F A I T H !

Good morning all.  God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!!
   Well, yesterday was quite a mystery.  The computers would not pull up my blog or email, my wife and I were both ill, and we were 8 1/2 hours from home.  Interesting scenario to say the least.  But, we are home now, safe and sound, feeling better but not well and the computer and blog are working!  ????
   FAITH!  What is faith.  Jesus had been ministering to the Jews, healing, forgiving, preaching.  But in Luke chapter 7 you will find a centurion, a Roman officer, who is not a believer in God, and one who is in charge of many men, has a valued servant who became deathly ill.
  This man, this Roman officer, who believes not in God, but has heard of Jesus and His miracles , he sends a request via some Jewish elders to heal his servant (slave) as he believed in the healing powers of Jesus.  This man has faith, more faith than many and he knows, without a doubt, that Jesus can heal his servant.  The centurion was very humble, and stated he was not worthy of Jesus doing this for him, but asked knowing if Jesus spoke his servant would be healed.  Do you have this type of faith?
   Now, in Matthew the recapture of this says the Roman officer visited Jesus himself, however, in either case, the point is his faith.  Please understand, back in ancient times dealing with a persons messengers was the same as dealing with the person.  So all this could have been simple interpretation. Nonetheless, Jesus was asked to heal his slave.
   Now, just as the centurion could tell the men under him go and they would go; do this and they do it.  In all this saying, he believed that Jesus could say be healed and the man would be healed and Jesus did not have to go directly to the man.  This Roman officer, this centurion, truly believed in the healing powers of Jesus.  Do you have this much faith?
   Jesus' response, "I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel."
The officers faith was exceptional in the fact that he was a gentile who had not been brought up to know a loving God.  That is why Jesus made the comment.  This man had FAITH!  
   Our faith in God many times is tainted and weakened; yet we have great faith in other things.  We have faith that: the car will start, the light will come on when a switch is flipped, there will be water at the tap, gas at the station, food in the grocery, and on and on.  Yet when it comes to faith in God we tend to waiver.  WHY?
   The only thing that really matters in this whole wide world is God!  He has our retirement plan in place and He watches our every step; yet we tend not to step out in FAITH!  Many times we do as one of my daughters said to me when asked why she did not listen; her rebuttal was: 'Dad, sometimes you just have to experience it for yourself' and far too often we say this to God.  Love you all. Walk in true faith my friend.
In Christ's Love and Grace
  Johnny