"Ecce Homo"...BEHOLD THE MAN

7/31/14

Then Jesus came out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
John 19:5
KJV

Pilate had washed his hands of the whole decision about what to do with Jesus. He did not have the courage to share what he knew. He did not pay attention to his wife’s warning that he should not condemn Jesus. So he washed his hands.

·         Mary saw her newborn baby and marveled that he was the Son of God.

·         The learned men in the temple saw a twelve year old boy who was wise beyond his years.

·         John the Baptist saw his cousin. He baptized him and said he was not worthy to loosen his sandal.

·         The devil saw Jesus as a person he could tempt in the dessert for forty days. Jesus was not tempted.

·         The angels saw Him as He really is, and they came to minister to Him in the dessert

·         Two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew saw Jesus and they recognized that He was special. When Jesus said, "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." They followed Him.

·         Many people saw Him as a teacher. They followed Him to learn how to live and how to become holy.

·         The rabbis saw Him as a threat to their power. They hated Him, feared Him, and conspired against Him.

·        

   When you look at Jesus…when you “behold the man”…who do you see?

Please spend some time thinking about whom you see, and what He means to you. Pray a prayer of praise and thanks to Jesus who brought you salvation and eternal life spent with Him.




Written by
Corinne Mustafa.

Good Morning...7/29/14

Good Morning everyone...

I am starting a new way of getting the links out to you. I will write my greeting on my personal page in Women's Focus Ministries and then put the links right here in the blog. This will make it possible to post a picture of what I am talking about in my daily blog. You can read this just as you did my email and then click on the links given to read the posts

Today I went to the Memorial Service of Patty Rose, a friend who lived in Livermore. She died from complications of an asthma attack on July 11 at the age of 65. Patty was on fire for the Lord, and was a powerhouse. Everyone she met felt the touch of her caring and encouragement. She viewed her walk as a succession of assignments she received from God. She was involved in Aglow Prison Ministries and worked in jails including San Quentin with both men and women. She also ran a monthly service called The Place where former prisoners and people who had made major changes in their lives would come and give their testimonies. The list of her talents goes on and on. 

One person at the memorial said that Patty was who she wanted to be like when she grew up. I also had that thought as I processed her passing. Today as I listened to the memorial comments I had an aha moment. I realized that I do not have the attributes that made Patty who she was. I also realized that we all have different gifts from God that we need to be wiling to share with His people. We do not need to wish to "be someone else when we grow up"...we need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in how to use our own abilities for the kingdom of God. 

There are two new posts in WFM for Tuesday. Please copy and paste the links into your browser.

The devotional is written by Storm Hendrickson.
Here is the link...

http://paintgodintoyourday.blogspot.com/2014/07/reach-for-goaltuesday.html 

The other post is on the Writing Staff page and is written by Cathy Friberg.

Here is the link..

http://fromourwritingteam.blogspot.com/2014/07/new-revelations.html  

Love and God bless

Corinne

A very edufying true story....

Father John Powell, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy:

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the day I first saw Tommy. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts; but on that day, I was unprepared and my emotions flipped. I immediately filed Tommy under "S" for strange. Very strange.

Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.

When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a cynical tone, "Do you think I'll ever find God?" I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. "No!" I said very emphatically.
"Why not," he responded, "I thought that was the product you were pushing."

I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then I called out, "Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find Him, but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!" He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line -- He will find you! At least I thought it was clever.

Later I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was duly grateful. Then a sad report came. I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me.

When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe.

"Tommy, I've thought about you so often; I hear you are sick," I blurted out. "Oh, yes. Very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks."

"Can you talk about it, Tom?" I asked.
"Sure, what would you like to know?" he replied?
"What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?
"Well, it could be worse."
"Like what?
"Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies in life.

I began to look through my mental file cabinet under "S" where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.)

"But what I really came to see you about," Tom said, "is something you said to me on the last day of class." (He remembered!) He continued, "I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No!' which surprised me. Then you said, 'But He will find you. I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time (my clever line). He thought about that a lot!) "But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, that's when I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened. Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with no success? You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And then you quit."

"Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that. I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: 'The essential sadness is to go through life without loving; but, it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them."

"So, I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him.
"Dad?"
"Yes, what?" he asked without lowering the newspaper..
"Dad, I would like to talk with you."
"Well, talk!â€
"I mean. It's really important."
The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is it?"
"Dad, I love you, I just wanted you to know that." Tom smiled at me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him. "The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. We talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me."

"It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry about one thing --- that I had waited so long."

"Here I was, just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to. Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn't come to me when I pleaded with Him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give you three days, three weeks.' Apparently God does things in His own way and at His own hour. But the important thing is that He was there. He found me! You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him."

"Tommy," I practically gasped, "I think you are saying something very

important and much more universal than you realize. To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said: 'God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.' "

"Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be half as effective as if you were to tell it.
"Oooh! I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for your class."

"Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call."

In a few days Tom called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me.
So we scheduled a date. However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision. He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.

Before he died, we talked one last time.
"I'm not going to make it to your class," he said.
"I know, Tom."
"Will you tell them for me? Will you...tell the whole world for me?"
"I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best."

So, to all of you who have been kind enough to read this simple story about God's love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven --- I told them, Tommy, as best I could.

If this story means anything to you, please pass it on to a friend or two.

It is a true story and is not enhanced for publicity purposes.

With thanks, Rev. John Powell, Professor, Loyola University, Chicago

God Bless us!