It’s friday!!!

So. Last night I got to hang out with Justin for the first time. Great guy! Looking forward to getting to know him better.

So I read something very cool today. Let me share. Forgive me for quoteing.
“The Greek word for compassion is Splanchnizomai, which won’t mean much to you unless you are in the health professions and studied “Splanchnology” in school. If so, you remember that “Splanchnology” is a study of…..the gut.
When Matthew writes that Jesus had compassion on the people, he is not saying that Jesus felt casual pity for them. No, the term is far more graphic. Matthew is saying that Jesus felt their hurt in his gut:

He felt the limp of the crippled
He felt the hurt of the diseased
He felt the lonliness of the leper
He felt the embarrassment of the sinful

And once He felt their hurts, He couldn’t help but heal their hearts.

Wow…how many times have i heard and read that verse and equated what was going on as Jesus having a casual sympathy or empathy for His people. To understand that it actually impacted Him so much that he felt sick and pain in His gut.

How stinking awesome is that?! That He cares and loves His people that much that it makes Him sick when we hurt. Holy Moly.

We are called to love as He loved.

I want to have that kind of compassion for His people. I want to look at the lost and hurt because they don’t know Him. I want to see those in need and sick and have true Splanchnizomai for them.

Thats what i’m praying for. To be a little more like Jesus today.

~ by Joshua Wood on January 30, 2009.