{"id":11768,"date":"2024-02-07T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=11768"},"modified":"2024-02-06T10:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T17:22:42","slug":"down-but-not-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=11768","title":{"rendered":"Down But Not Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Only by Grace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wednesday 7 February 2024<\/h1>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"288\" height=\"376\" src=\"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/07.PSThumbPIeceWrinkled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/07.PSThumbPIeceWrinkled.jpg 288w, https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/07.PSThumbPIeceWrinkled-230x300.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 85vw, 288px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Even Healing Does Not Make Us Perfect!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Psalm 118:18<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>John 5:5-9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, \u2018Do you want to be made well?\u2019 The sick man answered him, \u2018Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.\u2019 Jesus said to him, \u2018Stand up, take your mat and walk.\u2019 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Words of Grace For Today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thirty eight years is a long time to sit beside a pool hoping to be the lucky one to make it into the water after it bubbled with healing power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So Jesus heals him, despite there being a ludicrous ban on healing people on the Sabbath and it being the Sabbath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What other rules do we put in place to keep good things from happening, just so that we can pretend to be in control, and thus pretending get other people to allow us to control them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is it about so many people who are so afraid of life, that they are eager to throw away all freewill to follow a dictator (no matter how cruel and evil) who will tell us exactly what to do and when to do it, even when it is obviously evil that we will do to other people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is it about us all that we like to put other people down in order to feel like we are better than they are, when in fact our denigrating them just makes us worse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank God, we are not left on our own, but God comes to love and heal us so that we can love and heal others<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">with the weakness of God\u2019s all-powerful love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wrinkles and scars are signs that God is working on and for us, and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only by Grace Wednesday 7 February 2024 Even Healing Does Not Make Us Perfect! Psalm 118:18 The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. John 5:5-9 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=11768\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Down But Not Out?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,88,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-healing","category-love-and-hope","category-sacramental-mystic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11772,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11768\/revisions\/11772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}