Reach Out & Touch Someone

Have you ever been desperate for anything? I know I have been before. There's something about people in a desperate state; they don't give a rip what people think of them. Jesus came across many people who were desperate. On one such occasion, Jesus encountered this scenario:

Mark 1:40-41

⁴⁰A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."

⁴¹Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Leprosy? Yuck! How could you touch someone with a disease like leprosy? Just to emphasize the gross factor of the disease a little, here are some facts about it.

Its symptoms start in the skin and peripheral nervous system (outside the brain and spinal cord), then spread to other parts, such as the hands, feet, face, and earlobes. Patients with leprosy experience disfigurement of the skin and bones, twisting of the limbs, and curling of the fingers to form the characteristic claw hand. Facial changes include thickening of the outer ear and collapsing of the nose.

Jesus freely touched people with leprosy. While people with leprosy traditionally suffered banishment from family and neighbors, Jesus broke from the tradition. He treated lepers with compassion, touching and healing them. - From an article entitled " Biblical Leprosy: Shedding Light on the Disease that Shuns by Dr. Alan Gillen, a biology professor at Liberty University as found on http://www.answersingenesis.org

Jesus reached beyond the social norm, and touched lepers anyway, regardless of their disfigurement or social stigma. So it begs the questions who has God placed in your path that you've deemed "untouchable"?

It's time for all of us who call ourselves Christian to start following the pattern of Christ in a very visible and tangible way, so that others who are searching will see more than just a 1 day a week religion.

What are we afraid of? Once we were untouchable, unlovable because of our sin. Thank you God that you sent Jesus to touch and love me anyway! It's time to touch the untouchables.

My Manifesto To Hell

Written Thursday 7-15-10

To all the demons in hell and their leader Lucifer,

For far too long you have manipulated me, using my mind as the garden to grow your evil schemes, using my spirit to express your wicked emotions and using my body to carry out your bidding.

You've tempted me, lied to me, tricked me, sold me down the river, blinded me to the truth, isolated me, given me a gang beat down and left me for dead. Every time my Saviour Jesus has rescued me, cleaned me up and put me back on the straight and narrow, only to watch me fall again and again.

Tonight, I am happy to inform you that because of your treachery, we can no longer be friends (as if we ever were). You see, as you've probably known all along my Father, God has a better plan for me, and I've bought into it hook, line and sinker. Every time I sold Jesus out, betrayed him, lied to him, walked out on him, broke my promises to him, pledged my whole-hearted allegiance only to 180. He decided that I was worth saving.

Can you believe that a lying, cheating, adulterating, bitter, angry, mistrustful, unreliable, selfish human being like me could and has been chosen to proclaim his name as a missionary? If I were God, never in a million years, would I have picked me for the job.

However, now that it's mine, I want to tell you Satan, that I'm coming after you with every fiber in my being. I refuse to be some weak, push over Christian who falls for your schemes. If you knock me down, it only strengthens my resolve. Inside me lives a Rocky heart waiting to kick you all the way back to hell.

I'm not afraid of you, because I have a kamikaze attitude. So you can sit behind your walls, but I'm telling you they are gonna fall. I'm the lead man on the battering ram to hell. I'm gonna be the first one through when the wall breaks. I'm gonna knock down your gates with the Prince of Heaven as my lead. I'm stealing back the souls of Man, giving them back, never to be taken back again.

I refuse to sit back in my comfortable Christian bubble, lulled to sleep by silver-tongued preachers who promise my "best life now." I'm a casino better who's laying it all on the table, for I count my life as lost for the sake of God and the advancement of his kingdom. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I'm coming to expose your lies with the truth of God's word and rescue all who are willing to hear, and to those who turn a deaf ear now; I am raising my son and daughter to take my place when I am gone.

I've been marked by heaven for this task, and I don't know why, but I guess there's nothing else to say but goodbye.