THE NEW EWE

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'"

Luke 15:4-6

June 22, 2022

LIFE IN THE FOLD

In Luke chapter 8, verses 40-48 we read a story where Jesus was surrounded by a big crowd of people. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of His robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" Everyone denied it, and Peter said, "Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you."

I like this next verse in the NLT Bible: "But Jesus said, 'Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from Me.'"

This woman touching Jesus wasn't an accident! She wasn't knocked against Him by the crowd and just happened to bump into Him. But she on deliberately, on purpose, reached out to touch Jesus. She had determined that she was going to figure out a way to get close enough to touch His robe.

Scripture goes on to say that when the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of Jesus. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched Him and that she had been immediately healed. Jesus responded by saying, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace."

I love that the woman was so purposeful about finding a way to get to Jesus. Everything else had failed for twelve years. In fact, she would have been considered ceremonially unclean for all of those years.

Leviticus 15:25 says, "If a woman has a flow of blood for many days that is unrelated to her menstrual period, or if the blood continues beyond the normal period, she is ceremonially unclean. As during her menstrual period, the woman will be unclean as long as the discharge continues."

In fact, the following verses go on to say: "Any bed she lies on and any object she sits on during that time will be unclean, just as during her normal menstrual period. If any of you touch these things, you will be ceremonially unclean. You must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening."

Very likely, this woman had lived as an outcast for those many years, because everything she touched would have been considered unclean according to Old Testament law. And anyone who would have touched anything that she did, would then be considered unclean. No one would have wanted to have any contact with her.

Mark writes in chapter 5, verse 26 that this woman had suffered a great deal from doctors; and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them. Yet she had not gotten any better, but had in fact, gotten worse.

She had heard about Jesus, so determined that she was going to find a way to touch Him. She did, and was immediately healed. Can you imagine?! Twelve years of suffering suddenly ended with that one touch!

Jesus' response was, "Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over."

How many times do we stay in our situation of suffering or turmoil or distress, hoping that someway, somehow Jesus will come to us? Instead of going to Him, we want Him to come to us.

Jesus knew that this woman had deliberately reached out and touched Him! He knew that it was done on purpose! And He responded to her faith.

Perhaps sometimes we need to press through our crowded thoughts and the words and opinions of others, and deliberately touch Jesus. On purpose, we reach out our hand to Him.

We do that by being in His presence. And we come into His presence through reading His Word, prayer and worship. We listen to testimonies of what Jesus has done in the lives of others, and allow it to build our faith. We meditate on His goodness and remember all that He has done for us in the past. We have a thankful heart and give Him praise. We serve others with kindness and allow the light of Jesus to shine through us. We deliberately go to Jesus and touch Him!

JON'S PERSPECTIVE:

Being deliberate is also important in worship of Jesus. Like most churches, ours has a worship leader who will go on stage and lead us all in a song of worship to Jesus, or to the Father. And we have a choice. We can either sit and watch while they worship. Or we can join and worship Jesus as well.

Being around someone who knows Christ is good, but doesn't give us salvation. Listening to great music with deep spiritual words doesn't save us. Even enjoying it and humming the tune doesn't create the relationship with God that we need.

We need to deliberately sing the words, and mean them. We need to want Jesus in our lives, and be eager and hopeful to see Him with our own eyes. Then we begin to experience that relationship.

ON THE MENEWE:

Frito Salad

Mix all ingredients together; adding the Fritos right before serving. Top with any kind of dressing you prefer.

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER:

I encourage you to challenge yourself to read the Word of God more. Hiding His Word in your heart is so vitally important! Our pastor challenge our congregation to read through the New Testament this summer. The first week, we read Matthew and Jude; the second week, Mark and 1 John; the third week, Luke and I John and II John. This week we are reading John and Philemon. It requires us to read 3-4 chapters each day, which sometimes seem like a lot. But those of us who are participating have found that the more we read each day, the more that we want to read! It is giving us a renewed passion for the Word of God. We meet each Sunday evening to discuss what we've read, and those discussions have been so very good.

So challenge yourself to read more of God's Word each day. I believe that you, too, will find that after a few days you'll have a renewed passion for His Word and desire to read it more and more.

THOUGHT TO PONDER:

Don't be so quick to expose everyone else's sins,

when God has been so merciful to cover yours. - TobyMac

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO YOU:

We love you!

Loretta & Jon

http://www.graysheep.org