Evangelism From the Story of the Paralytic

 This morning in our devotional time at Thai Country Trim we are going through a series of Bible stories.  We have split into teams of 2 and each team prepares to tell the story we have assigned and then together we look for the truth's that we find there.  Today's story was the paralytic man of whom four strangers brought to Jesus for healing. 

  As a child I remember this story being told as, the four friends bringing the paralytic to Jesus.   Actually the bible doesn't say they were friends, or that they even knew the man they were bringing to Jesus.  They just new the power of Jesus to heal.  As we discussed this today, we discovered something we had not seen before.  These four men potentially brought this paralyzed man they did not know, to Jesus holding nothing back.  Can't get in the door?  Let's cut a hole in the roof of a house we do not own and lower him over the crowd so Jesus can heal him.  What?  How many of us would be so brave?  If we know the power of Jesus to save, we should bring people to Jesus with no fear.  Lay His plan out before them, with no fear.  Go to places we do not know with no fear.  Below are the thoughts of my national  partners in ministry after thinking through the truth's coming out of this story.

  "It's easy to help family and friends when they are down and out, not so easy when its someone you don't know or someone who doesn't smell so good."

  "The four men taking care of this invalid makes me think of how this should be a model of how we should do evangelism.  Work together to take people to Jesus"

  "They had to know and have a lot of faith that Jesus could heal him or they would have never taken such a risk."

  "They must have been very brave to go up on a strangers roof and cut a hole in it.  Are we confident in our faith that we would take such risks to bring someone to Jesus?"