My Stories

 

HEALING THE LAME BEGGAR

                                                                             

            This wonderful story is found in the Bible in the Book of Acts, Chapter 3. 

 

          "Alms, alms for the poor.  Please, please give me a few pennies so I can buy some food to eat, so I can  buy some bread.  Please!  Have mercy or I won’t have any dinner tonight. Look, it's the old, lame beggar.  The man that's been coming here everyday for years.  His friends carry him and put him in front of the gate of the temple so that people on the way to the temple to pray will give him some pennies for his supper.  Do you know that he has been sitting here since he was a little boy.  When he couldn't walk or stand up on his weak ankles and his crippled gnarled legs, his mother and friends would bring him here to sit in front of the temple gate and he would beg for food.  That's all he's been able to do his whole life.  And now they say he's going to have a birthday!  He's going to be 40 years old.  For 40 long years all he's done is sit at the gate and beg. Well, on this bright, sunny day there were many people coming into the temple to pray and give offerings to God.  It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon. 

     

           Two men walked by named Peter and John and he began to ask for alms.  “Alms kind sirs.  Would you give me some pennies for my supper?"  And Peter, along with John, looked at the lame man and they said,  "Look at us."  And so the lame beggar lifted his eyes and his face and he looked up into the eyes of Peter.  And Peter said, “I do not have silver or gold, but what I do have, I will give to you.  In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, walk!"  And then Peter took him by the right hand and he raised him up and he lifted him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were straightened.  And with a leap, he stood upright and began to walk, and run, and jump and laugh!  And then followed Peter into the temple.  He was so joyful.  He was leaping and touching Peter and John and he began to praise God and thank God that he had been healed. He laughed and he cried both at the same time and he shouted for joy, "I can walk, I can walk, I'm no longer a cripple. 

 

       Now inside the temple there were many, many people and they looked up at him in great surprise.  And they were saying, "Who is that man?  Isn't he the cripple who sat and begged by the temple door?  Did Peter and John make him better?  This we've got to see!"  And they all came and stood around and they began thinking that Peter and John must be God or they thought, he’s performing some magic tricks.  But then Peter was listening and he caught on and he said to the people, "Oh men of Israel, why do you marvel at this and why do you gaze at us as if we are some great power that made him walk?  It isn't us, but the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified His Son Jesus, the One who died on the cross.  But He didn't stay dead.  He rose from the grave and He has given us great power.  He is alive in heaven. 

 

      And Peter just kept talking and talking and telling all these people about the marvelous works of Jesus.  What an exciting time it was in that temple to learn about Jesus and to see this wonderful miracle that only God could do.  And from now on, the lame beggar didn't have to sit at the gate and ask for alms and pennies.  He could work and he could tell people about Jesus and the love of God.