Commenting on Jesus taking the blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) by the hand before restoring his sight, John Gill wrote-
When the Lord Jesus takes sinners by the hand, he becomes their guide and leader. A better, and safer guide they cannot have. He brings them by a way they know not, and leads them in paths they had not known before; makes darkness light before them, and crooked things straight, and does not forsake them.
2 comments:
Reading your thoughts immediately took my mind to a young man named Tommy our team met at our Lansing ministry about 6 weeks ago. Tommy is a young man about 25 and in my limited conversations with him, I discerned he seemed most insecure of who he was in Christ. That first night, after our study he sought me out and asked if I would write him a letter. He told me he was very lonely, had no friends, and would love to get a letter from someone on the outside, someone to be his pen pal. I wrote him the next morning.
Then Sunday night one of the other men shared with the group that Tommy was approached by a couple thugs on the yard. They got him cornered and tried to bribe him to take a fall for some bad things they themselves had done. Tommy stood his ground and was a witness to Christ! They came to his cell pod later that night and beat him severely but “Jesus took him by the Hand”. The man telling this story happened, providentially, to see the “black coats” (the guards only called to go inside the walls to quell disturbances) carrying him to the infirmary and when John ran over to see what had happened. Tommy was not concerned about his own safety, all he could say in his pain was, "I pray the brothers in Christ won't think less of me. Please pray for those who did this to me." Right now Tommy is in MAX under lockdown in the infirmary and will stay there till they examine the video cameras in the yard to find out all the details. This is standard procedures for any fight.
When we heard this moving story, we all stopped and every one of us prayed for Tommy. It was indeed a God moment I will long remember!
Monday morning I sent Tommy a letter of encouragement and contacted our HFG and ask everyone to send Tommy a get well card or just a word of encouragement. This would bring great healing and peace, knowing others care and are praying for this hurting young man.
Pastor Tony, when I read your “Jesus Takes you by the Hand” , I know reading your thought would be encourage Tommy. Please readers, pray for Tommy. I will mail your blog thoughts to Tommy today.
What I like about expository preaching is that each verse gets considered. This one would be so easy to miss, but you made us look at it. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village to heal him. It says so much about Jesus' compassion toward us.
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