Freedom's Cost-His Word Wednesday

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.  Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"--John 5:2-6

Are you sick?  Alcoholism, shopaholic, addicted to drugs, pornography, gambling, just plain mean, do any of these things apply to you?  Jesus is standing beside you asking the same question he asked thousands of years ago, "Do you want to be made well?"  There is only one way to freedom and that is through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  He is the Great Physician, the Healer, the Addiction Breaker.  Jesus is a perfect gentleman.  He will not force you to accept His saving grace, His free gift, His loving sacrifice even though you are the reason He was tortured, beaten, bruised, and hung on a cross.  You are the reason He didn't call on the angels to take Him off the cross or stop the beatings.  You are the reason the infinite, omniscient God of the universe, stepped out of heaven, and wrapped Himself in skin.  You are the precious one that He died on the cross for.  When God the Father turned His back on Jesus Christ the Son, it was YOUR face that kept Him on the cross!  He died reaching out to you so you would have a way, one way, the way to have eternal life with Him.  He WANTS you to be in heaven with Him for all eternity!  He doesn't want anyone to go to hell.  Hell wasn't created for you and I, it was created for the angels who rebelled against God and said in their hearts "I will be like God."
Alcoholism, addiction to anything is just the human way of attempting to fill the God shaped hole in your soul.  Your heart, soul is longing for reunion to it's Maker, it's Creator!  Your soul hears the whisper of His voice and is clamoring inside you to be united with Him.  That is the emptiness you are attempting to fill with whatever you are involved in.  That is the silence that scares you when all the electronics are turned off and all you can hear is the beating of your heart and your breath.  He tells us, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."--Revelation 3:20  If you open your heart to Him, He will fill the emptiness!  He will fill the silence with His love for you.  You will not need the applause or approval of man (this was my 'sickness').  He will give you the strength to break that addiction, whatever it is!

The question is: "Do you want to be made well?"  If so then turn to Him today, confess your 'illness' and ask for His help in breaking free from it.  You don't have to stay in the gutter where you are, you can have freedom through Jesus Christ!  Will you accept the free gift of freedom that He paid for?

Standing on His Promises, Mrs. Bubba