Good Morning All,
Have you ever watched the news when they
show relief work done in a region where people are starving? The people all look gaunt, even emaciated;
each holding out a cup. Into that cup is
poured some type of porridge that is usually high in protein and
carbohydrates. Yet the one thing that
you see is that everyone just waits, with their cup held out. When you look at them, you can’t tell if one
is a rich man and the next is a poor man.
You can’t tell if the woman is a mother, a widow, or a princess. They all stand in line, no sense of rank or
entitlement, just waiting for their meager ration. It is never a lot, only enough for the day.
In our verse, we read about one of the more
pitiful people in the Bible. We have a
blind beggar named Bartimaeus. Imagine
his living condition. He would sit
beside the road, probably dressed in rags, probably dirty from the dust of the
road. He was probably hassled by the
thugs and bullies who saw him as a good target.
Some of the kids would have made fun of him because he was blind. The Pharisees blamed him for his circumstance
and offered no compassion. What a
sorrowful life this was.
You and I are Bartimaeus. We are the pitiful, blind beggar and it
doesn’t matter if you go to church every Sunday and sit up front or if you
don’t remember the last time, you saw the inside of a church; you are a
beggar. We have no other way to view
it. We are completely at the mercy of
God and his love. The world and the
devil love to taunt us, to bully us and to even look down upon us; for we are
beggars. We can only stand before God
and ask for help. Our only hope is from
God, without his love we are pitiful, blind beggars.
The wonder of God’s love is that he has
compassion on us. We are not anything
special; we are just us. How often do
you sit and think, “if only people knew what I am really like?” Do you feel the devil knocking you down with
that? How often do you think, “If God
really knows me; I don’t have a chance.”
Do you feel the dirt and the grime from the road? Jesus died for you and me and we stand in
line together, holding out the cup, looking for a day’s ration. That is all we need; one day of God’s
grace. It will get us through until
tomorrow when we will get one more day’s ration of grace.
That is really all we need, one day’s
ration of grace. One simple fill up and
we can face the day’s struggle. The
devil and the world will still bully us, situations may leave us feeling dirty
but God gives us that day’s ration of grace.
We are all beggars before God; but thanks be to God that he has
compassion on us!
Gracious Father, we are humble before you. We have nothing and we have no way to ever
get anything. All we can do is beg of
you. We beg for your forgiveness, we beg
for your mercy, we beg for your grace and you supply it. We give you thanks!! In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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