Meditation: Pam Padgett
In John 9 is an account of Jesus giving sight to a man who had been blind since birth. When asked how
he could now see, the man steadfastly told what Jesus said and did. He was cast out of the synagogue as he confessed Jesus. When the man was cast out, Jesus found him, and spoke to him, revealing that He (Jesus) is the Son of God
...
John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he
had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that
talketh with thee. 38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped
him.
Reading how Jesus found the man who had been cast out for confessing
Jesus, and revealed Himself to him, reminds me of something that
happened to me several years ago ...
As I finished college I rented a room in the house of a woman I met at
the singles group of the church I attended at the time. This woman had
been married and divorced twice. When she started seeking out
another husband, I spoke with her and shared scriptures which tell us that if a
divorced woman remarries she commits adultery and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery, such as:
Matthew 5:32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall
put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to
commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced
committeth adultery.
Mark 10:12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound
by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be
dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so
that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
This woman said she didn't care what the Bible said, she knew what she
believed. I moved from her house a short time later, but within a few
months heard she was engaged to marry a man who also attended the
singles group. I knew this man and went to him, trying to stop this
adulterous marriage, and sharing scripture with him. He said he would
consider these things, but the wedding plans continued. I then learned
that the woman who was to be the maid of honor at the wedding was
someone I knew. I went and spoke with her. She agreed with the
scriptures but said that the wedding wouldn't be stopped if she spoke up
or declined to be the maid of honor, so she was going to go ahead with
this.
Shortly after I spoke to the man and maid of honor, people in the
singles group started shunning me, even moving away from me when I sat
near them at a church service. I was very puzzled by this, and cried
out to God asking what was going on? I thought I may have done something wrong, but didn't know what.
A few weeks later as I was leaving one of the church services, a woman I
didn't know very well stopped me and said she had a message from God
for me. The message was that God knew how I was being treated by those
in the singles group and that I needed to know it was because I had done
HIS will in speaking to stop this marriage.
I was so
grateful and comforted by this message. God knew what was happening and
had sent this woman to deliver His word ... revealing Himself, His view, to
me about the matter. Seeing God's great compassion toward me, I
rejoiced in God.
It strengthens me to think about how God cares about us and helps us when we face adversity as a result of doing His will.