Ten lepers on a journey

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

~Luke 17:11-14~

I was reading these verses and found them rather interesting...As this little scene unfolds only one of the ten lepers comes back and praises God that He was healed, while  I think that the reaction is the main part of this story, I found it interesting that after the lepers addressed Jesus He responded by saying "Go show yourselves to the priests" He did not tell them they were going to be healed (at least it's not recorded that He did), and yet they headed off trusting Him and obeying what He had said and they were healed on the way-"as they went" ---sometime during the journey to the priests.

Isn't that so much like our own lives? As we journey on and obey Jesus, sometimes we are healed during the process, not always before, not always after. It could be physical healing but it could also be emotional healing, the healing any brokenness we have or soul cleansing. And it's not always obvious along the journey but eventually we realize that it has occurred. Because He will be faithful to us trusting Him. And if that happens in my own life I hope that I can be the one to "turn back and praise God with a loud voice"! :) 

 

My burden is light

"29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

For a while I've been thinking about Matthew 11:29-30 and what is meant by Jesus's burden to find a deeper meaning behind these verses. So I pulled out my dictionary & thesaurus and found that yoke can also mean: to be joined together or subjection / oppression / servitude.
This makes verse 29 make a lot more sense replacing the words:

 'Take my subjection/servitude upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart...'

(I had never thought that the "learn from me" part had made much sense and seemed a little out of place in the middle of the verse, now it makes sense!)
So Jesus is telling us to learn from Him how to be a servant and to take it upon ourselves, but that still doesn't answer, what is His burden?

I had gathered from what the rest of this verse is saying is that His burden or responsibility / load is to humbly serve others. But that's not easy or light at all! In fact, it's very difficult!

So then I thought...well Jesus sees the grand scheme of things because...well, He's God, so what if He meant that those who truly take it [servitude] on consider it light and doesn't encumber them simply because they have joined with Jesus in taking His yoke, become humble in heart and know humbly serving others like Jesus did is totally worth it in the light of eternity.  :)

Never forget

As humans we all have faulty memories, but God calls us to remember. 
Remember what exactly? 

Well, lots of things...

~Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.~

Psalm 103:2

~Be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.~

Deuteronomy 6:12

~Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ~

Deuteronomy 8:11

Throughout the Old Testament God is constantly reminding Israel and His people to not forget who brought them out of Egypt and all the things He had done for them. He wants us to always be thankful, to remember His commandments and the things He has done for us. Not for His benefit but for ours, it's difficult to be caught in self-pity, sadness or hopelessness if we are always thankful and remembering His commandments, our blessings and the great things He has done! 

Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced

1 Chronicles 16:12