Hope for Changed Lives - Saturday May 31, 2014
And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Luke 17:12-14 ESV
Jesus helps us have hope. Think about the ten lepers in Luke 17 who had been the outcasts of society for years. Hope had been dead in their hearts until they heard rumors and stories about this man Jesus who was healing people. Imagine that initial hope these ten lepers felt when they first heard of Jesus, and then how their hearts soared when they were healed.
I would guess most of us can't relate to leprosy, but life has a way of taking us piece by piece. A close friend betrays you. A child gets really sick. Your dad dies. Your investment goes south. This broken world takes your hope away event by event. We will lose our lives in pieces in this world. Our only eternal hope is in Jesus.
Jesus healed the most ruined people physically, and He can heal the most ruined people spiritually! Jesus the Creator and Sustainer gives us hope. He can take dying people and give them new life. He restores broken lives.
When Jesus says in Revelation, "Behold, I am making all things new," that is our hope as Christians! The picture of Christ as Creator in the gospels gives us hope to believe He has the power to actually make us into a new creation. If you think, "Jesus can't change me, I'm stuck like this," then I don't think you were paying attention. Our hope is in the fact that my Jesus is in the business of changing people's lives.
Submitted by:
Josh Whitney
Faithwalkers West 2013
Jesus the Source, Sustainer, Sovereign,
One-Year Reading Plan:
2 Samuel 17:1-29
John 19:23-42
Psalms 119:129-152
Proverbs 16:12-13
[Read
Online]
© 2024 Great Commission Association of Churches, Inc All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Online Bible Services provided by
The Bible Gateway (TM) a service of
Gospel
Communications Network.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.