In my preaching class this past week we looked at Mark 9:2-9.Here's a link to the text (in several versions)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201:40-45;&version=31;65;49;51;9;
We were to write as many sermon ideas as we could come up with. I only got 12 (one person came up with 50!). What do YOU think could be preached from this text? What do you hear God telling you in this scripture?
To inspire you a little more I'm also posting this picture that I found online. I believe this image hails from India, where resides the largest population of human beings afflicted with leprosy. This is the hand of one of those people who is being treated at a facility that cares for these men and women. I think the picture is absolutely beautiful. The caption that was below it was "Joy is more infectous than leprosy". I believe the man healed by Jesus would attest to that.
1 comment:
Hi Mike,
I learned from Philip Yancey's book "Where Is God When It Hurts" about the gift of pain. Yancey explains that Leprosy is actually a disease that causes a lack of feeling or pain. Yancey tells the story of a young boy with Leprosy who helps him unlock a door in India. The young boy turns the key so hard that it rips into his skin down to the bone. The boy didn't experience the pain, but his hand was badly damaged.
The gift of pain, as Yancey explains, is that we recoil or stop doing something before it gets worse. Pain is an early warning system for us. People with leprosy don't have this gift, and over time and numerous instances of damage (burns, cuts, etc.), their skin and outer extremities get deformed.
So Thank God for the GIFT OF PAIN - our early warning system to stop things from getting worse!
And Pray for those with Leprosy ... there are still about 1,000 Leper Colonies in India, and some elsewhere as well.
John
Post a Comment