It only takes one with a heart of gratitude

In Luke 17: 11-19, we have the story of the ten lepers. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where He will be rejected by the ones He came to save. He will be crucified for the sins of the world. On His way to Jerusalem He meets ten men who have been affected by the disease called leprosy. They begin to cry out really loud, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Those who were affected with this disease would normally call out, "unclean, unclean" to warn those that they were lepers. Instead they cry out for mercy. They knew who Jesus was, and that He had the power to heal them. All ten of them believed that Jesus could do this, and all ten enjoyed the blessing of His healing power. For as they obeyed the Words of Jesus to go and present themselves to the priest for inspection, they were healed. You can only imagine the joy of each of them as they realized that they were healed. They could speak clearer, and feel the senses in all of their toes and fingers, or see the new limbs that Jesus created. But as all ten went to the priest, one, that's right, just one wanted to share his heart of gratitude with Jesus. He comes to Jesus and with a loud voice begins to glorify God by giving thanks to Him who changed his life.
What's the lesson to be learned? There are a few. One lesson is obvious, and that is to not be like the other lepers who forgot, or for whatever reason never thanked Jesus. Instead we should as Christians be thankful people. We should not be ashamed of glorifying God publicly for blessing us.

We should also not be just takers like the nine lepers who took the healing but never wanted to give glory to God for it. They are like the countless of professing believers who take from church all that they can get but never give anything back.

The nine represent those who are comfortable with a religion that doesn't require the worship of Jesus. They are happy with doing religious things just as long no commitment is needed.

The one who came back to give glory to God for healing Him is like a those whom the Father is seeking. For He is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. The one leper who came back is that one who God takes notice of, for He says through Isaiah the prophet:
          “But on this one will I look:
          On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
          And who trembles at My word.

The greatest blessing that this former leper received was not just the healing of his body, but the healing of his soul. For Jesus sent him away a new man both body and soul, by forgiving him of his sin. Why did Jesus save him? Most likely it was because Jesus saw in his heart a humble and contrite man who was truly thankful for the physical healing he had received. For this is why Jesus came, He came to preach the gospel, to give sight to the blind, to heal the brokenhearted, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
Jesus deserves the kind of worship that He received from this leper from all of us. It only takes one with a heart of gratitude. Will you be the one?

God is glorious

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In God we trust

True Evangelism

Keeping the heart pure

⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

⁷ in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

In Mark 7: 5-9, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees regarding the way his disciples are behaving. Apparently the disciples are not living according to the tradition of the elders, and are eating with hands that have not been washed. By doing this they were violating a tradition that the Pharisees forced upon people. Jesus is reminded of the words of Isaiah that he applies to the Pharisees, and then he proceeds to explain in further detail how they were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah.
The key issue I see in this passage is how the heart is connected to the Pharisees problem. What's the Pharisees problem? They are making their tradition greater than or on equal par with the Scriptures. Thus giving them an excuse to break God's commandments. How is the heart connected to this? In verse 6-7, Jesus quotes Isaiah and applies it to them, in that they are guilty of giving God lip service and not obeying God from the heart. They knew Isaiah said these words but never applied it to themselves.

I need to be careful that when I read God's Word I first let it reach me. I need to ask the Holy Spirit to shine light on the sin of my heart. I need to ask myself, am I guilty of hearing God's Word and applying it to someone else? Am I reading it and not allowing it to change me? I need to ask myself, when was the last time I was challenged to repent or confess sin as I read God's word?

Did the Pharisees know they were doing this? I don't know for sure but Jesus says we speak from our hearts (Mark 7:21). In the heart of each one of us is like a repository of both good or evil. When a person sins, they first conceive the thought of it in their hearts. The slippery slope they concocted to break the commands of God through creating laws, which got them to the place they were at now, started in the heart many moons ago.

I need to be careful that I submit to the Bible as my authority and not allow my opinion or someone else to become my authority. The Bible ceases being my authority as soon as I begin to think something is right or wrong because of my (fill in the blank). I need to filter every thought, idea, and standard through the Scriptures, or they cease being my ultimate authority.

Jesus then takes the issue of eating with dirty hands and basically says that nothing you put in your mouth defiles you, but only what comes out of your heart. Jesus is talking about food because he says it goes into the stomach and is then eliminated through the human bodily functions.
What defiles a person? Jesus says it all begins in the heart. We think, speak and act from the heart. Whatever is in the heart, and whatever the condition of the heart of a person will determine how they behave. If my heart is defiled then what I say, think, and do will eventually show my true colors.

We live with ourselves, meaning we all know that we talk to ourselves and even have conversations, but more than that we are everyday thinking and planning things out, some of us even plot out evil. But it all begins with ourselves. We know what we are doing, it starts with us.
We love ourselves and we know it. But this is not totally bad, because we are commanded to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, so God knows we love ourselves, and that we care and protect ourselves. So while we are living with ourselves and loving ourselves, I think we need to be honest to ourselves, and when we begin to think thoughts, and plan out things that are wrong, and we know they are wrong, we need to stop and love ourselves, by loving our hearts. Look beyond the mirror, and look at your heart, keep it pure by loving it to be pure. Keep it pure by submitting to God's Word. Keep it pure by applying God's word to your life, before you think of someone else who might need it. Finally, keep it pure by preaching the gospel to yourself. This last point has become a catching phrase that us preachers have been using, but I hope it is more than a catchy phrase to you. The gospel is the righteousness of God, and without His righteousness no one will ever be pure in the sight of God. So preach the gospel to yourself by reminding yourself of what the cross has accomplished for you. May God bless you with ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to understand. Until then, thanks for staying in the Loop! Pastor G

What We May Actually Believe

What We May Actually Believe

Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me) - Casting Crowns