A Clean Leper

I've always had a picture of leprosy as being unclean. We've all heard the stories of Jesus healing the lepers who lived outside their communities, and the Old Testament tells us the stories of two different men who had leprosy.

Naaman was captain of King Aram's army. He was victorious in battle but he had leprosy. Thanks to his captured Israelite servant girl's prodding, he traveled to Israel, met with Elisha, was OBEDIENT to Father's word through Elisha, dipped into the Jordan River seven times and was cured.

Another man, King Uzziah, became king of Israel when he was sixteen years old. He reigned for fifty-two years and the Bible says, "He continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah. As long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him" (2 Chronicles 26:5). But King Uzziah became proud in his God-given strength and prosperity and sinned against the Lord. As a consequence of his sin, he was struck with leprosy and quarantined for the rest of his life.

Today's Bible reading, Leviticus 13, gave me new insight into being unclean in the sight of the Lord. Verses 12-14 says, "If the leprosy breaks out farther on the skin, and the leprosy covers all the skin of him who has the infection from his head even to his feet, as far as the priest can see, then the priest shall look, and behold, if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce clean him who has the infection; it has all turned white and he is clean. But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean."

I think this is a powerful testimony of our redemption as sinners through Jesus Christ! So many of us believe our past sins define us in His eyes. Whatever that sin was, it has become part of us - our persona. We carry the memories and consequences and it covers our bodies! But Jesus' blood causes our leprosy - our sin - to become white as snow.

His one requirement is that we do not have raw flesh on us, that we not continue in the sin. If we are obedient as Naaman was, we will be clean even as we are still covered in our sin. If we become prideful as King Uzziah was, we will be separated from Father as we allow raw flesh (sin) to overtake us.

Father does not require us to be perfect and clean and non-leprous to approach Him for forgiveness. In fact, He wants us to come to Him in our fully-covered state, allow Him to declare us clean, and then spread the word of His power in cleaning us to others we come in contact with.

What an amazing testimony we have - we are CLEAN LEPERS, covered in past sin, which has become white with His blood, and cleaned by His declaration of LOVE on the cross.

JUDGMENT DAY... WHAT WILL I HEAR?

During my daily Scripture reading for devotions, I am finishing up the book of Matthew this week. Yesterday's reading was in Matthew 24 and 25, where Jesus tells the parables of the fig tree, ten virgins and talents. All of these are His way of admonishing us to be ready for His return.

I once heard someone say that "Judgment day does not determine our eternal destiny; it is only revealing what we have lived." That statement made me sit back and take a deep breath. What will judgment day reveal as to how I have lived my life? Will Father be proud of the choices I've made? Will He be sad that I missed opportunities for loving others in His name?

Just something to ponder today... On judgment day, what will I hear from Father?

ORIGINATION OF FAMILY

I once heard a story that went like this: A little girl was being put to bed by her mother, who took her upstairs and tucked her in for the night. Soon after she left her, the child began to whimper, and she called to her, "You go to sleep. God is up there with you." But the little girl wanted someone to stay with her. Once again her mother told her, "God is up there with you." To this the little girl replied, "I know, but I want somebody with a face!" Father supplied us with that "somebody with a face" in the person of Jesus, who walked this earth and died for our sins.

Whenever I speak of God or to God lately I've been saying "Father" more than "God." In "This Day with the Master" by Dennis Kinlaw (a great daily devotional book, by the way!), Dr. Kinlaw discusses "The Fatherhood of God." Dr. Kinlaw writes that we often draw a picture of Kingship for God, as mentioned in the Bible so many times. "The kingdom of heaven is near," the return of the King in Revelations, and many other references place God as Lord over his creation. That much is very clear.

But before there was a King, before there was a creation to be Lord over, before there was time and space... before EVERYTHING - the second person of the triune Godhead called the first person of the Trinity not Lord, but FATHER! His Fatherhood speaks of a relationship within the very nature of God that was there before He spoke anything into existence!

