Research Paper

SOUTHERN BIBLE INSTITUTE
GOSPEL AND ACTS

TERM PAPER SUBMITTED TO
PROFESSOR BAHR
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE

Dealing with a Paralyzing Situation
Mark 2: 1-12

BY
SLAVOSKI WRIGHT
DUE: 17 APRIL 2014

Introduction: Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. “We can’t keep Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior. So let them go to their churches, let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT, steal their time, so they don’t have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day! Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work six to seven days a week. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work! Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still and small voice. See to it that every store in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ. Keep skinny beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what’s important, and they will become dissatisfied with their wives. Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands. Give them headaches too! If they don’t give their husbands the love they need they will begin to look elsewhere. That will fragment their families quickly! Keep them busy busy busy! Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek Power from Jesus.”
“BUSY” means: B-eing U-nder S-atan’s Y-oke
We need to understand that Satan cannot occupy a believer but he can sure have influence in the life of a believer. If we become too busy for God and we are being under Satan’s yoke, then we are eventually going to “SLIP”. (S-alvation L-osing I-ts P-urpose) Somewhere between the Cross of Christ and the Kingdom to come we remain and somewhere between the Cross of Christ and the Kingdom to come, Satan is operating and we have to always be on the lookout for his tactics. I am afraid that this type of activity has invaded the hearts and minds of believers all over the world. When it sets in it paralyzes our spiritual walk, and therefore this passage of scripture explains how to, “Deal with a Paralyzing Situation”
1. When families begin to fall apart, that’s a paralyzing situation.
2. When children are abused and neglected, that’s a paralyzing situation.
3. When addiction rules on life, that’s a paralyzing situation.
4. When Church becomes just something to do, that’s a paralyzing situation.
5. When believers fight with one another, that’s a paralyzing situation.
6. When salvation loses its purpose within the believer, that’s a paralyzing situation.

These are just a few things that stun the Church, but when it stuns the individual it stuns the Local and Universal Church. The local church being the visible regenerated believers in one location, and the Universal Church being the visible and invisible (dead from Christ) all over the world.
History:
I believe that we can learn a lesson on how to deal with the issues that paralyze our spiritual walk with God. In the gospel according to Mark, we see that Jesus healed a paralytic man. Mark records a stream of healings in the opening chapters of his gospel. Christians have often wondered, is there healing for us today? The bible clearly indicates that God can heal. Mark’s gospel is the shortest of the four and in this powerful prose, Mark tells story after story about Jesus. Many of the stories bear the mark of eyewitness testimonies. The early church believed that Mark, a close companion of Peter, reported what Peter had witnessed, and represents Peter’s testimony to the life of Christ.

Setup: Jesus had done several miracles in Capernaum and in chapter 1 verse 38, he says to the disciples, let’s go to the other cities because that is why I came, to preach the Word. Jesus preached and healed in all of Galilee and upon returning to Capernaum, the word got out that Jesus was in town. Many gathered to hear him. There was standing room only inside and outside. (Note: Capernaum means “City of Comfort”) Jesus had come to the city of comfort to preach and heal in that land. I pictured it like this, you know how it is when there is a revival in town and the preached word is going forth and the preacher is really great. People come from all over just to be a part of the service. When you are in a paralyzing situation you want to get there but the situation has you immobilized and there is no movement in you, but you want to be free of the situation, you finally after fighting with yourself, get up to go to the service only to find that there is nowhere to sit and there is only standing room in the foyer of the church. This is how it was when Jesus was preaching, and this is the situation that this man and his friends were faced with. A situation that leaves you wanting to get well and wondering what to do, such as, should you leave or press forward to get closer to Christ and develop that relationship with Him. Mark demonstrates some of the things to have to press forward.
Conclusion:
In concluding, I feel that this is truly of what Christ wants to do for us all. Christ wants to be our healer, and the one that we can call on in our time of needs. Also, remember to have and show the act of faith, just as the others did in carrying the man to Christ. They did not have to do that, but because of their belief in Christ and the love they had for the person, they acted it out and Jesus so and praised them for their actions. We should not reach out and try to do this kind act for any type of praise, but simply because it is what God has commanded us to do. Remember to stay away from the Satan followers and always stay with the like saved folk. If you are with the Satan followers, by all means be a great witness tool and try and remove them from eternal death to eternal life. Jesus wants us all to be joyous, Here Mark shows and gives a great example of “How to deal with a Paralyzing Situation”, by taking whatever it is to Christ. This world offers many paralysis types of things, but when you focus and depend on God, those things cannot develop a stronghold on you and you will be able to move forward and grow stronger in Christ each and every day.