A Heart Of Thanks: Refuses To Forget

Most people are quick to forget where the blessings come from.

 

Luke 17:11-19 As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. 12 As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, 13 crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. 

15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” 16 He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. 

17 Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you. ”

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You heard about a man that has the power to change your life, and then you learn that he is coming to town, you and your companions are skeptical that he would ever come anywhere close to you. 

But then sure enough you and your friends all cry out for healing and he responds, all ten of you get what you asked for but not in the same way that you have heard about, this time he doesn't heal until the are on their way.

Your dream of being healed has come true for you but also for the other nine. Which leper are you? 

Do you think the other lepers remained healed? If so, what was the benefit or blessing for the one leper who returned to give thanks?

Does living with a heart of thanks make a difference in your life?

So many people chose to use Jesus for what he could do to improve their lives. We see very few people in the New Testament that show us the kind of thankfulness that the one leper displayed.

I have been blessed beyond measure, it is way too easy to be in the crowd with the nine lepers, I have been healed from the leprosy of sin. I need to stop and remember to give God thanks for what he has done and what he is still doing in my life.

Thank you Lord for healing me and bringing me to life!

The Good Physician - John Newton

How lost was my condition, Till Jesus made me whole!

How lost was my condition

Till Jesus made me whole!

There is but one physician

Can cure a sin-sick soul

Next door to death he found me,

And snatched me from the grave,

To tell all around me

His wond'rous pow'r to save.

The worst of all diseases

Is light compared with sin;

On ev'ry part it seizes,

But rages most within;

'Tis palsy, plague, and fever,

And madness-all combined;

And none, but a believer,

The least relief can find.

From men, great skill professing,

I sought a cure to gain;

But this proved more distressing,

And added to my pain;

Some said that nothing ailed me,

Some gave me up for lost;

Thus ev'ry refuge failed me,

And all my hopes were crossed.

At length this great Physician,

How matchless is His grace!

Accepted my petition,

And undertook my case;

First, gave me sight to view him,

For sin my eyes had sealed-

Then bit me look unto Him;

I looked, and I was healed.

A dying, risen Jesus,

Seen by the eye of faith,

At once from danger frees us,

And saves the soul from death;

Come, then, to this Physician,

His help he'll freely give,

He makes no hard condition-

To Jesus look and live!

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Healer (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
The Great Doctor (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

The Great Doctor

The only requirement for this healing is belief in the healer.

Isaiah 53:4-5  Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

5  But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

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A pandemic of epic proportions has been raging throughout the ages. There are a lot of different reactions to it, most of us will deny the seriousness of it, a lot of people will attempt to use protective equipment, and others will claim that they have found some medicine that will make it all go away but the problem continues to get worse.

The fake news tries to give us hope but because the disease is hereditary, we are all suffering under this condition, so a mask and gown and social distancing isn't useful. This sickness isn't a virus or bacteria so man made medicine will never give you relief.

The healing that we need requires greater wisdom and power than the best trained doctors can provide. Their schooling and textbooks aren't adequate for this world wide condition that threatens civilization.

The world is desperate for a cure but they are prejudiced against the only source of hope that we have. There isn't any reason to allow the infection to continue, the suffering and death needs to stop, but the bias against this doctor is incredibly strong.

1 Peter 2:24  He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

Jesus is the great physician that can heal our greatest sickness and stop the devastating effects that sin has on our world. Doctor Jesus doesn't discriminate, he loves to make house calls to any neighborhood, he is willing to touch anybody and he works after hours.

He doesn't ask you to make promises to him or offer to change yourself, there isn't even a copay, it cost him everything but he takes great pleasure in giving it away.

Do you know the great doctor?

John 1:10-12 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

The only requirement for this healing is belief in the healer, but you don't need to believe without any evidence, his credentials are available in his best selling book. It is sad that so many people refuse to read his book and learn about him so they don't really know him.

Knowing about Jesus is very common but do you know Jesus? Has he healed you from the greatest sickness that you can possibly have? Find out more about Jesus.

Helpless sinners without hope have been given the ultimate hope, the powerful contagion called sin has lost its power, everyone that is healed will spend eternity with the healer.

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Recovering From The Disease Of Sin (desiringgod.org)

Healer

By his wounds you are healed.

Video: Healer from Elevation Church

Isaiah 53:1-6 Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?

2 My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.  3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.

Hope And Glory

Jesus is the only one that can heal our land.

Hear our cry, Oh King of heaven 

Jesus hope to every heart 

We are lost, without Your glory 

We are lost, without you God 

Be the fire, that burns within us

Flames of love that purify

Send the power and Your salvation

Let us see Your kingdom come

Only You can move the mountain

Only You can heal our land

Chris alone our hope and glory

Chris alone in You we stand

Turn Your eyes and show us mercy

How we need Your Father’s love

Lead us home and out of darkness

With Your gospel burning bright

Only You can move the mountain

Only You can heal our land

Christ alone our hope and glory

Christ alone in You we stand

(Repeat)

We believe our God is mighty

We believe our God is here

We believe our King is coming

Christ alone in You we stand

Praise the Lord our God is mighty

Praise the Lord our God is here

Praise the Lord our King is coming

Christ alone in You we stand

The Light Of The World In Action

The Light of the World has left us here to be the light of the world while he is gone.