Dr. Kinlaw goes on to say that the parent-child relationship - the family - is an eternal concept, not merely a temporal or historical one. The early church leaders recognized this. What statement comes first in The Apostles' Creed? "I believe in God the Father." Before the assertion of God's sovereignty or the recognition of Him as the Creator, the Source of all things, comes the affirmation of His Fatherhood. The beginning of all things comes from a father.

Finally, Dr. Kinlaw concludes with this statement: "Elevating the picture of God as Father so it is the primary image we have of God does not diminish His other roles, but enables us to understand them better. If the Judge is our Father, the judicial process is going to be very different from a process in which he is just an impartial third party."

Once again we see how intimate Father wants to be with us. He created us as His children, His family. The old chorus goes like this:

I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God
I've been washed in the fountain
And cleansed by His blood
Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod
For I'm a part of the family
The family of God

What I'm learning is that this has always been Father's vision for us! Very cool!

My Truth for Today

"For many people in today's church, the term worldliness has a quaint, old-fashioned ring to it. They associate it with prohibitions against things like dancing, going to the movies, or playing cards. Today's user-friendly, seeker-oriented, market-driven church does not preach much against worldliness. To do so might make unbelievers (not to mention believers) uncomfortable, and is therefore avoided as poor marketing strategy. But unlike much of the contemporary church, the Bible does not hesitate to condemn worldliness for the serious sin that it is. Worldliness is any preoccupation with or interest in the temporal system of life that places anything perishable before that which is eternal." - John MacArthur, Revelation: The Christian's Ultimate Victory [Biblical viewpoint]

"Intolerance...is not simply the lack of a sense of solidarity with other people; it is the rejection of others for what they are, for what they do, for what they think and, eventually, simply because they exist." - Edgard Pisani, French politician [secular viewpoint]

"Our idea is that to be a virtuous citizen is to be one who tolerates everything except intolerance." - Leslie Armour, philosophy professor, University of Ottawa [secular viewpoint]

"It is only natural, once a person replaces God's revelation of right and wrong with a custom-made, personalized right and wrong, to put that principle into practice. 'I will be my own god. I will determine what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is good or evil.' The truth claims and commands of the Bible are considered too narrow by today's definition of tolerance. Christians' belief in a 'God of truth' (Isaiah 65:16) and in 'the Book of Truth' (Daniel 10:21) is intolerable to the proponents of the new tolerance, who consider a belief in absolute truth to be evil and offensive." - Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance: How a Cultural Movement Threatens to Destroy You, Your Faith and Your Children [Biblical viewpoint]

JODY'S VIEWPOINT
It has become too easy for me to dismiss wrong things as something that is "okay for them but not for me." In saying that, I've become tolerant of sin. Jesus commands me to hate what is evil and that includes the sin in my Christian brother or sister's life. Culture has created this premise that equates "who a person is" with "what a person does." This premise goes against everything in the Bible. This premise is what the Pharisees believed and Jesus condemned them for that. If I cannot separate the person from their actions, then I am no better than the Pharisees.

In the growth of my love relationship with Father, I am learning how to do just that. Each day as I ask Father to send someone across my path, those "someones" are people I'm meeting at the local store or gas station... "someones" I might not have had time to notice before but now receive a smile filled with Father's love. Those "someones" are people I might have prejudged previously because of their lifestyle... they do this, therefore they are bad. Psychology calls it "black and white thinking." I am learning how often I fall into this way of thinking. Imagine if Father had used "black and white thinking" on me! I would NOT have been redeemed. Yet, THANKFULLY, He was able to separate "who I am" from "what I've done" and His love and mercy and grace redeemed me through His love journey to the Cross.

As a Christian, I have several paths I could take towards combating this way of thinking, this way of tolerance or intolerance... I can accept both the person and the sin; I can fight against both the person and the sin. In these two ways, I only see a lose-lose situation. In the first, I lose because I am accepting sin; in the second, the person loses because I am against them as a person.

