Do You Want To Be Well

There once was a man who was crippled from birth. In his hometown, there was a pool that had mystical healing powers. At certain times of the year, an angel would descend from heaven and stir the waters. Whoever was the first one to enter the waters was healed of their infirmities. Whenever the angel would descend and stir the waters, someone else would get into the pool before this man had a chance. After many times of missing his healing, the man became discouraged.
One day, this man was sitting near the pool. The time was approaching that the angel would stir the waters. Yet, there was no one around that would help the man into the pool. As he was lying there, a figure approached him and asked, “Do you want to be well?”
That question should give anyone a moment to pause and think. The man was crippled from birth and wanted to be healed. Yet, the figure asked him if he wanted to be healed. There was a reason behind the question.
The figure was Jesus. This account can be found in John 5. Because the man could not get into the pool to be healed, Jesus was willing to heal the man, if he truly wanted to be healed. Jesus knew that healing this man would cause a significant life change. The way he lived would be severely altered. Everything this man knew would be changed.
The same goes with everyone. Everyone has an infirmity in his or her life. This infirmity is sin. This infirmity has been with us so long that it has become a major part of our lives. The way we live our life is centered on our infirmity.
Jesus wants to come to you to help make you well. He wants to take away the sin that is running rampant in your life. He knows that it will cause a major life change. No longer will you do the things that you once did. No longer will you want to live the life that you have become comfortable. You will have to leave what is comfortable and known, and go into something that is unknown. Everything that you have become used to and familiar with will be no more. You will become a new creation in Christ, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV).
As a new creation, you will see changes almost immediately. Your attitude will change. Your desires will change. You will be a new person; a person that is no longer confined to the sin that held you back. Life will have a new brighter purpose. Your perspective will change away from self and into others. The sin in your life will be gone and you will be free.
Jesus is coming to you with a simple question, “Do you want to be well?” What will your answer be.

Let Freedom Ring

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” So begins the Declaration of Independence.
This Saturday is the day that we celebrate the signing of this document. As a nation, we rose up and declared that we will no longer be governed by a ruthless tyrannical ruler. A ruler that didn’t care about the people, but was interested in serving himself. The king of the land was only looking out for himself and didn’t care if those people he ruled over lived or died. As long as they did the bidding of the government, they weren’t bothered. The people soon rebelled and our nation was born.
Christians also have an Independence Day. The day we rebel against the prince of the world and turn to the One who created this world. The day that Christ reigns supreme and we are no longer a slave to sin, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” (Romans 6:17,18 NIV)
As a Christian there was a day when you stood up against the tyranny of sin and began to say, “I shall declare the causes which impels me to separate my life of sin and begin to live a life of righteousness. I will declare my independence from sin and live for the One who created me.”
As we celebrate our nations birth and freedom from a tyrannical ruler, Christians should also celebrate their Independence Day. The day you committed to Christ and turned from the tyranny of sin. The day that you allowed Christ to reign and freedom ring.