 

John 9:5-11  "While I am here in the world, I am the light of the world."   6  Then He spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man's eyes.  7  He told him, "Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam" (Siloam means "sent").

So the man went and washed and came back seeing!  8  His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, "Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?"  9  Some said he was, and others said, "No, he just looks like him!" But the beggar kept saying, "Yes, I am the same one!"

10  They asked, "Who healed you? What happened?"  11  He told them, "The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.' So I went and washed, and now I can see!"

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God sent light into our world because we desperately needed it, we had the sun for physical sight on this planet but we were still in the dark spiritually. Just like this blind man, we had sunshine all around us but we couldn't see it, we need Jesus help to give us spiritual light.

This man had no hope of seeing the light, nobody ever healed a man that was born blind, and he didn't have any reason to believe that his situation was going to change. He lived everyday knowing that he would never see, he would always be a beggar, and he would always be stuck depending on others.

This man never knew the light of the sun so he couldn't know that the light of the world was on the way. He may have been physically blind but there must have been some amount of spiritual light that gave him the faith to follow Jesus instructions. He didn't have to obey and go to the pool, what if his faith in Jesus wasn't any better than the Pharisees?

John 9:15-16  The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, "He put the mud over my eyes, and when I washed it away, I could see!" Some of the Pharisees said, "This man Jesus is not from God, for He is working on the Sabbath." Others said, "But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?" So there was a deep division of opinion among them.

Now what do you do with Jesus? The religious leaders are really in a bad way. There are too many witnesses to the fact that this man has been blind all of his life but now he can see. The fact that he is healed seems to be undeniable, at first they try and say he isn't the same man but that opinion was quickly shot down and now they need a new story.

What can we do with Jesus? He isn't the Messiah, the Messiah wouldn't break the Sabbath, he wouldn't tell us Pharisees how bad we are, but how can we deny his power? Maybe we can say that his power is from Satan. As God's number one creation, man will go to great lengths and create outrageous stories to deny God's glory. We will explain away what is so easy to accept when you aren't spiritually blind.

John 9:30-33  "Why, that's very strange!" the man replied. "He healed my eyes, and yet you don't know where He comes from?  We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but He is ready to hear those who worship Him and do His will.  Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind.  If this man were not from God, He couldn't have done it."

Now what do you do with an ex-blind man? Someone that is pointing out the obvious about Jesus. Someone who just received physical sight has more spiritual sight than the religious leaders. They were sure that he was born in sin, a total sinner, how could he think that he is going to teach them anything (John 9:2, 34)

The simple logical reasoning of this guy couldn't be denied, he broke it down and made it plain, there wasn't any other explanation for the facts. No pressure from the Pharisees would make him change his mind, not after what he has just experienced, so they verbally attack him and expelled him from the synagogue.

John 9:38  "Yes, Lord, I believe!" the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.

Jesus never left people wondering, he found the man and helped him understand, if they had mustard seed sized faith then he was going to water it and help it increase. There are a lot of different responses to Jesus but this man gets it right and responds in worship, he even does it right there in front of the Pharisees, he doesn't care what anybody thinks or what the consequences will be. Out of all of the people that were a part of this story there was only one that was worshiping.

Giver Of Light

2 Corinthians 4:4,6  Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

The "giver of darkness" has been defeated by the "giver of light." God said "Let there be light" and shortly after that Satan brought us back to the dark but that dark has been defeated by the Light of the World.

To those that believe in Jesus it is difficult to imagine standing right there in front of him and not having a clue about who he is. We look back and think how could they be so blind? The giver of light is right there in front of you. We need to remember that if they are blind then it doesn't matter how much light there is, there isn't any way to comprehend it, everything about the gospel will be foolishness to them. (1 Corinthians 1:18-19)

John 10:24-27  The people surrounded Him and asked, "How long are You going to keep us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly."  25  Jesus replied, "I have already told you, and you don't believe Me. The proof is the work I do in My Father's name.  26  But you don't believe Me because you are not My sheep.  27  My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

I was amazed when I did a search on Google for "giver of light." A lot of the search results had nothing to do with Jesus or the gospel, Satan knows that we want to live in the light so he has developed a lot of counterfeit sources of light.

Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

The Light of the World has left us here on this dark planet with a job to do, since Jesus our Savior has opened our blind eyes for God’s glory, we should work to point others to Him. Now it is our turn to be the giver of light, sure we are small candles compared to the true light of the world but as a community of believers we can shine very bright as we live for him and love like he did.

I need to remember that this world is blind, they live and behave like they do because they can see nothing better. I need to be the light and pray to Jesus that their eyes will be opened so that they will see the glory of God through my life. (Matthew 5:16)

Help me to be a light house for you in this dark world. Amen.