SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2021 9:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “Wretched
Man: Leper”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 8:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 When Jesus came
down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. 2 And a leper came to Him
and bowed down before Him, and said, "Lord, if You are willing, You can
make me clean." 3 Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I
am willing; be cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And
Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the
priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’”
I
have one more thing to talk about that I probably should have put on yesterday’s
SD. It has more to do with the leper’s
confidence as that is the way that he came to Jesus and he did that because he
believed Jesus was compassionate, with reverence because he believed Jesus was
truly God come in the flesh, with humility because he believed Jesus was
sovereign, and with faith because he believed Jesus had the power to heal
him. We can see from this short
paragraph a summation of the way this leper came to Jesus.
So
what happened when the leper came to Jesus in the way we have described? In response to that faith, Jesus ‘stretched out
His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.” In the OT Law of Moses we can see that it is
forbidden to touch a leper, because he was unclean. “‘Or if he touches human uncleanness, of
whatever sort his uncleanness may be with which he becomes
unclean, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he
will be guilty.” In MacArthur’s
commentary he sites Leviticus 3:3, but I think that was in error as I believe
he meant 5:3 which I have quoted above.
Although this verse does not specifically talk about lepers I believe
that it concludes lepers who are unclean.
As we go through the problems with Covid one of the things that we miss
especially in church is a hug, and that is what the lepers of Jesus day missed
all of the time. A very sad situation to
say the least.
Why
did not Jesus just heal this man with the sound of His voice? MacArthur writes on His touching the
leper: That simple act in itself was
amazing, not in the sense of being sensational and spectacular—as are the
supposed miracles of many modern healers—but simply in the fact that the Son of
God lovingly condescended to touch the outcast of outcasts whom no other man
would even come near.” Since leprosy is a picture of sin we are all lepers in
the spiritual sense and Jesus came to earth in order to spiritual touch all who
come to Him for salvation as He died on the cross for all of us spiritual
lepers.
In
some of the miracles of healing that are found in the Gospels we can see kind
of stages that it is done, and some like this one are instantaneous: “Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Perhaps there are times since we have read
over and over about this type of miracle that we don’t take the time to look
more intensely at what just happened to this man. Think about what we learned when in two
earlier SD’s on this subject we took the time to see exactly what happens to a
person’s body when they have leprosy, how limbs can fall off, how they smell
and other awful things that happen to a leper.
Now Jesus touches the man and whatever was missing from that man’s body,
whatever smell that man may have had it was all gone with the gentle touch of
Jesus. I certainly am not medical
physician who possibly could tell us exactly what must have taken place for
this man to be healed instantly, but he was.
Think once more about the spiritual things that happen to a spiritual
leper once they become a believer in Jesus Christ for the salvation of their
souls. There are many things that
instantly happen to a person once they become a believer including having their
sins forgiven, past, present, and future.
In receiving the Holy Spirit as a down payment to the wedding feast that
will happen in heaven, to be sanctified which has three parts. I am sure that I am missing some, but what we
receive from our Lord once we are saved is the greatest gift anyone on earth
could ever have, please don’t miss out on that gift.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Having my spiritual being healed is as stated
above the best gift that I could ever receive and for that I am very thankful
to the Lord for.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord that He will
enlarge our group of believers who are praying for revival. Thanks to the Lord for six more people joining
or group last night, realizing that it is the Holy Spirit who is putting all of
this together and so I ‘m in no way want to stress who He brings to our group.
3/25/2021 10:41 AM
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