Clever Free Methodist

There is, hidden within the passage from Mark 7:31-37 , a powerful one-word command from Jesus.  In fact, it is the one and only word he spoke in this event of healing a deaf man who was also mute. We see what Jesus accomplished in verses 33-35 , “After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “ Ephphatha !” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.” Jesus spoke in his native language, which was Aramaic, a word that meant “be opened.” Jesus uses this word to heal a man who could not hear nor communicate. Ephphatha (ef-fah-thah). Jesus commands the man’s ears to open and his tongue to loosen. The man can now hear and speak because of Jesus! May we, too, receive the gift of Ephphatha? This gift that we can receive w...

While listening to a religious devotional program the other day, I heard two distinct phrases from the New Testament reading out of  Hebrews 10:32-39.  They are from verses 35 and 39 which state,  “so, don’t throw away your confidence,”  and  “we do not belong to those who shrink back.” The world is difficult, challenging and obviously bent to evil and selfishness. It is rather easy sometimes to become discouraged with the state of the Church, Believers, and even our own direction of life. The urge to quit, surrender or to just flat out stop trying so hard or refraining from putting forth so much effort has come to mind for consideration. This is where the  passage in Hebrews  comes to encourage us to keep the faith and stay grounded in Jesus Christ. Nothing that this world could offer us is of any worth or value in comparison to our priceless faith in Jesus Christ and spending eternity with Him. Even hardship, difficulty, disappointments, loss, and an...

One of the most challenging times in the Church calendar are the days following right after Christmas. There are just a few days until celebrating the New Year, so Christmas can quickly be pushed aside as “over” to prepare for the celebrations of December 31 st .   So, what are we supposed to do with Christmas, the decorations, and seasonal music? Well, that is easy! Keep celebrating! Also, leave those decorations alone and keep the Christmas music playing!   The reason for that is due to the fact that we still have twelve more days of Christmas following December 25th. The end of the Christmas season isn’t until the first week of the New Year in January. And, yes, we have a name for that! We call it “ Epiphany !”   This event that the Church refers to as “ Epiphany ” means “manifestation.” The reference is to God who “reveals Himself “in the flesh” through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is also a time to mark the appearance of the Three Wise Men who were one of the first to ...

  The last Lectionary reading for 2022 is very appropriate for ending the year and anticipating the new months ahead. The two passages are from John 1, and 1 John 2. They are a contrast of thoughts to me.   The main focus comes from John 1:6-9 , “A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”   May we all make the sacrifice to invest more of ourselves into our faith and relationship with Jesus to ensure we powerfully illumine His Light into the darkness of this world. We need to be like John who testified to the light so that all might believe. The world needs to hear about the redeeming love of God. The world needs to see God through us.   As believers, we cannot “just exist” and go about our lives day after day with “self” as our main objective. There are so many pe...

  We must go back into the middle of the first century (AD) to learn of St. Nicholas of Myra (modern-day Turkey). His “claim to fame” was that he was noted for his extreme generosity to the poor. In most cases, he would secretly provide for people in need. Either way, his kindness and passion for the disenfranchised earned his reputation.   Here we are, several centuries later, and with the help of Thomas Nast’s iconic painting of “Santa Claus” in 1881, with some help from the Coca-Cola bottling company, we have our “jolly fat Santa” immortalized in our imaginations today. Given all the historical evidence of the “real” Saint Nicholas and all the stories and legends of the “mythological” Santa Claus, he has to be, without a doubt, one of the most recognizable icons of the Christmas season.   Instead of thinking of Santa Claus as some blasphemous or sacrilegious replacement for the Christmas story of the baby Jesus, I honestly feel we can use the known characteristic...

  There is an obvious lesson written throughout the Scriptures when referring to God, by name. Reverence. Respect. Honor. We should handle the use of any attribute of God with the utmost sincerity and holiness. Psalm 34:3 , “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” Showing the highest degree of respect to God applies to our recognition of who He is in both word and deed. This is why, before I learned this lesson I am sharing with you, I would cringe in disgust when people would “abbreviate” the holiday “Christmas” by taking out the name of “Christ” and replacing it with a big-fat-ugly “X!” It would never fail, at some point, to get a card, letter or email with the inevitable greeting, “Merry X-Mas!”   Either way, I always thought it grossly disrespectful to “x-out” the name of “Christ” from the word “Christmas.” However, as I have become a pastor and have studied the Biblical languages, I have come to discover that there is something quite lib...

Anxiety. That word, alone, probably triggers a myriad of past experiences or even thoughts about current events and things we’re facing. The definition of anxiety is, “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.”   I find it interesting that Jesus addresses anxiety in two distinct ways to caution us from letting anxiety paralyze us into ineffectiveness or to spiritually give up. Luke 21:34 , Jesus said, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from … the anxieties of daily life….” Jesus is saying to trust in God and to keep our priorities in the right order.   Jesus connects two very different things in this passage: drowsiness and anxieties . Generally, anxiety would seem to be associated with insomnia rather than drowsiness. Cares and worries tend to keep us awake rather than lull us to sleep. We need to be very careful not to slip into drowsiness and laziness that says, “God will provide; I ...