…she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment… I shall get well.”
(Matthew 9)
E.T.'s finger always scared me.
The first night, after watching E.T. the Extraterrestrial on the big screen, I could not sleep! I kept waiting for his creepy, illuminated finger to suddenly wrap itself around the top of my bunkbed. Eventually I gathered enough courage to climb down and escape to the safety of my parents room, where I was eventually joined by my other three brothers. Alas, we were safe from E.T.!
My parents, particularly my father, were baffled by this... E.T. didn’t hurt people! On the contrary, his creepy finger had the power to actually heal people! With a single touch, coupled with a swelling soundtrack and the magic of Hollywood, wounded flesh became new. Though it made for a great piece of film, this part of the story was not original.
Think back two thousand years ago. Matthew records that when people began to recognize Jesus, “they brought to Him all who were sick; and they began to entreat Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak… and as many as touched it were healed.”
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he would touch and be touched by people. And in His touch, mankind found hope, healing, love.
As Christians in the 21st Century we still embrace the power of Jesus’ touch. Though you may not possess the power to heal a broken bone or a cut finger, you have been given the power to heal the heart. As God continues to work through you, the ability you have to love another person is fundamental to the Kingdom. The question is, will you choose to use it?
Challenge #20: Touch people. Literally. Shake hands, give hugs, slap backs, rub shoulders. There is power in human touch. Love is delivered in a multitude of ways, but perhaps the simplest, most authentic message of love is through touch. Love as many people today as you can through your touch.
Love is difficult on so many levels. During your final 10 days to the Cross, I encourage you to begin thinking of how you love, why you love, and who you love. Pray in your Corner and ask God to prepare you for these final challenges.
Wednesday’s Challenge #21: IGNITE
(Matthew 9)
E.T.'s finger always scared me.
The first night, after watching E.T. the Extraterrestrial on the big screen, I could not sleep! I kept waiting for his creepy, illuminated finger to suddenly wrap itself around the top of my bunkbed. Eventually I gathered enough courage to climb down and escape to the safety of my parents room, where I was eventually joined by my other three brothers. Alas, we were safe from E.T.!
My parents, particularly my father, were baffled by this... E.T. didn’t hurt people! On the contrary, his creepy finger had the power to actually heal people! With a single touch, coupled with a swelling soundtrack and the magic of Hollywood, wounded flesh became new. Though it made for a great piece of film, this part of the story was not original.
Think back two thousand years ago. Matthew records that when people began to recognize Jesus, “they brought to Him all who were sick; and they began to entreat Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak… and as many as touched it were healed.”
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he would touch and be touched by people. And in His touch, mankind found hope, healing, love.
As Christians in the 21st Century we still embrace the power of Jesus’ touch. Though you may not possess the power to heal a broken bone or a cut finger, you have been given the power to heal the heart. As God continues to work through you, the ability you have to love another person is fundamental to the Kingdom. The question is, will you choose to use it?
Challenge #20: Touch people. Literally. Shake hands, give hugs, slap backs, rub shoulders. There is power in human touch. Love is delivered in a multitude of ways, but perhaps the simplest, most authentic message of love is through touch. Love as many people today as you can through your touch.
Love is difficult on so many levels. During your final 10 days to the Cross, I encourage you to begin thinking of how you love, why you love, and who you love. Pray in your Corner and ask God to prepare you for these final challenges.
Wednesday’s Challenge #21: IGNITE
What's funny about these challenges is, the ones that seem so easy are the hardest for me. I am not a touchy feely person. I don't like it, I don't like having my personal bubble invaded. That is mine! But today I am with my nieces and it should be easy... Today. Well kind of. My oldest niece is one of those kids that shows you love by walking up to you in the two year old fashion with puppy dog face in tow and then just hangs on you. I mean you have to support half her body weight. It makes my skin crawl. But today I will let her do it
ReplyDeletecool ill do it
ReplyDeletei'll do it, but i can't today. this is the day where i see no one but my family. i can do it tomorrow at church, or on thursday at school! i will do it though.
ReplyDeleteprobably thursday. cause i already show my love to the church people a LOT.
i'll do this tomarrow. at school. you should post these things earlier, please.
ReplyDeletei love these challenges! it makes me sad that there are only ten left. and this challenege was fun today i hugged most of my football team, and of course all the girls im close too. i even hugged my principal! hahahaha
ReplyDeleteHuh? What am I supposed to take away from this statement?!?
ReplyDeletelauren michele said...
i'll do it, but i can't today. this is the day where i see no one but my family.
I hugged and gave a high five to many people.
ReplyDelete(leslie)
ReplyDeletei understand lauren's statement. it's not that you don't want to love the people at home, but you want a chance to love as many people as possible. me too. and i was already home for the day when i read this. SO tomorrow's my day.
yeahhhleslie :))
ReplyDeleteDylon
ReplyDeleteHigh fives and hand shakes are my speciality. I only need to work on hugs.
did you know that a person needs 7 hugs a day? well, i gave way more than that today. plus i high-fived other people. that challenge was fun. :)
ReplyDeleteI did it, this was a good challenge(:
ReplyDelete-hannah martin
DUH, so easy for me... I do this every day, without even thinking to do it on purpose. But tomorrow, how should I make a difference for God through my touches? The real challenge will be to draw the focus of the world and put it where it really should be, on God!
ReplyDeleteMe too, Sammy. I hug everyone! But how to translate that touch into an invitation to Jesus' love? That's a bit more difficult.
ReplyDeletei'm going to do this today (Wednesday) because i saw close to no one today.
ReplyDeleteI love this. I love hugging and touching and just being near people. A lot. Almost too much. But that's ok:)
ReplyDeleteAs usual I'm behind in reading these challenges. Of course I will do this. Touching is so important. I tell my boys that they are never too old to hug us (parents). There have been times when they were mad at me (us) and they don't want to be touched and may even pull away. That is a horrible feeling but I know it's only temporary. When we've worked through it, they are back giving hugs. I wonder if God feels the same when we pull away from Him? I think He does and He feels so happy when we return to Him.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
ReplyDeletei enjoy the challenge and i hug some of my friends
Faith
easy. :P
ReplyDeleteat my school, it's hard not to touch people. we're a very touchy school. i hugged people, held hands...i actually love holding hands i hold hads with pratically everyone, so i did that a lot today. i think i might be a little too touchy, but today was a great day!
ReplyDeleteI dont think fist bumps count. I do that a lot. haha.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah (im sure some jokes will come from this), everyday at baseball we circle up before and at the end of practices/games either standing or on a knee and put our arms around the guys next to us and pray.
And then theres the simultaneous half-handshake half-hug...ive found myself doin that number with coaches and teammates.
Well, I love to hug everyone. I do it everyday. Especially when I work with my kids at school. Sometimes kids gross me out just a bit, but I still let them hang all over me. Sometimes they just need it. Awww.
ReplyDeleteToday at church and the spring retreat i gave all the hugs i coulld
ReplyDeleteBlake
i had fun doing this one, and i still am doing it. i loved giving all the random hugs i could.
ReplyDeleteLike I said earlier, I went to New York recently and met many new people. When I got off the bus, even though I still don't know all of them very well, I gave a lot of people a good bye hug...and when I got back to school today, I hugged a lot of people too.....or should I say they attacked me because they missed me. Whatever. I hugged them back, because I missed them too!
ReplyDelete