Thousands Are Touched

This morning I was grazing in the Gospel of Matthew and came across these verses - Matthew 15:29-31 NIV:

[29] "Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. [30] Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. [31] The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel."

I just love reading verses like these, and thinking about the glorious experience of seeing Jesus heal thousands. The next verses include Jesus feeding 4000 men, not including women and children, so there were possibly as many as 10,000 people gathered together. What an awesome experience.

I am also very aware of the fact that after Jesus was crucified, that only 120 of His followers met together in the upper room, and this represents a huge decrease in the numbers who were committed to the Lord. One wonders what caused people to stop following him? I am sure that not everyone could continue to take time off from their jobs or responsibilities. In the same way, many of us are too connected, to tied in to others, unable to sustain our walk with Him with great intensity. The important thing is that 10,000(?} People personally experienced the touch of the Lord, in their own body, or through family members.

I am reminded of a couple of verses from Isaiah 35:5-6 NIV:

[5] "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. [6] Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert."

Amen! We pray for days like this once again the church, that every day, every Sunday we would see the Lord come in power, ministering to thousands and thousands.