644 Take Heart, Your Sins Are Forgiven, A Guided Christian Meditation on Matthew 9:1-4 with the Recenter With Christ app The purpose of this podcast is to help you find more peace in your life and connect with the true source of peace, Jesus Christ.  Outline: Relaxation, Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation and Visualization. Get into a place where you can sit comfortably and uninterrupted for about 20 minutes.You should hopefully not be driving or anything tensing or unrelaxing.  If you feel comfortable to do so, I invite you to close your eyes.   Guided Relaxation / Guided Meditation: Breathe and direct your thoughts to connecting with God. Let your stomach be a balloon inflate,  deflate. Scripture for Meditation Matthew 9 NIV 1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? NRSVA 1 And after getting into a boat he crossed the water and came to his own town. Jesus Heals a Paralytic 2 And just then some people were carrying a paralysed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’ 3 Then some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ 4 But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? Meditation on Scripture: This scripture tells of the account of Jesus healing a man. In another one of the Gospels this man was lowered from the roof. As the people looked on wondering what Jesus was to do he did not heal the man right away. Jesus forgave his sins. This is interesting as it was not what Jesus always did. In this case he chose to forgive the man first. In time he did both but, which one is more meaningful? Which one makes a bigger difference eternally? 

If you were a paralytic and you could only choose one, which one would you choose?  The teachers of the law, challenged him. According to the Law of Moses this was problematic. Only God could forgive sins. They did not understand who Jesus was? We have the benefit of the written word, the telling of the Gospel story and a long tradition of understanding. Imagine if someone were to tell you that they could forgive your sins and it wasn’t Jesus. You would not believe them. That is what these lawyers thought. They didn’t understand the gospel. They were looking at things from the wrong perspective. Jesus condemned their hearts. He knew them. He knew why they struggled. They chose not to believe. The healing was not enough to even more them in the right direction. What is easier to do, to say a phrase or to heal someone? It would be easier to say those words even if they didn’. Fortunately for us we are not forced to wonder and grope for forgiveness. We don’t need to hope that someone lowers us down a roof and be forgiven face to face. We may or may not receive the healing that we seek but we certainly can receive forgiveness if we ask it from Jesus. Meditation of Prayer: Pray as directed by the Spirit. Dedicate these moments to the patient waiting, when you feel ready ask God for understanding you desire from Him. Meditation of God and His Glory / Hesychasm: I invite you to sit in silence feeling patient for your own faults and trials. Summarize what insights you have gained during this meditation and meditate and visualize positive change in your life: This is a listener funded podcast at patreon.com/christianmeditationpodcast Final Question: If you consider the invitation and command to persevere in the faith, what change in your life does that bring to your mind? FIND ME ON: Download my free app: Recenter with Christ Website - ChristianMeditationPodcast.com Voicemail - (602) 888-3795 Email: [email protected] Apple Podcasts - Christian Meditation Podcast Facebook.com/christianmeditationpodcast Youtube.com/christianmeditaitonpodcast Twitter - @ChristianMedPod