From July 25, 2015
Jesus says a remarkable thing to his disciples. (John 14:12). He says to them, greater things than I have done you shall do. He has healed the sick. He has fed the multitudes in the desert. He has driven out the evil spirit and set the captives free. He has raised the dead.<\/p>\n
Yet he says to his disciples \u201d\u201c greater things than I have done you shall do. And this prophecy has come true. Think of the millions that have been helped through the ministry of Christian hospitals. People forget that hospitals are a Christian invention. Millions also have been helped and healed by the ministry of Christian prayer often working hand in glove with the practitioners of the healing arts. Think of the millions of poor that have been fed and people of all sorts who have been liberated from addictions and depression and other oppressions of the spirit. Think of the worldwide effort to eliminate slavery \u201d\u201c heroically led by Christian disciples such as William Wilberforce and John Newton \u201d\u201c the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. Literally millions upon millions of captives have been set free.<\/p>\n
The lame walk and the blind see not only literally but figuratively. People who have been limping through life \u201d\u201c they find Christ or better Christ finds them \u201d\u201c the church enfolds them \u201d\u201c embraces them \u201d\u201c they become part of the community of the Holy Spirit \u201d\u201c of Christ\u2019s body the church where the lifeblood of his sacrificial love comes through the whole body \u201d\u201cand people who have been limping through life begin to walk and run. The prophet Isaiah says that they who wait upon the Lord will rise up as on eagle wings. They shall walk and not tire. They shall run and not faint. People who have been blind to the reality of God \u201d\u201c to the significance of eternal and holy things \u201d\u201c now see a whole dimension to life they could not see before. Their eyes are opened to see who God is, who Jesus is and to recognize the Lord in the stranger at the door.<\/p>\n
And the dead are raised by the millions, as people who are dead in their sins without the knowledge of God and without hope for this life or the life of the world to come discover new real and abundant life \u201d\u201c a new life with God and with their neighbors that begins now and which the grave cannot hold..<\/p>\n