Today's Passage - John 5:10-18

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english John 5:10-18   ...and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."  But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "  So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"  The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.     The Jews begin to persecute Jesus because Jesus healed on the Sabbath a sick man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  In the end, is the Sabbath more important or is healing more important? In reality, the most important purpose God established the Sabbath is so that people can receive rest in God. To merely keep the Sabbath doesn't mean that your heart is really at rest, or you are able to wait peacefully on God, or you can truly commune spiritually with the Lord.  The most important thing is that we live in Christ, and Christ lives in us. Then, no matter what we do, we are able to be in God's rest and presence, be submissive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and live every day operating under the anointing.   The important thing is experiencing God's presence, and not these laws, festivals, and external things. During that time, the Jews value the law above God's heart of compassion. And today in the church, there are many unwritten traditions and unwritten legalistic rules that often bind our hearts. They make us just focus on the laws and traditions, which conversely restrict God's work. When we hear that there is a church where people speak in tongues, we immediately get nervous. But what if maybe when they speak in tongues, their hearts are set free! Isn't this an excellent thing? Or when we pray for others, there are people who fall to the ground. We also get nervous thinking that this should not happen, but ignoring that maybe when he falls on the ground, he receives rest in his spirit!   Sometimes I ask these people who lay on the ground, being knocked down by the Holy Spirit, "how do you feel?" Many of them tell me, they experienced the presence of God and their heart and spirit received great release; they were full of tears, because they had experienced God's grace. Isn't this a very good thing? May God let us look at these things with a normal attitude and not go into extremism. The most important thing is whether our hearts are joined with God. Is the Sabbath important? Or is healing more important? Let us once again rethink this question.            Pray with Pastor Tong           Dear Lord, please release my heart and spirit from the bondage of legalism, so I can enter into your will and compassion. And may I be in you, so that my heart and spirit can be released and set free.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, Amen!