Healing
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A Faith Strong Enough to Carry Someone Else
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”– Luke 5:20 There’s something important in this verse that’s easy to miss if we’re not paying attention. Jesus didn’t respond to the faith of the lame man. Scripture never mentions if he had any. What Jesus saw was the faith of his friends.… Continue reading
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Confession is Essential
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9 John doesn’t allow much room for pretending, does he. “If we claim… Continue reading
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What Has Jesus Done For You?
They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” – John 9:26 When the topic was about Jesus, nothing good came out of the mouths of the Pharisees. But despite their flawed, self-righteous religiosity, they were the authors of two of the most wonderfully profound questions that would… Continue reading
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An Honest Prayer
Today I learned that a young boy from our community recently underwent a biopsy procedure for what his doctor presumes to be a cancerous tumor in his lung. During that procedure something went terribly wrong, leaving him in a medically-induced coma for a number of days. Thankfully he regained consciousness yesterday and is able to… Continue reading
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Love… Endures a Lot
Love is patient and kind… – 1 Corinthians 13:4a Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:4 cut through the haze of emotions we often associate with love. He isn’t describing how love feels… he’s showing us how it acts. True love is not a fleeting sentiment, but rather a deliberate choice, always revealed through action. It’s… Continue reading
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Living Water > Stirred Water
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been… Continue reading
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Only One Came Back
Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” – Luke 17:17-19 (NLT) It’s really easy for me to spot an ungrateful attitude. My problem… Continue reading
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Do We See What He Sees?
“By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer This evening as I was reading Luke’s account of Jesus’ anointing by the sinful woman (Luke 7), God’s Word began to really challenge me to think about how… Continue reading
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What If We Looked at Our Hardships Differently?
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power… Continue reading
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Had I Been There: The One Who Returned
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” –… Continue reading
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If Jesus Had Been a Football Star…
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. – Mark 6:4-6 (NIV) When… Continue reading
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The Hope You Have
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”1 Peter 3:15 When asked to be a guest speaker at a recovery meeting, the speaker is usually given… Continue reading
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The Fruit of Kindness
While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said,… Continue reading
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Looking for the One
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is at the beginning of John chapter five, where Jesus has an encounter with a paralytic man by the pool in Bethesda. The reason I love this particular passage of Scripture is because it beautifully illustrates what the gift of grace truly is. Although he doesn’t provide… Continue reading
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Former Blind Man Owns Pharisees, Gets Excommunicated
“Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.” John 9:32-33 (NLT) There are numerous “mic-drop” moments in the Bible. But this one has to rank right up there near the top. A man… Continue reading
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Do You Have Friends Like These?
When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on… Continue reading
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Don’t Hoard Your Experience
“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”2 Corinthians 1:4 When difficult situations and circumstances come our way, our human tendency is to automatically assume that God is disciplining us for some… Continue reading
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A Daughter’s Desperate Faith
But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” ~ Luke 8:46 (NLT) We can only imagine how isolated and depressed this woman was. She had been dealing with constant menstrual bleeding for twelve years. According to the law, anyone who touched a menstruating woman immediately became ceremonially… Continue reading
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He’s Still Performing Miracles Today
Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” – Luke 17: 17-18 If you’re like me, reading Luke’s account of Jesus healing the ten… Continue reading
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What a Good Father Does
Do good to your servant according to your word, Lord. Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies,… Continue reading
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Don’t Get Stuck in Your Suffering
As [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was blind?” – John 9:1-2 One of the most difficult questions that a Christian faces when they’re talking to an unbeliever about Jesus is the question why. “Why do bad… Continue reading
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So there was this pool…
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else… Continue reading
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It Was No Ordinary Loogie
“He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on… Continue reading
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The Man Who Had Been There The Longest
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going, another steps down before me.” – John 5:7 (ESV) One day, Jesus went to the pool in Bethesda to see a man who had been crippled in one of his legs for most… Continue reading
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Remaining Faithful in the Midst of Hostility
“The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” – John 15:19 In John 15, Jesus reminds us that we are called to live in a world… Continue reading
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When All Human Hope is Exhausted
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” A life-changing moment met a team of professional athletes during Monday Night Football last night. In the crux of the moment, a player reacted the way he has… Continue reading
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Pain Management
As a sober, recovering alcoholic, I have found incredible value in going back in my life and recalling the day that my life hit bottom. I was all but dead. I had just lost my father; I had lost all but a remnant of my sanity; and I was on the verge of losing every… Continue reading
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Christmas with a Stranger
“From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. The brothers and sisters there had heard that… Continue reading
About Me
Welcome! I’m Scott (aka Former Blackout Artist), and I’m so happy you decided to drop in! I hope you find the content here spiritually enlightening and uplifting. Most of all, I hope that my love of Christ is revealed through my writing and that it encourages you in some way today. Thanks for stopping by!
Former Blackout Artist 