Good morning. Jesus goes
to the west coast of Israel. A Canaanite woman comes to Him. “have mercy on me,
O Lord, son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon possessed.” Notice first of
all that she's a woman. Occasionally you will read about women coming to Jesus;
most of the time it is a man or men bring someone. Secondly, and most
importantly, she is a Gentile. Jesus did not even answer her. The disciples
asked Jesus to send her away because she was shouting out after them. She was
making a big ruckus, but Jesus was ignoring her. I was sent only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus then makes a “loving” statement to her: “It
is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Are you
feeling the love? Would He ever come under criticism from the PC police! She
could have gotten offended and pouted off somewhere; but then her daughter
would not have been delivered. “even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall
from their Master’s table.” ”Oh woman, your faith is great; be it done for you
as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. She was not an Israelite.
She had no hope of healing from a loving God. It does not even say that Jesus
performed healing in the area, and that she saw it. In the natural, there was
nothing that should give her faith that her daughter would be healed; and yet
she believed. This would be like a nonbeliever coming to an evangelist to have
her daughter healed. Sometimes Christians don't believe, while nonbelievers do
believe in getting healed. Father thank You that the reader believes that he/she
and his/her family will be healed. Meet all of their needs.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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