What I am choosing is "a more excellent way" (I Corinthians 12:31, NASB) "And I show you a still more excellent way."

But what follows? What is Paul saying is the "more excellent way" of eliminating black and white thinking, of fighting against tolerating the sin or becoming intolerant of the person? Here is an unfortunate break in Scripture... Paul moves immediately into I Corinthians 13 - "The Excellence of Love" right after he is speaking to the church in Corinth about how some of them have gifts of healing, some are teachers, some work miracles, etc... He says these are all great spiritual gifts but the reality is that we all ought to DESIRE THE GREATER GIFTS! THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY.

LOVE trumps all! Following is my life version of First Corinthians 13.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, but don’t have Father’s love filling me to the brim, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I am not saturated in my Abba Father’s love, I am nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor ad even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I have not shown the evidences of God’s love to others, I’ve gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt if I don’t understand Father’s love for me and accept it for what it is.
His love has never given up on me, and my evidence of His love to others is to never give up on them.
His love cares more for me than for Himself, evidenced by His Son’s sacrifice on the cross; so I should be self-sacrificial as I’m overflowing with His love.
His love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have – except me: in this case, He is jealous for me. Because I have His love, I can learn to be content in all things.
His love doesn’t strut and doesn’t have a swelled head; it doesn’t force itself on others, and isn’t always “me first.” Rather, it is quiet, gentle and waiting. Because I’m saturated in His love, I should only speak when led by Him and boast only in what Father has done in me. By resting gently in His guidance, I will not have to be forceful when I share His love. Others will seek me out on their own, because they see something different in me. As I let Father build a relationship with me, I will naturally put others first in my life. His love through me does not brag and is not arrogant.
His love doesn’t fly off the handle, and it doesn’t keep score of the sins of others. Because Father loves me so much He gave His Son as a sacrifice, and He fills me with that immense love, I am able to stop and think before I open my mouth. I am able to look at people through His eyes, and not react in an unholy way. Instead, His love that seeps through my pores and dictates my every word and action offers grace and forgiveness.
His love doesn’t revel when others grovel, and it takes pleasure in the flowering of truth. I, as a daughter of the King bearing His love and showing it to others, do not rejoice in unrighteousness, but I rejoice in the truth. This means that I do not sit by quietly when the conversation moves away from what the Lord would be pleased with, but I get up and remove myself from that situation. I do not, as the world encourages, “tolerate” sin but rather label it for what it is. And I rejoice in the Truth, God’s Word. It becomes a delight to me, day and night. Father becomes my alarm clock, waking me up to spend time with Him.
The strength of my Abba Father’s love allows me to put up with anything, TRUST God’s plan for me always, looking for the best, and never looking back to my old life or my old hurts. I trust that His plan for me is good, because He is shaping my life along the same lines as the life of His Son (Romans 8).
His love will NEVER fail me! Sometimes talk, understanding and even prayer will be beyond my reach, but His love will NEVER leave me.
For when I was a child in my Christian walk, only obeying out of duty and obligation, I acted like a child. But now that His love is being perfected in me, the partial disobedience is done away with. When I became an adult in my Christian walk, obeying Father because of my love relationship with Him, He gave me the ability to do away with disobedience.
Before, when I looked in a mirror, I had no idea the extent of His love for me! Now, when I look in my mirror, I see a bit of His holiness shining through me. When I became a Christian, part of this truth was revealed to me. And when I experienced the beginning of His love relationship with me (holiness), more truth was revealed. But when I see Him face to face, and experience His perfect love in person, His truth will be completed in me.
But for today, while I wait for heaven, my love relationship causes me to grow in these areas: trusting steadily in Father, hoping for the day of the Lord to come soon, and loving extravagantly. But the greatest of these is God’s perfect love filling me up and flowing into others.