They That Are Sick

The Pharisees Question Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” - Mark 2:17

 

This was the answer Jesus gave to the dissatisfaction about his presence among the sinners and tax collectors at Matthew‘s feast. The Pharisees thought He was compromising Himself by having a meal with these kinds of people. They were accusing Him of being one of these types of people.

But Jesus gave them a wise and good answer. These wicked and sinful ones were the very people that needed Him most. It was just with Him as with a doctor. A doctor doesn’t go on house calls to people with perfect health! Those who are well do not need a doctor, but the sick and those with a disease need him. In fact, the worse their sickness or disease, the more they need his comfort and help.

No one would ever have a problem with a doctor  visiting the sick in their homes, or hospitals, or into plague-infested areas. No one would ever suggest that he must have low standards because of the kind of people among whom he spends his time. It was just the same with Him, Jesus said. He had come to this world just so that sinners might find hope and salvation. For this reason, He could not be blamed for going where sinners were. The worse the sinners the more reason there was why He should be found there. “Good” people, like those who criticized Him, did not need his services; but wherever He found a poor, lost sinner, there was one of the persons He had come to help and save.

One suggestion is, that, like their Master, Christ‘s disciples should carry the gospel to the lowest people in society. We should not mingle among the wicked as companions; but when we strive to save them we are becoming Christ to them. Another lesson is, that no sinner need ever despair of hope, since the worse he is the more surely is Christ willing to save him.

You Belong To Him!

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English: Isaiah; illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

y David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 - April 27, 2011]

In Song of Solomon, the Lord says of his bride: “How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love, for delights!” (Song of Solomon 7:6). Three of the Hebrew words
in this verse are synonymous: fair (meaning “precious”), pleasant (indicating
“pleasure”), and delights.

These words describe Jesus’ thoughts toward His bride as He beholds her. He
looks at her and says, “How beautiful, sweet and delightful you are. You are
precious to me, O love!” And in turn, the bride boasts, “I am my beloved’s, and
his desire is toward me” (verse 10). The meaning here is, “He runs after me with
delight. He chases me because I am so precious to him!”

These same thoughts are found throughout the Psalms. “The Lord taketh pleasure
in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Psalm 147:11). “For
the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with
salvation” (149:4).
Now, I can try to convince you of God‘s delight in you by telling you, “You are
precious to the Lord!” Yet you may think, “Well, that’s a lovely thought. How
sweet.”

This truth is much more than a lovely thought, however. It is the very key to
your deliverance from every battle that rages in your soul. It is the secret to
entering into the rest God has promised you. And until you lay hold of
it—until it becomes a foundation of truth in your heart—you will not be
able to withstand what is ahead in this wicked time.

Isaiah had a revelation of God’s great delight in us. He prophesied to Israel
this word from the Lord:

“O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name;
thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee”
(Isaiah 43:1-2).

Isaiah was not talking about a literal flood or fire. He was talking about what
the people were going through spiritually and mentally. They were in captivity
at the time and their floods were trials, their fires were temptations, their
rivers were testings. It was all the devil’s attempt to destroy and overwhelm
God’s people.

Isaiah’s words were a message of pure mercy to Israel. They were in captivity
because of their own stupidity and foolishness and they deserved nothing. But
God sent them a weeping, brokenhearted prophet who said, “God wants me to
tell you that you belong to Him!”