September 1
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Luke17:17-19
The story of the ten lepers often intrigues me. With the benefit of hindsight we can look back and comment about the rudeness of the other nine who were so overwhelmed by their healing that they did not return to say thank you. But did they do something really that uncommon? Let’s look at the context today and tomorrow we will examine verses 17-19 of Luke in more detail.
When they saw Jesus the ten lepers, responded in an appropriate manner. Firstly stood a far off (v12), and secondly;
‘… they all lifted their voices and said “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Verse 13
And let’s look at His response. He told them to go and show themselves to the priests, which they, in faith, obediently did. Now this is where both the miracle and today’s talking point take place. Verse 14 states,
‘and so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.’
Now they could have asked Him for money like the lame man at the gate of the temple called Beautiful in Acts 3. They could have ignored what they had been instructed to do and thought, “Well He could have healed me on the spot…” and therein harboured negative thoughts like Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5, after he had been told to dip in the dirty Jordan river. But no, they immediately went. The bible does not say there was any delay in their actions only that one returned.
My question today is how obedient are we when asked to do something by the Lord? And do we do things for our Saviour with a grudging spirit? Tomorrow we will look at His response.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
