{"id":24252,"date":"2015-02-05T00:20:50","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T05:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=24252"},"modified":"2015-02-04T23:15:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T04:15:24","slug":"extended-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/02\/05\/extended-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Extended Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13840\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\" alt=\"SeekingHimLogo\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg 560w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\"> When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">&#8220;Son, your sins are forgiven.&#8221; <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #008080;\">Mark 2:3-5<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When I read this passage, I had to stop and read it again. \u00a0A couple of things stood out to me in this passage:<\/p>\n<p>1. \u00a0These men that were helping the paralytic were not referred to as his friends.<br \/>\n2. \u00a0Jesus helped the paralytic based on the men&#8217;s faith.<\/p>\n<p>This passage, even in the other Gospels, is kind of vague. It leaves a lot to question&#8230;for instance,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who were these men that had so much faith in Jesus that they were willing to climb onto a roof, dig through it, and lower a man down&#8230;when they may or may not have been his friend?<\/li>\n<li>Why did they care so much?<\/li>\n<li>Did the paralytic have faith?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This passage doesn&#8217;t say.\u00a0\u00a0This passage actually focuses heavily on the men who brought the paralytic. \u00a0Regardless of the answers to these questions one thing remains a fact\u2014Jesus healed the paralytic because of the four men&#8217;s faith. \u00a0I&#8217;ve read over this passage before, and I clearly remember being under the impression that the man asked to be taken to Jesus and he was healed because he believed. \u00a0But upon re-reading this passage, I am very baffled by the fact that Jesus healed the man because of the other men&#8217;s faith.<\/p>\n<p>This passage is proof that believers are essential to non-believers&#8217; lives. \u00a0We are not meant to be sectioned off. \u00a0We are not to be put on a pedestal. \u00a0We are not better than non-believers. \u00a0We are guides, helpers, and intercessors. \u00a0Not only can our faith be of use to the non-believer, but believers can help other believers, too. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Our faith is not just <em>our<\/em> faith<\/span><\/strong>. Our faith can extend to the lives around us. \u00a0And sometimes that&#8217;s what we need. \u00a0We need others to believe for us and with us. \u00a0This is why fellowship is important.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Faith\u2014<em>your faith<\/em>\u2014is for more than just you. <\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">Share it. Use it. It has great power.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008080;\"> * \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0\u271e \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0* <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lord, help us to understand that our faith can reach further than just our own lives and the lives of those immediately around us. \u00a0Show us that our faith is potentially useful to all those that we encounter. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3146,3367,8372,365,1287,425,8289,8334,8371,3174],"class_list":["post-24252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-extended-faith","tag-faith","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-words-on-faith","tag-mark-23-5","tag-our-faith-effects-non-believers","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6ja","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24252"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24254,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24252\/revisions\/24254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}