John 9:16 says, "Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, 'This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.'  But others were saying, 'How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?'  And there was a division among them."

These people were not arguing over whether or not the blind man had been healed.  That was fact and not up for discussion.  They were arguing over whether or not the one who performed the miracle had a right to do this work on the Sabbath.  They were arguing over Jesus' authority.  There are several lessons in this, among which are...

1.  Miracles don't convince everyone.  You remember the rich man and Lazarus, don't you?  The rich man wanted to send someone back from the dead to warn his brothers about this place of torment.&nbs ...

One of the main themes of John 9 is Jesus' statement in verse 5: "While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."  Immediately after He said that, He made a blind man literally see the light for the first time!  His "eyes were opened."

The Pharisees actually said of Jesus, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath" (9:16) and even "we know that this man is a sinner" (9:24).  The man who had been healed had only this simple reply: "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see" (9:25).  In other words, "All I know is what He has done for me ...

In John 9, Jesus heals a man born blind.  His disciples ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?"  Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him."  (John 9:2-3)

It's a shame, but people still think on this level.  If bad things happen to someone, many assume it's because of sin in their lives.  I think this is a pagan belief.  If things go wrong, if I have "bad luck," if I suffer some sickness or hardship, then the gods must be angry with me.  Many Christians, whether they think about it on a rational level or not, hold this belief when it comes to our own sicknesses and troubles.  Here is a test:

1.  Who is ...

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said, "Eracism."  Where did racism begin, anyway?  There have always been tensions between nations and societies and classes.  In Genesis 11, we see the people God created working hard against God's plan to populate the earth.  They decided they would build a huge tower as their home base and be a great, mighty people.  Sounds like a great idea.  Sounds like peace.  But it wasn't God's plan, and if it's not of God, it does not bring peace.  God confounded their languages and thus created many different peoples.  They all went their separate ways based upon language.

So, ultimately God is responsible for all the division we have in the world, right?  Not exactly.  He is responsible for creating different languages and different peoples, but His complete plan was not ready for fulfillment yet.  God's plan culminate ...

"You of little faith, why did you doubt?" Jesus asked Peter in Matt. 14:31.  Yeah, Peter, you are so weak.  I can't believe you took your eyes off Jesus.  I can't believe you had such little faith.  You are a disgrace to the human race.  You failed the test.

Who am I kidding?

I doubt I would have been the one to step out of the boat and start walking on a boisterous sea.  Humans are ALL weak and sinful and lack faith.  Peter probably had more faith than most, and perhaps that's why we like to criticize him so much.  It's easy to target people who are out front, in the lead, taking risks.  It's especially easy when they fail.  I have heard many Bible classes which tore Peter up for his lack of faith.

I'd like to point out that Peter, unlike so many of us, knew exactl ...

When Peter stepped out of the boat, I wonder what the other disciples were thinking.

"I can't believe he's doing it."

"Peter has such a hard head - he'll do just about anything."

"He can't walk on water.  Nobody can."

"How is he doing that? He's actually walking on the water!"

"Ah!  There he goes - he's going to drown because he's so impetuous."

"I knew he couldn't do it..."

I'm not saying the other disciples actually said or thought any of this, but I do notice that there was not one other disciple who dared step out with Peter.  People have a tendency to think the worst in every situation.  Many have a defeatist attitude.  They know by some learned instinct that ...

Again, I'm thinking about Peter stepping out of the boat and walking on the boisterous water toward Jesus.  As long as his eyes were firmly planted on the Lord, he was okay.  As long as he didn't allow himself to get distracted, he was able to do something no human being can do by his own power. 

But Peter took his eyes off Jesus.  "Seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!'" (Matt. 14:30).  Now Peter's focus was on the wind, on what the wind was doing all around him.  In envision the surrounding landscape as a dark, frothing, churning nightmare.  There was nothing steady around Peter.  There was no place on which he could place a firm step.  It was all water.  It was wild water.  It's easy to see how he might have thought, "What am I doing out here?& ...

I wonder how many people have the idea that, were they to become a Christian, they would be so limited in the things they could do.  In other words, they see faithfulness to God as the last nail in the coffin of the fun and exciting things they enjoy in life.  How limiting is a life with Christ, anyway?

If you think back to the Garden of Eden, God did limit Adam and Eve.  He said they were not allowed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Many people would look at that command and think, "I can't believe I'm NOT ALLOWED to eat of that tree!  That's such a confining rule."  That's exactly what Satan wanted Adam and Eve to think.  He wanted to think they were being boxed in, that there was so much more out there they could try and experience - but God was being mean and wouldn't let them!  Never mind the thousands of varieties of fruits all around the garden which they w ...

Hebrews 12:15-17:

 15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
 16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Remember Esau?  He disregarded his birthright, a special gift God had given him as the eldest son, for something as common as a bowl of soup.  He treated something holy as basically worthless.  It's a horrible thing to sell God's grace, isn't it?

What ...

As I was reading a book by Jim McGuiggan called The Book of Isaiah, I noticed a sentence describing the religious climate of Judah during the reign of King Manasseh (2 Kings 21).  He said, "Religion was at an all-time high and morality and spirituality were at an all-time low."  It's true.  Manasseh was involved in all kinds of religious activity.  He erected altars for Ball and Asherah.  He worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.  He built altars to the host of heaven in the house of the LORD.  He sacrificed his son by burning him with fire.  He practiced witchcraft and divination and dealt with mediums and spiritists.  All of these things you can read for yourself in 2 Kings 21:3-9.

What a horrible time!  Wouldn't it be terrible to live in a time when people worship whatever the ...