Tag: Jesus

Crippled made straight

July 19, 2022

Luke 13:10-17 tells the story of a crippled woman who was healed by Jesus. There are many points of interest in this portion of scripture that bear looking at. The first is that it happened on Saturday. This was the Jewish Sabbath day. All you were supposed to do was go to church and hang close to your home.

The original Levitical reference says to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Holy means separate. You have six days to work. The seventh is a day of rest and renewal. Jesus was in the synagogue teaching when he saw a woman that was crippled so badly, that she could not stand up straight. She had been this way for eighteen years.

He calls her to come to Him. He simply touches her and says that she is cured of her illness. She stands up straight and walks home as any normal person would. No sit-ups, pushups, or ropes were not used, and no elaborate ceremony. She was bent over, and she straightened up. Nothing wrong with that.

The leader of the synagogue did not agree. He vocalized his distress at these proceedings. My guess is Jesus would not be invited back next Saturday. His words were to come Sunday to Friday to be healed. Who would spend their time healing folks on the day of worship?

Have you seen a preacher get upset because someone came into their church and did something good? I hope you have not. I witnessed a local minister berating a waitress on a Sunday because she was working. The work she was doing was serving his family. I was the dishwasher and busboy. I was also beginning ministerial school in a couple of months.

When I returned to my station behind the kitchen, she was there and very upset. I told her that I knew the man and did not think much of him as a preacher or a man. She recovered herself and returned to the floor to continue taking care of the customers.

A few months later I received an invitation to speak at this Pastor’s church. I preached on this passage of scripture. I emphasized Jesus’ response to the synagogue leader. Jesus called him a hypocrite. How can a minister that works more on Sunday tell others that their jobs should not be done on that day? I did not mention the scene I had witnessed. The pastor and his family were gone that Sunday. I don’t know if he was told about my message. I was not asked to return for a second time. Probably just a coincidence.

Let’s pursue that word hypocrite a little more. It is a transliteration of a Greek word. The word means an actor. A synonym is thespian. It is also defined as a fraud, fake, or deceiver. The modern definition is someone who does not practice what they preach.

The question should be, “Am I a hypocrite?” Yes, I am. I attend a church that is a hospital for hypocrites. The seats are full of them and so is the pulpit. The difference is that we are trying to be healed of that affliction. Unlike the Synagogue leader in this story who was offended by the words of our Lord. His words should inspire and energize us.

©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger

Written in Red introduction.

August 1, 2021

I was drug through the Bible as a young child beginning shortly after my birth. I may have been a week old when I went to church for the first time. I do not believe that first church had a nursery, so I was in the service with everyone else. I was colicky and my mother had to be walking me outside to allow the pastor to be heard.

My first recollection of studying the word of the Lord was in the children’s department of Immanuel Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri. It was a few blocks down the street from our home. It was still more of a pushing operation. My parents and the teachers stayed behind me directing me to drink. I wasn’t very thirsty. At age eleven I came to know the Lord as my personal savior.

These studies are called Bible Trekking because my voyage through it on my own began while I was in college. I was still attending Immanuel and was attempting to find God’s direction for my life. My travels began in earnest in 1974 when I accepted my savior’s call to the ministry of the gospel.

My entry into journalism school was scrapped and I transferred to Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Missouri to study the Bible on a serious level. My professors reminded me of what I had heard for years as a child. They also opened my eyes to who they thought Jesus and God were. That was where the trek began.

The term Christian or Christianity has thousands of definitions that are held by those who claim to be followers of Christ and those who reject Him. Just who was He and who can we believe?

How can we learn what Christianity is about? Have you tried just reading the words that Jesus spoke? I began this study a few years ago and have decided to finish it while sharing it with you. I began by using a harmony of the gospels to flow through all four stories of the Lord in chronological order. I have decided that it would be more productive to follow His words through categories.

The time we must cover is just thirty-five years or so. We will look at the stories He told, the miracles that were performed, who Jehovah is, who Jesus claimed to be, the new covenant that God was giving to the world, and the new teachings that seemed completely foreign from Judaism.

As we read these words, what version of the Bible should we use. It doesn’t matter. I will be using both the King James Version and Young’s Literal Translation. At times the Quotations will not show either KJV or YLT. The notation will be BTV which stands for the Bible Trekking Version. This is not an official translation. It simply means that I want to use the words that I think explain it to us.

Let’s begin with the stories that are called parables. A parable usually has only one aspect that relates to the teaching Jesus wants us to learn. Some of these teachings are in more than one of the four gospels. We will discuss the different words each witness recalls Him using and if the different witnesses cause any problems with interpretation.

©Copyright 2021 by Charles Kensinger