Bible League: Living His Word “If I can just touch his clothes, that will be enough to heal me.”— Mark 5:28 ERV There was a woman who had a bleeding disorder for many years. She spent all her money and tried a lot of doctors, but she did not improve. The woman heard about Jesus and decided that she would follow after Him and try to touch His clothes. She thought to herself the words of our verse for today, “If I can just touch his clothes, that will be enough to heal me.” Sure enough, as soon as she touched His coat she was healed. Sensing that power had gone out from Him, Jesus asked, “Who touched my clothes?” The woman came forward and told Jesus her story. Jesus then said, “Dear woman, you are made well because you believed. Go in peace. You will not suffer anymore” (Mark 5:25-34). Since none of the usual methods solved her problem, the woman was willing to do something different. She was willing to reach out to Jesus and to supernatural healing. She had placed her faith in doctors, but doctors had let her down. She was ready to place her faith in Jesus. After all, she had nothing left to lose. Jesus was her last hope and her only real option. You may have tried a lot of things to solve your problem as well, and none of them has worked. Like the woman, you’ve come to the point where you’re willing to try something different. You’ve also reached the end of your energy and efforts to solve your problem. Maybe without fully realizing it, you’ve come to the point where you’re willing to try something beyond the ordinary. It’s because you’ve reached that low point that you don’t care anymore what people will think. You don’t care if they will scoff. Your pride has been left far behind. All you care about now is solving your problem. You’re willing to reach out to the unusual. It’s time, therefore, to reach out to Jesus. It’s time to reach out to His supernatural power. The usual methods have failed, so it’s time for something else. As it was for the woman, your faith in Him will solve your problem. Your faith in Him will end your suffering. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingEzra 1, 2 Ezra 1 -- Cyrus Returns the Exiles, Restores the Vessels of the Temple NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Ezra 2 -- Listing of the Exiles Who Returned NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading John 19:23-42 John 19 -- The Crown of Thorns; Jesus' Crucifixion and Burial NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion “The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”Insight The four types of soil represent different responses to God's message. People respond differently because they are in different states of readiness. Some are hardened, others are shallow, others are contaminated by distracting worries, and some are receptive. Challenge How has God's Word taken root in your life? What kind of soil are you? Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "Who hath saved us." Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. They are not looked upon as persons who are in a hopeful state, and may ultimately be saved, but they are already saved. Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised, and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly saved in God's purpose; God has ordained him unto salvation, and that purpose is complete. He is saved also as to the price which has been paid for him: "It is finished" was the cry of the Saviour ere he died. The believer is also perfectly saved in his covenant head, for as he fell in Adam, so he lives in Christ. This complete salvation is accompanied by a holy calling. Those whom the Saviour saved upon the cross are in due time effectually called by the power of God the Holy Spirit unto holiness: they leave their sins; they endeavour to be like Christ; they choose holiness, not out of any compulsion, but from the stress of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice in holiness just as naturally as aforetime they delighted in sin. God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy, but he called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by his workmanship in them. The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself. Thus is brought out very sweetly the fulness of the grace of God. Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord is the author of it: and what motive but grace could move him to save the guilty? Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord works in such a manner that our righteousness is forever excluded. Such is the believer's privilege--a present salvation; such is the evidence that he is called to it--a holy life. Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.Ephesians 4:22-24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, • and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, • and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Colossians 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Romans 6:4,6,7,11-13 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. • knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; • for he who has died is freed from sin. • Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. • Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, • and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. 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