Power in the name of Jesus! by Jerome Stewart

After the birth of Jesus and He grew older, He was on the move doing the things necessary for all mankind to become recipients of His salvation. The reason that Jesus was born into the world was because of the mercy and grace of a loving God. The words in Romans chapter 9 vs. 15 come to mind. The bible says; ‘For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy, on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

After the Apostles were given miraculous gifts Jesus said to them in Matthew 10 vs. 8; “Heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely you have received, freely give.” Before we go any further be advised, there are no Apostles today who can heal the sick, cleanse lepers, cast out devils and raise the dead. 

Acts chapter 3 vss. 1 thru 3 says; “Now Peter and John went together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain lame man from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple, who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked alms.” The lame man was hoping to receive something. He was about to receive a tremendous blessing!

Vss. 4 thru 6 says; “And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said; “Look at us.” So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” Instantly the lame man was healed, because of the goodness of the Lord, who had endowed His apostles with miraculous gifts. 

Vss. 7 thru 10 says; “And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple praising with them—walking, leaping, and, praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.  Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” 

Remember Peter said to the lame man “in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk.” Believe it to the fullest extent possible that today there is power in the name of Jesus! 

Philippians chapter 2 vss. 11 and 12 says; “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

Which begs the question? Do you know Jesus? If not you need to.

GAVEL GAMUT

By Jim Redwine

www.jamesmredwine.com

(Week of 22 December 2025)

Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scotland’s best-known poet and farmer, was ploughing his field one day when he upended a mouse’s winter nest. The poem Burns wrote in the original Scots language, “To A Mouse”, is as difficult to decipher as Peg and I found trying to comprehend conversations when we visited Scotland. Therefore, I will cite the English version that in part says to the “Little, sleek, cowering timorous beast”:

“I’m truly sorry man’s dominion

Has broken Nature’s social union,

And justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes you startle,

At me, your poor earth-born companion and fellow mortal?

….

But Mouse, you are not alone,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes of Mice and Men

Go oft awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain .…”

Then Burns turns his thoughts inward towards his own fate:

“Still you are blessed compared with me!

The present only touches you:

But Oh? I backward cast my eye,

On prospects dreary!

And forward, though I cannot see, I guess and fear.”

In other words, the mouse may have lost his present home, but it is not burdened with regrets from the past or dread of the future. Shelter alone is the mouse’s concern, but Burns is chained to past misfortunes and the possibilities of future disasters, much as each of us humans are. The mouse’s loss of a temporary home pales in comparison to mankind’s sentient reality.

Gentle Reader, you may wonder what these two conflicting perspectives have to do with anything. Of course, you may not even take note. However, to me the dilemma between the Wee Beastie’s loss of a nest and Burns’ acknowledgement that “ignorance may be bliss” came clearly into my mind when Peg said, “Jim, I smell a dead mouse in the kitchen”. Naturally, the onus was upon me to answer for the mouse’s demise and alter any more future consequences. I am married; I know the drill.

My first response was my fallback position for all domestic quandaries, I ignored it. Unfortunately, Peg was not willing to let nature deal with nature so waiting until the smell was gone was not feasible. Then I searched for a mouse corpse in the usual places, such as under the kitchen sink or near the pantry, nothing. Next, I checked around the outside of our log cabin to see if there was an odiferous source in Peg’s dried flowers, nope.

All easy solutions failed me. The dreaded, “Jim, someone (me) needs to crawl under the house to see if some animal (we have lots of them) died there and is rotting away”. Oh, the glories of flashlights, facemasks, knee pads and possible confrontations with Big Foot or perhaps an upset skunk. I donned my gear and armed myself with a large trash bag and a short-handled shovel.

After about an hour of banging my head and digging up suspect piles of damp dirt I declared a truce with Ma Nature and told Peg I thought the smell was well on its way to dissipation so we should just hang on awhile. You might already know how that resolution was received.

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