Saturday, October 3, 2009

An Open Invitation to Covenant Living

The key verse, Mark 1:37, for the Sunday school lesson, Looking for Jesus, on October 4, 2009 speaks of all men seeking Jesus (Mark 1:35-45). Jesus had gotten up earlier in the morning, way before day, found a solitary place to pray, when Simon and some other followers of His came to Him, and said to Jesus, "... All men seek for thee." First, we see how important prayer was for Jesus, in His humanity, allowing Him to stay focus about His Father's business, doing His Father's will and not being distracted by the attention given Him. We can certainly learn from the example Jesus set (Luke 5:16), the role prayer should hold in our lives to keep us empowered by God. With this report, Jesus told the desciples it is time to move on to other towns, because preaching the Gospel was the primary reason for His earthy presence. Jesus and the disciples went to Galilee and He preached in all the synagogues throughout and He casted out devils. An unclean leper came and knelt down to Him, seeking to be cleaned. Jesus had compassion, extended His hand and touched him and said it was His will and immediately he was cleansed.


Who would you consider the unclean in our society today? Do we, as Christians, extend our hand to them by showing love and compassion and by sharing the Gospel of salavation that Christ may save them when they come asking? What was the instruction given by Jesus to the cleansed man, did he obey and what was the result of his decision?

1 comment:

searching said...

There is nothing that can compare to the peace you feel when speaking to our Father in the early morning hours. I often tune in to the chat line and pray to our Father in the Name of Jesus. In this instance Jesus was praying to His Father. He was so overtaken with His prayer that the disciples came to look for Him. After all, they felt good at Jesus' popularity in their home town. They were startled when Jesus told them He could not go back to the home town where they had many sick people awaiting Jesus to heal them. Jesus had to move on to the another town, Capernaum, to preach. Preaching salvation to all nations was his first priority. But healing would raise the attention of the crowds.
While in Capernaum, he did heal a leper who was considered an outcast in the community until he was healed.
The leper said, "If thou wilt, thou canst."
Jesus was moved with compassion and said, "I WILL."
I believe the unclean in this community today is anyone who needs to seek salvation. It is anyone that needs to hear the gospel, accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, believing that He rose in three days. And, not only do I pass out literature on a daily basis, but I speak to people in public about His goodness continuously.
We can not be ashamed. We must be bold.