Faith & Touch

One of the prevailing themes of both our morning and evening messages in Romans and Hebrews is faith. Back in the Old Testament, ceremonial laws prohibited any person with incurable diseases to touch another and defile them. In the New Testament, Jesus turned those laws upside down by fulfilling them.

One day, Jesus was walking with a multitude when a woman joined the crowd. She had endured a lot of suffering from physicians who ministered all sorts of treatments, but nothing worked. Her situation got worse over time. She was weakened in body and soul, but someone told her about Jesus’ miracles.  When she heard Jesus was passing by, she hid within the multitude, hoping to get close enough to touch the hem of his garment.

Dragging her feeble body close to Christ, she reached out and touched Jesus and was instantly healed! She was not there to draw attention to herself, so she used her newfound strength to slip away quietly, unnoticed. Then she heard a voice, “Who touched my clothes?” Jesus asked. Unable to hide, and not wanting to any longer, she went forward and confessed the miracle of faith Christ had performed. Jesus had made her physically and spiritually whole! 

When Carole and I stepped out in faith last September and decided to spend almost $8,000 to go on a nine-day mission trip to Cuba in October with Jubal Ministries, we had no idea how we would pay for the endeavor. With the touch of many financial gifts from many of our First Baptist friends, we are now just a few hundred dollars from completely paying for the mission trip.

Faith and touch come together when you believe and reach out in prayer to God, asking Him to do for you what you cannot do on your own. Trust and believe the Lord for that need that seems impossible to meet.

Your servant in Christ, Phillip