{"id":3,"date":"2007-11-15T04:36:43","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T11:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/one-church.net\/wordpress\/?p=3"},"modified":"2007-11-15T04:36:43","modified_gmt":"2007-11-15T11:36:43","slug":"say-what-you-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/2007\/11\/15\/say-what-you-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Say What You Mean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been one of my favorite verses\/stories for the longest time.<\/p>\n<p>It has all the elements: a desperate father, and afflicted child, religious tension and a climactic ending. It\u2019s the stuff Hollywood movies are made of.<\/p>\n<p>In this father\u2019s desperation to find an answer for his son, he cries out to Jesus and says &#8220;if you can do anything&#8221; please stop standing there and show some compassion\u2026 fix my boy!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Jesus reply almost seems kind of rude (but it certainly can\u2019t be since He\u2019s the Savior and all; that would be just far too confusing to have a rude savior), as He replies, &#8220;If you can?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dad immediately sees he\u2019s made a bit of a verbal stumble and throws his lower jaw into reverse (good plan dad). It\u2019s here that one of the most profound things in Scripture is spoken:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Immediately the boy\u2019s father exclaimed, &#8220;I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!&#8221;<br \/>\n<em><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Mk 9:24). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.<\/span><\/em>It seems like a complete contradiction, a mis-statement, a theological fau-paux (for fellow rednecks out there, that\u2019s pronounced pho-paw)\u2026but, apparently it wasn\u2019t. The dad got his miracle: one demon-free child.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How does that work? I believe, help me overcome my unbelief. Let\u2019s try a few of these on for size:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have plenty of money, could you spare some change<\/li>\n<li>I love you, never talk to me again<\/li>\n<li>I couldn\u2019t eat another bite, please pass the pie (chocolate peanut butter to be specific)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Still, that\u2019s the way our God works, and honestly I am pretty juiced about it.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday we did outdoor baptisms at Salt City Splash (a water park here in town). I got to baptize 29 folks, but even cooler I got to hear all their stories be read over a pool PA (that was a first\u2026 along with girl I baptized wearing goggles).<\/p>\n<p>I heard all kinds of stuff: I was bad, but now I\u2019m good\u2026 I was really bad, now I\u2019m much better\u2026. I was bad, then I was good, then I went bad again, but now I\u2019m really good.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not making fun, they were all awesome stories, but there were a couple that really stuck with me.<\/p>\n<p>They were the ones that said I know I need to be here, but I still have so much to work on. I am saved, forgiven and changed, but it\u2019s still a battle.<\/p>\n<p>I love those stories because that\u2019s the reality of a human\u2019s spiritual condition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief may sound like a non-sensical contradiction, but it\u2019s actually a marker of holy ground.<\/p>\n<p>It is the place where the natural meets the supernatural.<\/p>\n<p>It is the passageway between desperation and hope.<\/p>\n<p>It is the hallway connecting what was and what will be.<\/p>\n<p>It is the breeding ground of miracles.<\/p>\n<p>The miraculous, God-power we all need is not reserved for the super-spiritual who have forgotten how to doubt. It is the reward of those who desperately want to believe even more than they do.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s for the one\u2019s who step out past that last stair in the staircase of faith and plant their feet firmly on the invisible ground of hope.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s for the one\u2019s who are willing to say\u2026 I believe, but I need to believe even more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been one of my favorite verses\/stories for the longest time.<\/p>\n<p>It has all the elements: a desperate father, and afflicted child, religious tension and a climactic ending. It\u2019s the stuff Hollywood movies are made of.<\/p>\n<p>In this father\u2019s desperation to find an answer for his son, he cries out to Jesus and says &#8220;if you can do anything&#8221; please stop standing there and show some compassion\u2026 fix my boy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}