Jesus' 100% Cure for Ingratitude

By: Howard Cole

What if Jesus could change that one unchangeable thing in your life? Yes, the very one you’ve just about given up on. The way you answer the following question provides the key to healthy change: “Do you owe God or does God owe you?”

Luke, an early story-teller about Jesus, told a true tale about ten men. These men were powerless to change their unchangeable leprosy. Leprosy was like cancer back then, but even worse. It was like contagious cancer. And even worse than that it was like socially contagious cancer. You can read all about it in Leviticus, which contains the laws of leprosy.

The story of God told in Scripture devotes a great deal of attention to leprosy. Why? Because leprosy, more than any other form of human wreckage symbolizes the sad and serious human condition under sin. Michael Harper writes:

Sin separates us from God and from one another. So does leprosy. Sin slowly rots away human life. So does leprosy. Sin is at first not easy to diagnose: It works silently and secretly. So does leprosy. Sin disfigures and distorts. So does leprosy. Sin paralyzes and removes feeling and sensitivity. So does leprosy. Sin ultimately caused death. So does leprosy.

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Lepers were treated, as if they were, in effect, dead persons.

The ten lepers stood together that day socially separated from all the other men, women and children of the village. William Barclay explains that back in those days a leper had to keep six feet away from others at all times. If the wind was blowing, they had to increase the distance to 150 feet away.

While Luke does not tell if the wind was blowing that day, he does tell us that suddenly, everything changed for the lepers’ unchangeable condition.

As the story goes, the men catch sight of Jesus and yell in unison “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!!”

Jesus’s eyes lock onto these lepers and twinkle with an intermixture of authority and compassion. He doesn’t take out a magic wand and wave it in the air. He doesn’t chant a hocus-pocus spell. What does he do to cure these incurables?

He speaks two quick commands that bridge the unbridgeable distance between him and these outcasts: “Go and show.” Go and show what to whom? “Go and show yourselves to the priests”. The leper laws mandated that a leper claiming that he was cured must get checked out by the priests. If he passed the public health tests, a certificate was given to him so that he could show it to everyone. That certificate cured the social distance by curing the fear others had toward a leper. When Jesus speaks he does more than cure their skin condition. He cures their social condition.

And then something unexpected happened. As all ten began walking toward the temple they were immediately cleansed.

But then something even more unexpected happened. Only one of the ten returned to give thanks to Jesus. A Samaritan (an outsider to the Jewish faith) noticing his soft, healthy skin, shouts praise to God, falls on his face at the feet of Jesus and does something the other nine refused to do.

He thanks Jesus for the merciful healing. Jesus admits his surprise with a question “weren’t ten made clean, where are the nine?” Let that question hang in the air so that you have the time to reach out and grab it. Better yet, let it grab you and begin to change you: “Where are the nine?”

The story ends with a surprise twist when Jesus says “Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well.” The word Jesus uses for wellness is a form of the word salvation. This is shockingly different than what the other nine experienced, which was only an outward cleansing.

What is the 100 percent cure for ingratitude? Admitting that you don’t deserve mercy but that you must come to and depend on Jesus for salvation. And the salvation Jesus gives to a thankful sinner goes beyond skin deep change.

Because you are joined to Jesus by undeserved grace, through saving faith, the deepest unchangeable thing about you (your sinful condition and deserved separation from God) is changed forever. Won’t you return thanks to God right now for his gifts but especially the free gift of His son?

Press Mute

By: Sarah Cates

It has been a busy fall for us. School, church engagements, work, friends and family coming in to town, doctor’s appointments and fall festivities all crammed into 2 and a ½ very short months. Busy busy busy and in the rare moments when not busy, we have craved some relaxation, some brain candy, some way to shut down and truly disengage from the overload. Hello, Facebook. Hello, Instagram. Hello, TV show, movie, book. Distract us, help us to unwind and relax.

