Welcome to BibleTalk

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
The man in question was a man who had been blind from birth and who, obeying the instruction of Jesus, had been miraculously healed and given sight. He was the one who when being aggressively questioned by the Pharisees said to them, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” {Jn.9:25}

His life had been transformed, changed forever when after Jesus made mud and put it on his eyes and he went to the pool of Siloam and washed just as the Lord told him to do and he received his sight. The people who had seen him as a blind beggar before began to argue if he was really the same man or not, just as our verse today relates.

The Lord had so drastically changed that man’s life that people were not even sure it was the same man! After you were saved by the blood of the Lamb was anybody shocked by the change in you? It is not unreasonable that they would be for the simple reason that you are indeed not the same old you! Hopefully you will have read that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. {2Cor.5:17} That is far different than just changing your clothes and looking different, we became something entirely more; we became the children of God, called by His name.

A song that so blessed me when it came out about a year after I surrendered to the Lord was entitled, ‘What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life’ written by Archie Jordan. It was made popular by Ronnie Milsap, Amy Grant and B.J. Thomas. It seemed almost like a theme song for me!

I had been saved as I was sitting at my kitchen table having coffee when I picked up my wife Alice’s bible (I had never had one though raised in a Catholic family and spending 12 years in Catholic schools) and saying, “Jesus, if you are real, please show me!”

I randomly flipped the bible open, looked down and began to cry! I saw words on that page that had affected my life for years. I had been filled with pride because of my work, my house, my cars, and more—at least until I would look up into the night sky and see the moon and the stars that had been there so long before me, and would be there so long after me. It would depress me.

But now, I looked down and saw these words: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” {Ps.8:3-5} And an audible voice said to me, “Not only am I real, I know exactly what is in your heart!”

That was the end of my life as I knew it—it was the beginning of my life as He had always desired. The end of that conversation a while later was when He said to me, “You have had your life, now it is Mine!” Incidentally, that day was my birthday and now I was born again!

Everybody who knew me kept asking me what had happened. I only had one answer—Jesus! He who came to seek and to find that which was lost. {Lk.19:10} I had not reformed, I was reborn. I was blind, but now I can see! The Lord God is no respecter of persons. {Rom.2:11} What He has done for others He will do for you as that lovely hymn by Bill Gaither ‘It Is No Secret’ proclaims.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD