Reach God
Reach Families
Reach Cultures, Communities, Countries, and Continents
Real relationships touch God. During Jesus’ earthly ministry a woman with an issue of blood sought to be healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. Because of her condition she was unclean. She understood her condition made her unholy according to law of Moses. Nevertheless, she was out of options and simply trusted that if she could just touch Jesus her condition would change.
She was right! As the woman extended her hand in the midst of a throng of people, her hand reached out and touched the hem of Jesus garment. Immediately she was healed and immediately Jesus turned around and asked, “Who touched me?” Trembling, she came before Jesus and opened up to him and told him all the truth concerning her condition and her life. Jesus is touched when we reach out to him in faith. There is not doubt that this woman’s life was forever changed.
When we endeavor to reach out to Christ for power to make us whole, it is inevitable that we will then reach families. The Philippian jailor saw something so exotic that he had to touch it. It was the Apostle Paul. While Paul had every opportunity to run from the jail after God freed him, he stayed around to allow the jailor, who was ready to kill himself, an opportunity to repent and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. That jailor was saved and so was his entire house because he was drawn to a man named Paul who had been touched and was in touch with God. Because of Paul’s relationship with the lion of the tribe of Judah, a man’s family was eternally impacted with the gospel.
Would others consider your relationship with Christ exotic? In the first century, those who trusted Christ as Lord and Savior were called Christians. They had a real relationship with a real God that produced real power in their lives and the lives they influenced. That miraculous transformation, and their subsequent adherance to Jesus Christ’s teaching, earned them the name Chrisitans or “little christ’s”. While this name was initially intended to be deroggatory, it underscores the power of God in the lives of those who serve a mighty God. Those called Christians were credited for turning the world upside down because they had a real relationship with a real God that really reached the world as they knew it in the first century. It is my prayer that your relationship with Christ is exotic enough to cause people to want to reach out and touch it. A real relationship with Jesus is eternally powerful. I encourage you to learn of him, call out to him and see if he doesn’t heal your issues and revolutionize your life.