All of this activity and hustle and bustle has worn me down. Where is the quiet? Social media is not quiet. Entertainment is not quiet. Even personal relationships are not quiet. None of these things are bad; they are not evil; they are not sinful by any means. But they are not quiet. I may be sitting alone in a quiet room with just my phone, and my ears are not working, but my mind is drowning in a cacophony of noise.

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

“But he would withdraw to a desolate place and pray.” (Luke 5:15)

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray.” (Luke 6:12)

“And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:31)

“And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone…” (Matthew 14:23)

Jesus withdrew countless times, over and over, to “desolate” places, to the wild, to nature, to places where His Father’s still small voice would be the only one in his ear. Do we do this? Do we find these desolate places that are empty of noise and full of God? Do we sit and pray? I don’t think so, partially because I think we over-complicate prayer. Yes, we are taught to speak to God and how to speak to Him. We are told to make our requests known, to bring all our worries to Him and leave them at the Cross with Him. But we are also told to listen. To be quiet.

“I think it is possible to learn stillness - but only if it is seriously sought. God tells us, ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 40:10). ‘In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’ (Isaiah 30:15). The stillness in which we find God is not superficial, a mere absence of fidgeting or talking. It is a deliberate and quiet attentiveness - receptive, alert, ready…” -Elisabeth Elliot

Do we think that in those quiet moments when our mind wanders and we actually take the time to hold our thoughts captive, that the Spirit does not speak? That He does not direct our thoughts to His will, His way? It is usually in those rare moments of quiet, after a time of speaking TO God that I hear FROM God the most in the simple turning of my thoughts. I come to realizations, to peace, to understanding that could not be found apart from Him.

We can’t always withdraw to desolate places and be alone. Stillness and quiet is hard to come by. But can we wake thirty minutes earlier? Can we turn the TV off while washing dishes? Can we sit without our phones while drinking our morning coffee? Can we drive with the nothing but quiet worship music for company? Can we intentionally seek the discomfort of quiet and listen for that still small voice?

I believe we can, and I know that we need to.

“My dear Wormwood: Music and silence–how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell–though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express, no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise–Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile–Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress.” -C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

If thou could'st empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf,
And say, "This is not dead,"
And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou are all replete with very thou
And hast such shrewd activity,
That when He comes He says, "This is enow
Unto itself - 'twere better let it be,
It is so small and full, there is no room for me."
Sir Thomas Browne

Review: REFLECT

By: Howard Cole

Why read a book about the identity and implications of Jesus?

I am thrilled to read great books in a community. Over the past two years I have been reading and rereading REFLECT by Thaddeus J. Williams with a group of guys at church. It’s been a real hit and I want you to see why. Maybe you’ll even go out and read it with a group of your friends.

What’s it all about?

Since God, like our sun, is the most glorious being in existence, we expand, grow and really live when we reflect him. R-E-F-L-E-C-T acts as an acronym and each letter explores what it would look like if we actually worship and thereby reflect Jesus, the son of the living God. Here’s a quick chapter breakdown to wet your appetite:

R: Reasoning like Jesus calls us to develop our intellectual virtues. Our thinking can be slippery and sloppy but when we think like Jesus we think straight and love God will all of our mind.

E: Emoting like Jesus calls us to feel joy at what brings him joy and outrage at what brings him anger. Since our emotions construe meaning, we need to allow Jesus to reshape our emotions.

F: Flipping our upside-down attempts to live meaningfully must occur when we align with Jesus. Following Jesus means flipping our views about power, pleasure and purity.

L: Loving like Jesus cultivates the relational depth we desire and struggle to achieve.

E: Elevating others reflects the grace of Jesus as we examine and apply the cross-work of Christ.

C: Creating beauty like Jesus fuels the fire of our own creative imaginations.

T: Transformation is explained, illustrated and applied since we all crave lasting change.

What I like most:

The author introduces you to 49 different and thoroughly interesting people quoting them in their areas of science, art, philosophy, music, politics, history, psychology, pop culture, literature and more. He relates the life of Jesus with their unique points of view provoking fresh thought about imitating Jesus.

