Are You the Joyful, Grateful One?

             Have you had your Joy Juice today?  Sharing the joy of The Lord with others is a message all people need.

               Today we read from Luke 17, verses 11-19:  ^“Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

              All ten lepers were healed...but only one came back to express his gratitude!  Could it be that the lepers had been shunned by people so long that they were in the habit of setting themselves apart?  Maybe, just maybe, they wanted to quietly put their disgraceful and messy lives behind them!

         Lysa TerKeurst asks: "When it comes to the messiness of your own life, do you tend to be more like the nine lepers, wanting to put your difficult past quickly behind you? Or are you like the one leper, eager to tell your story as an act of gratitude and worship"?

           As Lysa (TerKuerst) reminds us: "When the Messiah touches our mess, it becomes our message to the world!"