December 8, 2025
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Reading along with us in our Lenten readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Advent 2025 – Day 8 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Popularity
Read Sections 3.1 through 3.7 (pages 32-36)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
If I had a dollar for every time I prayed out fishing. Lord I’m throwing my net to the other side of the boat. Please send fish. Nope! Remember being rafted to bunch of other boats years ago. Everyone drinking cursing etc. Prayed to the lord. Please show yourself to these friends. As I step out of the boat. Let me walk on water. Sunk faster than an anchor!!
That last comment was meant for day 7. Day 8. Satan is in the synagogue Let’s not pretend that he can’t enter churches. The power that is in the name of Jesus and the power of his Heavenly blood is no match for satan. He must leave. Jesus heals Peter’s mother in law. Interesting. She is so sick. Very high fever. And she gets up and starts serving others. Jesus also restored her strength. Jesus rebukes and refused demons to speak Jesus’ message to people is not going to come from them. Jesus gets up early in the morning to pray. How much true for us!!!! The enemy’s biggest weapon today is time. Life’s too busy for quiet time or prayer. Let’s get our priorities straight. As I told my niece today, you accept and spend time daily with God then all other things will just fall into place
Psalm 44; Jeremiah 21; The Life of Jesus 3.1-3.7
Jesus heals and casts out evil spirits and everywhere He goes more and more people come to Him to hear and be healed. I am always so impressed by the disciples willingness to drop everything and follow Him. I want to think that I would do that, especially seeing all the things He was doing, but I still am impressed with their faith and devotion to drop everything and go!
I love that Jesus Himself always takes time to pray! If ever we think prayer isn’t that important or something that we shouldn’t stop and take time to do we are reminded how often the Son himself stops to pray to the Father!
It would be amazing to be able to observe all the things that Jesus did and yet the apostles did and yes it shows a lot about their faith and about Jesus that they dropped everything to follow Him. But Jesus calls them and us to a new life that is about spiritual priorities rather than earthly ones. And yet along with that life is spiritual power and the ability to see God work through us and around us. And Jesus continues to draw crowds in different places because of what He said and did. And I was struck by Jesus being upset with the leper who says Jesus could heal him if he wanted to. SO here is someone not questioning Jesus’ power, but His willingness. So Jesus is upset because of course He is willing. And although many would think the crippled man in the next account was that way because of sin, it is still a bit strange for Jesus to say what He said. Unless of course He knew the Jewish leaders that were there would be upset by Him forgiving sin and thereby He used the situation to do both….heal the man as well as show these doubters that He could forgive sin too.
Advent 2025 – Day 7
I was also thinking about the leper saying, “if you are willing, you can heal me” and Jesus angry at the insinuation and stating He is willing. How often do we posit “If God is willing?” It struck me that we should have in our minds that He is willing. Made me think is the verses about not receiving because you do not ask, or when you ask, you ask with wrong intentions.
I was also struck by Jesus’ emphasis on forgiving sins and demonstrating His authority to forgive sin by enabling the man to get up and walk. We cannot see that our sin is forgiven, but we can know that it is by faith in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross.