Thursday, March 26, 2009

MITN XV, Verses 21 - 28
















21. And from there, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

22. He had hardly arrived in the area when a woman, who was a Canaanite from that district, came down from the hills and made her way directly to Him. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!” she urgently cried out in a loud voice. “My daughter is miserably tormented and afflicted by an evil spirit!”

23. But Jesus didn’t answer her, and so she kept crying out to him. In fact, the longer He ignored her, the louder she got, until finally His disciples came to Him and asked Him, personally, to deal with her. They said, “Look, if you’re not going to do anything for this Canaanite, then please send her away, because she won’t shut up, and now she’s begging us to help her…and she’s really overbearing, obnoxious and out of line!”

24. But He answered them, “She’s ahead of schedule…it’s not time yet for Me to be revealed to the rest of the world, and to be accessible to people like her. Right now I am solely focused on My call to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

25. But, undaunted by this, she came and knelt before Him and worshipped Him. And she said to Him, “Lord, I don’t know anything about that…about Israel, or lost sheep, or the world, or even some ‘schedule’…I just know that you can help me now, and I need your help now! Please help me!”

26. And, finally acknowledging her, He said. “Lady, you know that the Israelites consider your people to be dogs…so because I have my hands full in dealing with them as a nation at the moment, to help you would be like taking the children's bread, and throwing it to the dogs…at least that’s true as far as they’re concerned. Now, do you think that “dogs” should take bread away from the children?”

27. But she said, “Look, right now I don’t care about what the Israelites think. I just want my daughter well. So to answer your question…I would say, yes, Lord, even the “dogs” eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”

28. Then Jesus, impressed with her fierce persistence and dogged determination, and moved by her ability to rise above offense at an insult in order to focus on getting results, answered her. He said, “O woman, your faith is great and powerful! By faith you have reached into the future, to when My Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, including the Canaanites, and you have pulled your miracle into the now…regardless of procedure…regardless of propriety…regardless of prejudice. Be it done for you just as you have declared it. And her daughter was completely cured in that instant.

24 comments:

The Dreamer said...

Believe it or not my word ver was "uspringl" It's SPRING!

I have gotten "a lot of miles" out of...even the dogs eat from the master's table - it preaches.
What it also says is that it doesn't make any difference what your background is, where you are from, or what you've been into, there is still enough to go around... what's interesting is that Jesus was not going to give this any attention until the woman insisted "I want mine!" - you just have to ASK! (what if she would have taken "no" as the answer and moved on?)
* Need help on Sunday for Rescue Atlanta. Biker's have inherited the fifth Sunday *

Northern Light said...

OH man, I want to respond to this one. I really enjoy this passage. I am caught by surprise by the time of day.........you don't stick to the midnight posts, I love the "not knowing when". My time management/dilemma is that last Sunday's DVD of CITN service just arrived in the mail.

I'm hungry to share in that gratitude message, so I will watch.........then I will revisit here.

Ah........I love this place !

Peace,
Northern Light

Anonymous said...

"...her ability to rise above offense at an insult in order to focus on getting results."

Wow. Healing is what happens when we are able to look beyond ourselves and focus on what is true.

Northern Light said...

Ah.....not the time yet. HHmmm

Okay...she, a mother, knows WHAT she wants/needs for her child. She knows WHO she believes can help, she GOES after that, despite others NAY-SAYINGand "insult". SHE HAS FAITH.......does she even call it faith, know it to be faith, she just HAS. By all that and her dogged perseverance to push through, she GETS it !

That is not a pushy woman, with ir-regard for rules,(today's standards would say) it is a woman, a man, anyone........who needs, who wants, who has faith, who believes.

I'm with her..been there....anyone else in this line ?

Peace,
Northern Light

Northern Light said...

OH WAIT>>>>>>>>>> I forgot the best part!

"HE" WAS IMPRESSED ! HE changed HIS timing.........c'mon now-how cool is THAT ?

AH, to be her that day !

Peace,
Northern Light

JR said...

Awesome Life Skills last night Bishop. I really needed that.
I've already started working on getting myself more motivated on
certain things like my tv show idea. Just felt like sharing that.

Anonymous said...

22. The Canaanite woman addressed who Jesus was.

23. Wonder why it was considered overbearing, obnoxious and out of line for a mother to want her daughter healed. If it troubled them so much, why didn't they at least form a prayer circle? (Sorry, but yuck! Disappointed, disciple dudes!)

24. "She's ahead of schedule"... it's not time yet, for Me to be revealed..." Interesting!! Remember how Jesus said something similar to His own mother, over in the book of John when she wanted Him to change the water into wine?

"Woman, what does that have to do with Me? My time hasn't come, yet." Is it the magnitude of the need that manifests the miracle?

25. "... she knelt before Him and worshipped Him"- reminds me of how God inhabits the praises of His people.

26. He addressed her as "lady". It was the Israelites who considered her people to be dogs. (would have been cool if she responded in kind, "Yeah, well, what's that got to do with me? Fix her, please!")

27. "...even the "dogs" eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table," suggests that she humbled herself anyway; did what was necessary to secure her daughter's healing & that she considered Jesus to be her master.

28. That's why my heart is filled with praise.

Larry Usher said...

In sales it is always important to persist because there are many "reasons" people do not accept your proposal at first and you cannot assume the worst-you ALWAYS assume they want what you have. That is why I appreciate this woman.
The same holds true in the sports world and many other areas of endeavor, like the baserunner stretching the single into a double or contorting themselves into any shape necessary to score around a tag even though the throw is already in the catcher's mitt.
Like Yogi says, "It's never over till it's over!"
As long as there is breath, there is life; as long as there is life, there is hope.

Will be there Dreamer!
We're there dude!

Bro Lar

JB said...

Not reading the other blog entries yet I just want to jump in and say this is without a doubt my favorite story of Jesus' interaction with non Jews in the day of His humanity.

I believe he spoke propheticly just as you have penned it Bishop. I do not for an instant think he leaned on his abilities as the Son of God here but spoke as a human in an effort to bring those of his heritage to a higher place of consciousness. The dog got His attention when she reminded Him of the crumbs. That must have rained on his humanity with a torrential blast of cool refreshing awareness of Who He was as the I Am.

We all are Jews now but in those moments when we feel like a dog it is reassuring to know that this happened.

Northern Light said...

Bishop,
This goes back a few days to the Gratitude Sunday service. I just watched the DVD,(it ends when the lists were getting passed out, but your message hit it right on). I have to say, your story about the airline attendant touching your arm and asking if you thought they were talking about "your" hair was so funny to me that not only did I laugh, I think I might have made more of a cackle. TO think.......haha

Your gift of God and Laughter is such an awesome gift....Praise God for it and for you.

Peace,
Northern Light

Northern Light said...

P.S.

I find it easy to tell people "I LOVE YOU", but find it is hard for many to receive or hear. I soooo appreciate hearing you say that it is an important thing to say and to hear.

Yes, God gives us the ability to love, it is the HE IS to me.

Peace,
NL

Unknown said...

v.21 "and from there"
v.22 "he hardly had arrived"
These provoke the remembering of what has just taken place...an example made of the Pharisees unclean lips. Then immediately, an example of faith with words that bring the future into the now. Bridges are everywhere in MITN.

v.28..."dogged determination"...that's funny, Bishop!
"you have pulled YOUR miracle...regardless of..."
Inspiring, expanded "let God out of the rules box" stuff!
I'm inspired to speak the words that will pull on MINE, woman of Canaan!

Anonymous said...

It takes a little time travel - scrolling back to fit all the pieces together. But, this is so fun, Bish! I agree, Avatar; lots of bridges in MITN.

Jesus already sketched the outline. And, after that, the actual characters manifested!

What if the Canaanite woman is the same one in MITN XIII: 33?

He also described the all-pervasive and powerful influence of the Kingdom to them using this simile: “The Kingdom of/from the heavens is like leaven, or sour dough yeast, which a woman took and covered over in three measures of meal or flour till all of it was leavened, or until all of the yeast had risen.”

In this way He described the Kingdom as something that has authority in three dimensions. (apply verse 28, here)

MITN XV might be the test review of all the previous chapters. The parables of seed, darnel, leaven and mustard.

This morning, while meditating on these verses, it occurs to me that Jesus wasn't just being conversational by interjecting that the Canaanite was a dog.

Maybe, He was measuring her leaven level! He was pleased to find mustard seed!

Maybe He expected to find fields of mustard seeds in His disciples, but discovered darnel & leaven.

What if He was reluctant to perform miracles, because His own disciples weren't "there", yet?

Northern Light said...

You'd think my teenage daughter read this post AND my response to it yesterday.

This morning she certainly was persistant and no doubt seemed obnoxious, out of line, just plain over done.

She, did however, get the result she was after. I felt a bit defeated at one point, then relieved, as it also went more my way than at the beginning...just needed a little more "time".

WOW>>>>>was that a "today" example of yesterday's reading.
I'm thanking HIM for a reminder of how I appreciate persistance when it's for a good cause.

Humbled.......

Peace,
NL

Anonymous said...

23. OK, I've got to admit, when I first read this account yesterday, it bothered me. There had to have been a reason why Jesus ignored her. I didn't think it had to do with her being a Canaaite.

So, I went back to the beginning of the chapter. Maybe this was the object lesson: ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking.

Maybe it wasn't that the disciples couldn't pray for her. Maybe it was because Jesus is the narrow gate that leads to heaven, where her treasures (healing, for instance) were laid up. She recognized the portal.

Maybe that's why the disciples really couldn't pray for her. Besides, they had been exposed to the idea of ceremonial handwashing, planted by the Pharisees.

24. This verse bothered me, too. Why would the Son of God (able to transcend time, I always thought) say this?

Now, I wonder if it's because of what was going to happen, once the miraculous increased.

Maybe it's why Jesus said to pray for more workers; the harvest was going to be spectacular.

Anonymous said...

From CD

HAPPY BEAUTIFUL, RAINY FRIDAY!!!!

I have to admit that I'm a "blackberry blurker" on Bish's blog (say that 5 times fast!) and only get a chance to read here and there what is going on there. BUT YESTERDAY'S MITN about the Canaanite woman....... OMG...... it REALLY spoke to me. No one can touch the gift Bish has for delivering revelation like that. IT LEAPT OFF THE PAGE AT ME!!!!

Please know.... I'm not good at stroking people's ego so that is certainly not my intention here .... but I just have to let him know

*- OMG!! That was soooooo good. It was the topic of conversation for me and Mark at dinner last night and we both were crying right in the middle of Stalvey's restaurant while discussing this passage and gaining strength and tenacity from this woman in the story and ........

OMG - I have chills now still thinking of and chewing on that rhema Word!!! It truly doesn't get any better than that..... SHE PULLED HER FUTURE IN TO THE NOW DESPITE BEING INSULTED!!!! She was actually downright nasty back with Jesus because she was determined to GET HER'S!!!! She did not give up and HE WAS IMPRESSED and acted on her behalf BECAUSE OF HER ACTIONS!!! Dear God.....

I have to get back to work now but I have to give honor and credit where it is due and IT IS CERTAINLY DUE HERE!!!! Please pass this along to Bish.

Makes me hungrier for the Word more than ever..... so awesome....

Anonymous said...

WOW! Thank you Bishop for such a rhema word. "She's ahead of schedule ... but by faith she reached into the future ... and pulled her miracle into the now." Lord help me to reach and pull... regardless of whatever stands between me and Christ Jesus.

Larry Usher said...

This is slightly off-topic idea but wanted to share it.

Remember when Jesus said "This kind only goes out by prayer and fasting?" (Mark 9) Was just thinking that Jesus, being a man, had to pray and fast to make certain things happen, in this case make "demons" leave. One translation has Jesus rebuking His disciples by saying "Have you no sense of God?" There does seem to be a connection between fasting and prayer and a "sense of God". There seems to be a necessity of this sense to be able to effect change.
Some of the ingredients for this sense are:
-Constant acknowledgement of God's Spirit in the now
-Meditating on the Word-ruminating
-Waiting before the Lord(not to ask for anything necessarily)
-Fasting
Perceiving the Body(and taking communion)

Just like this lady being "hungry" enough to consider the crumbs from the table as sufficient, we show God our hunger for Him by following the steps that Jesus Himself took and, at the same time, believing that God is a non-partisan rewarder of those that do.

Bro Lar

word ver: BLENTIL- You can get good B vitamins from lentils. If that word's for you-take it! ;)

Northern Light said...

Hey everyone.. or y'all,

I was just in the "prayer room", and do you know what I LOVE about that room >? You don't have to whisper, you don't have to quietly walk to your seat, you can come running excitedly in, like I just did.......and HE LOVES IT !

Come on in, I'm the only one there today. What's with that? ha

Peace,
Northern Light

Northern Light said...

Bishop,

I know you read all the posts, and I just want to say THANK YOU for opening up this house......

There's a message in my prayer room post for ya', if you haven't already read it.

You Rock........you deserve all HIS best....He is well pleased with you and P. Debye and CITN...there's no doubt in this northerner's mind !

Peace,
NL

Bishop Jim Swilley said...

Yeah, I read it...thanks!

Larry Usher said...

I love your enthusiasm N.L.!

Word ver: PEWERN- Just in case somebody dies(figuratively speaking) while sitting in church...(I know it's urn, ok?) ;)

Northern Light said...

Just wonderin...

Where's Donald ?? Haven't heard from him since the days of the "mouths"......where'd ya' go, buddy?

Peace,
Northern Light

Anonymous said...

Bishop:

Clearly, persistence is key. Thanks for sharing this word. This reminds me of the sermon (On the other side)that you preached sometime back that if you don't knock on the door with some sort of urgency then you will not be heard. A little tap will do not get results. A little inquiry will not get results. A squeaky voice will not get results especially in a crowded room.
In some situations we have to move the hands of God with our persistence. How bad do I want that position, job, child, marriage, healing, etc.

He admires our faithfulness, having a heart after Him...

Peace,
Nicola