Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Apr 9th, 2022 20/20 Vision – The Saturday Morning Post

Today’s Passage – 2 Samuel 4 – 7 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 17 – 18; Proverbs 9; Psalms 41 – 45)

Read the “0409 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.” (2Samuel 4:4)

Good morning. Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s son, Saul’s grandson. He was lame in his feet. It wasn’t his fault that he was lame. When he was 5 years old, his nurse picked him up to flee the city. As they were fleeing, she dropped him, and he became lame. Many people are lame in some way or another. They could be mentally, or physically lame. Did you know that 75% of adults in America use some kind of devise to correct their vision? Seventy-five percent. I guess not everyone has 20/20 vision. How do you feel about defective people? Do you look down on them? Do they upset you. My father-in-law got around okay, without legs, in his wheelchair. For the five years I was at Texas Baptist College, I took care of a great bunch of guys in Sunday School: the Sonshine Class. They were mentally challenged, but they still could learn about Jesus. Like I said before, you could be mentally or physically lame. The Sonshine Class helped me move across the street into another house. It wasn’t the smoothest move, but we all enjoyed pizza afterwards. My special verse says…

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Everyone will have tribulation in the world. This tribulation my come as a defect. I had an extra nerve string in my heart that sent it a signal to beat faster. Now I have a built in diphibulator and my beats, and also my blood pressure are normal. We can learn something through our defects, and the defects of others. There are men in the Bible who were defective.

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” (John 9:1-7)

Was it the man’s fault that he was born blind? Was it because of the sins of the parents? No. God made him that way so the works of God could be manifested in him. Everybody has something to offer, even though they may have a defect. We can still learn from them. And not just them, everybody.

Peace.