Third
Sunday in Lent
John 4:5-42
Illustrations
When I took a CPE class the chaplain at the hospital told this story
about a pastor who preached doom and gloom to patiences tried to
convince them that their illness is a way for God to bring judgment
into their lives and if they don't repent God is going to continue to
get you.
The chaplain at Methodist told of an experience when he was called to a
room of a patient on the cancer floor. A pastor had just been there and
the nurses told the chaplain that the patient was crying and very upset.
The chaplain went into the room and he could see that the woman was
crying, sobbing with every bone of her body. The entire bed was
shaking. Chaplain Kouth asked her if she would like to talk. She told
him that some minister was in the room just moments before, and that he
had told her there must have be something in her life that was wrong,
that there was some sin in her life that she needed to be rid of
because God brought this cancer into her life to show her her need for
repentance.
The woman cried and cried because she could not believe that it was
God's will for her at the age of to have cancer of her reproductive
organs which had to be removed, so that she could never have children.
She could not believe that her sin could have been that awful that God
needed to punish her in that way.
Chaplain Kouth asked if the pastor was her pastor, and she said no, he
just came into the room not knowing what was wrong, but assuming that
all sickness, all disease, all tragedies of life were from God, imposed
this upon this woman.
Chaplain Kouth said, after he visited with the woman awhile, he went
looking for that pastor. He found him and told him, that unless he had
his own people in the hospital, he didn't want him coming around again,
and he didn't want him just randomly going into rooms and preaching his
kind of doom and gloom then he escorted him to the door.
Jesus shows in this text, that he came for all people regardless of
their circumstances to give hope and courage, not judgement and gloom.
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- _Instant Quotation Dictionary_, p. 136."'I can forgive, but I cannot
forget,' is only another way of saying, 'I will not forgive.'
Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note -- torn in two, and
burned up, so that it never can be shown against one."
- Henry Ward Beecher
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"Lost hope is the undertaker's best friend."
- Unknown
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In one of Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman's meetings a man arose to give the
following testimony: " got off at the Pennsylvania depot as a tramp,
and for one year I begged on the streets for a living. One day I
touched a man on the shoulder and said, "Mister, please give me a
dime." As soon as I saw his face I recognized my father. "father don't
you know me?" I asked. Throwing his arms around me he cried, "I have
found you, all I have is yours!" I stood there begging my father for
ten cents when for eighteen years he had been looking for me to give me
all he had.
Likewise our heavenly Father is waiting for you. Why not receive the
unsearchable riches in Christ now?
It is well for us to remember Jesus gives us all a second chance and
with that pardon, he says, "Go and sin no more."
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A young man borrowed the family car without permission, knowing he
could have it home and safely in the garage before his father found
out. He hadn't reckoned on getting rear-ended at the second
intersection he came to. No way to conceal the damage, the parked the
car and closed the garage door, then spent an evening
agonizing over how to deal with his father when he arrived home. When
his dad walked in, the young man flashed a look of terror
He told his father everything, complete with profuse apology. His
father walked with the son to the garage and looked
long and hard and silently at the damage. Then he said, "Insurance will
cover it. It wouldn't have covered the broken trust between you and me,
however. Fortunately your apology took care of that." "Can you ever
forgive me, Dad?" "I have already.
You have learned your lesson. Forget about it." A week later the son,
still guilt-driven, came to his father and said,
"Dad, in case they raise our insurance rates because of the accident,
I'm willing to earn the money to pay the difference in the premiums."
His father didn't even look up from his newspaper as he said, simply,
"What accident?"
Says the Lord, "I will remember their sin no more."
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"The voice of sin may be loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder"