "Hang Him cursed on a tree"(smitten of God) and "Scourge, mock, and spit on Him." (afflicted)
This isn't 5,000 men plus women and children as in the passage last Sunday but this is our 5,000+ for the week. It is amazing to be all around the table at once. There are now 20 of us. We have went from addition to multiplication in our family as each of our 4 children are now having their families. Our 2 year reunions have been highlights of our lives and this one was spent in Colorado. This picture featured the 20 rainbow trout the grandchildren caught at a local kids' fishing pond. Jesus is going to present 2 amazing events back to back for his disciples. In this big feed they are ready to pass off the responsibility to someone else. They tell Jesus to send the crowd away and their solution is that those people can fend for themselves. They use the word " only " and calculate what was possible with the money they may have had. The disciples were identifying and pointing at the need but they were not going to get involved ...
See the bike in the foreground? Pumped up the tires and have been making trips to town and back a couple times now. The mountain in the background is locally called Mount Baldy but officially Mount Craig. The bridge is over the canal between Shadow Mountain Lake and Grand Lake. A lot of wedding pictures are taken here. I am itching to get up into the mountains and see the roaring waterfalls and the beautiful springtime mountain flowers. Another Easter/Resurrection Service has come and gone. Covering the same material each year can be a challenge at times and especially when you are in front of some of the same people. Thankfully there are typically visitors on this special Sunday from the area and from afar. Last year I handled the whole of Matthew 28 and focused on which story we were following. Was it the pre-made cover-up story fueled by a bribe from the religious leaders to the soldiers that the disciples overtook ...
Doesn't she look like a true mountain woman eating here bison/cranberry jerky? This is a recent trip up to Lulu City on the Colorado River Trail that was only in existence for 5 years and the population of 200. Only 3 sides of one cabin remains. For awhile it was just us and the wildlife on the trail but this is the time of the year when people migrate to the park. We love family. My brother and his wife, Tom and Tammy, swung into Grand Lake for a couple of days and also shared a worship experience at SCC. This was the trek up from the Alpine Visitor Center to get our photo at the sign. Seek to keep family ties strong. Seek to restore them if they have been severed. Pull out the super glue and piece it back together. With both mom and dad gone now, my next connection to them are my siblings who carry on similar experiences of our time on Lehman Road so many years ago. We ventured into chapter 14 of Matthew this pas...
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