{"id":7217,"date":"2015-12-21T00:05:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T08:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7217"},"modified":"2015-12-20T23:08:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T07:08:53","slug":"mercy-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/12\/21\/mercy-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, \u201cMercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!\u201d When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, \u201cDo you really believe I can do this?\u201d They said, \u201cWhy, yes, Master!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe touched their eyes and said, \u201cBecome what you believe.\u201d It happened. They saw. Then Jesus became very stern. \u201cDon\u2019t let a soul know how this happened.\u201d But they were hardly out the door before they started blabbing it to everyone they met.<\/p>\n

\tRight after that, as the blind men were leaving, a man who had been struck speechless by an evil spirit was brought to Jesus. As soon as Jesus threw the evil tormenting spirit out, the man talked away just as if he\u2019d been talking all his life. The people were up on their feet applauding: \u201cThere\u2019s never been anything like this in Israel!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Pharisees were left sputtering, \u201cHocus-pocus. It\u2019s nothing but hocus-pocus. He\u2019s probably made a pact with the Devil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThen Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. \u201cWhat a huge harvest!\u201d he said to his disciples. \u201cHow few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!\u201d (Matthew 9:27-38)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tWhen in Rome, do as the Romans do. One size does not fit all. Jesus adapted how he worked with people according to their individual needs. When the two blind men asked Jesus for mercy, he questioned them about their faith. With their affirmation of faith, he healed them. Then he ordered them to keep silent.<\/p>\n

\tWhen Jesus saw a man who was unable to speak, he simply healed him. Those who witnessed the act were astonished. Jesus did not tell the formerly speechless man to keep silent, nor did he demand silence of the audience who witnessed it.<\/p>\n

\tThere is not a cookie-cutter approach to human relationships, nor to our relationship with God. Relationships between persons are dynamic and changing. Not only does each individual need to be approached in a unique way, even how to handle the same individual will change depending on circumstances and the passage of time. Jesus listened, he watched, and he acted as was necessary in unique ways with each person. The only thing that didn\u2019t change was Jesus\u2019 love and concern for those he met.<\/p>\n

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As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, \u201cMercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!\u201d When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, \u201cDo you really believe … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7217"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7219,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7217\/revisions\/7219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}