Thanksgiving. It's hard believe Thanksgiving is already here. I can't seem to get my mind wrapped around the idea. So, your homework was to read over John and summarize the entire study that's taken us a whole year to get through and present the main points. Ha! It's incredible, the amount of material we've covered in 38 sessions. The Gospel of John is loaded with amazing truths. It's been very good to study and I'm so glad the Lord pointed us to go through it, verse by verse. I'm also thankful we have the website and summaries to refer to. I've found I must be very deliberate to go back and read the summaries just so I can better remember. I can't seem to keep it all in my head. I believe it's a big part of "what do you want?", as Jesus' first words recorded in John were penned. If I really want to experience light and life, I'm going to make time to read His word, read the summaries, and read the devotionals. There's no way to truly summarize the book of John, but I've noted three main things that came to me personally: this life is about Jesus so live for His glory, not mine; proper prayer is agreeing with His will to be done, not mine; be empowered by His Holy Spirit, not walking in my own strength, wisdom, and understanding. Those three main ideas stood out to me as we went through the text. Otherwise, John's main goal was to write such a book that we would be convinced that Jesus is God, and that we would believe and find life in His name (John 20:30-31).
We began the study of John with the realization that "faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God" (Rom. 10: 17). We were excited to read the word of God and really hear it. We wanted our faith in Jesus to increase as a result. I feel like we did hear as we read the Word, and it was great, but we are going to need the Holy Spirit to remind us of all the truths in order to hide His Word in our hearts amid all the many distractions in our world as we move forward. I pray we are like the good soil mentioned by Jesus in the parable and that we receive the seed of His Word, so that it may grow and produce fruit in our lives.
In consideration of Thanksgiving, I was pointed to the passage in Luke 17:11-19. It's the story of Jesus healing ten lepers and only one man came back to thank Him. Leprosy is and was a nasty, contagious disease. If you contracted it, you would be ostracized to a camp of lepers, isolated from your job, family, and church to fend for yourself. Plus, there was a stigma that you were "unclean", as if possessed by evil spirits or cursed by God. It was a bad deal. The disease would eat away at your skin and cause members to rot off. The smell inside the camps was unbearable. They learned to shout in loud voices, from a distance, to cry out to healthy people for help. They cried out to Jesus as He walked by, begging for mercy. How did they know His name? Why did they call Him master? Interesting. He simply ordered them to go show themselves to the priests, as was custom when a rare, natural healing had occurred. Then they could be declared clean and reintroduced into society. As they were on the road to the priest, obedient to follow His directions, they discovered they were completely healed. Folks, this would've have been a remarkable discovery, even unto limbs growing back and faces coming back into normalcy. It would've been that extreme and amazing. So, the natural response should've been obviously to come back and praise Jesus in thankfulness. Only one returned. Now, Jesus didn't praise this one man for coming back. The man did what should've been done. It's expected for one to return to give thanks and praise. Jesus proved this truth in the preceding passage, as He described the servant working in the field and then cooking and serving the meal for his master. The servant did what he was told to do. No gratitude was required or expected. He was simply doing his duty. Our duty is to repeatedly return to Jesus with praise and thanksgiving. It's expected and a part of normal relationship with Him. Instead of patting this man on the head and saying "good boy", Jesus was seemingly perturbed that the other nine men didn't return.
What He did say to the man was "rise and go; your faith has made you well". He used a different word for "well" than He used for "cleansed" as from earlier conversation. The Greek word for "cleansed" described physical healing. The Greek word for "well" meant spiritual salvation. So, here is another very deep, mysterious story where Jesus used the events and situations in front of Him to teach spiritual truths about relationship and salvation. This is a great picture of the powerful connection between the spirit world and the physical.
Now, I, too, am crying out for His mercy to heal my physical injuries just as the lepers were. By the way, Jesus is the right source to go to for healing, as a reminder, so they were doing the right thing there. That encourages me to continue to run to Him as well. I want to be healed, if it is agreeable to His will, plan, and purpose for my life. There's still a lot of selfish desires for what I want to do in this body, so I have work to do, continually, to submit to living for His glory and not my own. I need His Holy Spirit to influence my mind to discover what healing really might look like and to receive the teaching He wants to show me during these trying times. I've been dwelling recently on Galatians 2:20, "I've been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." I know the ultimate healing is to receive heaven and eternal life in a glorified body. I know He can heal the physical ailments, if He wills. I know His grace is sufficient for me, if not. This is His life now. I surrender it to Him as my offering. May He receive the honor and glory. It's all His anyway.
I read the Shrubs the Job story yesterday. Job's response was our example. After suffering such terrible losses, Job ran to the Lord and worshipped Him. He believed the Lord gives and takes away. He knew we should accept the good, as well as the bad from Him. He understood that he came into the world naked and he would leave this place naked, taking none of his worldly gain with him. Now, that's good. Thank you, Lord, for Your Word. It brings life and light to us as we follow You. May we be a people that continually run back to You in thankfulness. Happy Thanksgiving.