Want to taste a sample of the book?

Page one begins like a pistol going off at the starting blocks with a thought experiment: “Imagine you are escorted through an underground laboratory into a controversial machine. You step inside a big silver cube and are told to think about whatever you love most in the world. A wall of glass rises out of the floor, dividing the cube into two equal chambers. Then everything goes dark. Your earliest memories project one after another on the glass. All your firsts and all of your favorites, side-aching laughs, heart-palpitating joys, gut-punching rejections- all of it beams from your consciousness and onto the screen. On the opposite side of the glass all of the flashing rays of your personal movie reel seem to cluster together and take form. As the defining ideas, feelings, and choices of your life speed through

the glass, your future self slowly materialized in the other chamber. Then the lights come up, the glass goes down, and you stand there, eye to eye with your future self….Would you see someone big-souled, caring and full of life or someone small, self-consumed and burned out?”

Any down-sides?

If you want to read a paint-by-numbers book with quick steps and techniques this is not the book for you. The author will deconstruct many ways you have pieced together your world and then reconstruct it through stories, quotes and the centrality of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

How about exchanging the time you’ll spend binging on the next, best Netflix or Amazon TV series with a fascinating book you can read with friends? You won’t regret it!

Catch & Release

By: Sarah Cates

This summer my oldest started Kindergarten. My best friend moved to Japan. We dealt with a loss in the family. I’ve had friends in relational and financial crisis. So much is going on in the lives of so many people I love, and I can’t truly be involved in it. I’m not there to help my daughter navigate classroom rules for the first time. I’m not in Japan to share a margarita with my best friend when the military loses her entire shipment of household goods. We live far away from family.  I have my own, God-given top priority of my husband and my kids that means I can’t drop everything to help my mom friends who need support - and too often, I am the one who needs the support, anyway.

This summer has made me more aware than I have ever been that my people (even my children!) do not belong to me, they belong to Jesus. I am not their schoolmaster, their helper, their rescuer - Jesus is. He has and will set their curriculum - which will undoubtedly include great joy and great heartbreak. And no matter how much I want to, I cannot and should not interfere with that curriculum. The people I love are not mine, they are His. I cannot go with them always, He can. I cannot comfort them always, He can.

So if I am not to be the helper, the rescuer, who am I to be? If each of their trials will be as much a surprise to me as they are to them, if each of their growing strengths and revealed weaknesses are being cared for apart from my knowledge and involvement, what can I do? I can armor them. And I can give them rest. Each day I can catch them and help them prepare to be released back into a broken world.

I can arm them with truth. Teaching my daughter, reminding my friends, to not only know the Word of God but to wield it with wisdom as they learn about this world God has placed them in. I can remind them of who God is - and that He alone is sovereign. I can remind them of His faithfulness in times past, of His character and unchanging nature.

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” -Ephesians 6:13-17

I can arm them with their unshakeable identity. Not only that they are a beloved daughter, or wife or mother, but a beloved daughter of the One True King. Their value is set, more than priceless, and nothing they do can add or subtract from it.

“Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called 'children of God'—and that is not just what we are called, but what we are.” -1 John 3:1 (Phillips)

I can give them the rest that comes from grace. A safe place to bring sin and fault and screw ups and learn repentance and how to get up and try again the next day. I can assure them that no matter what, Christ’s love does not fade, and that as they repent and seek Him, they will experience only grace and blessing.

“...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” - Romans 5:8-9

I can give them the rest of knowing that when they don’t know how, when they don’t want to or can’t - I am carrying them daily to the Cross in prayer. That I am watchful and present and pleading their case before a perfectly loving, all powerful Father.

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is workingt.” -James 5:16

Catch. Release. Repeat. My hope is that the many people I love, know that I love them even when I cannot be with them, because I give them over to God. And my greater hope is that I will know the love of God better, because I will see how He watches over and keeps those whom I love, even when I can’t.