Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to see a video of The Gaither Vocal Band singing a classic song written by Bill and Gloria Gather… He Touched Me, which gloriously declares what happens when we witness God’s cleansing and saving grace to others.
Highlight Passage: Luke 17: 17-19 [NKJV} … Only one in ten …
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
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Highlight Context - NKJV: Luke 17: 11-19 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Jesus heals 10 lepers; but only one, a Samaritan, returned to give thanks and glorify God for the healing …
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Reference Passage #1: Matthew 5: 16 … [NKJV] … Focusing on what we must do in response to our being made whole in Christ …
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Reference Passage #2: Acts 1: 8 … [NKJV] … Are we His grateful witnesses, glorifying our Lord with our testimony of salvation …
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Randy Kilgore, reminded the author’s ODB readers about Luke’s telling of a story about Jesus healing 10 lepers of their disease, making them all completely clean of the disease; but only one, a dreaded Samaritan, came back to glorify God with his thankfulness.
And Kilgore used a story of how a driver in traffic was kind enough to let a car in ahead of him but when the driver of that vehicle didn’t show any thankfulness, the first driver, the one who had been graceful, became enraged and tried to pursue the other vehicle, rudely trying to ride his rear bumper; and Kilgore asks, who was more wrong? … The first driver for not even giving a gesture of thanks or the second who, though letting the first car in ahead of him, reacted in anger.
In the episode related by Luke [linked for study above], Jesus cleansed ten lepers (see Luke 17: 17) but only one was thankful enough to come back and glorify God with his thankfulness; and he was a dreaded Samaritan. And whom did Jesus offer the ultimate cleansing - i.e., salvation in a complete healing, spiritual as well as physical? Yes, … of course it was the Samaritan … the one in ten who went out, with a thankful heart from his cleansing and gave glory to God.
Jesus’ act of redemption, as the Lamb of God, offers cleansing to all; but whom are the ones who received the Lord’s complete healing from sin? It’s the ones who have repented and go out, as Jesus commanded in Matthew 5: 16 and shine their light of thankfulness, showing any/all who will see, that Jesus saves!
Are we the one in ten who is thankful enough, to show how Jesus saves, by shining our light of salvation for others to see Christ in us? I certainly pray that we are that Samaritan who will go forth and glorify God in thankfulness with our testimony of thankfulness and healing. Let’s return thanks to the Savior, Who cleansed us, with our willingness to be His witnesses today.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, help me witness, whenever You give me the opportunity, to shine Your cleansing light of salvation for all to see Your healing grace. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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