Have you ever felt really forsaken by the world, abandoned or hopeless? In Biblical times, the debilitating skin disease Leprosy caused many to be treated that way. Although most people today haven’t had disease that kept them away from other people for years, just about everybody has had a time when they felt like the world was being unfair–somehow they were helpless and alone. Oftentimes these feelings can make people cry out to God for help. Sometimes, people will go so far as to tell God all they’ll do for Him if He answers their prayers (the way they want them answered, of course!). Helpless against our own sin, all true Christians have cried out to God at one time or another. And… as the Scriptures clearly tell us, God immediately responds to genuine repentance with forgiveness of sins. I wonder though… how many people ever keep those promises they make to God? How many Christians do you know right now who are visibly living out their lives like they have been saved from the flames of hell? Like the ten healed by Jesus in this Scripture, all received a miracle from God… but only the Samaritan (the most irreligious and unwanted people of the time) was healed (read “saved”) by his faith. The rest only had their skin healed.
“Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him–and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.'” Luke 17:11-19
In Christ,
PastorJimKilby @Kilbin8er
Jim@JamesKilby.com