Sister Dian you wrote;Quote;Now, I'm in that state of shock and horror, knowing that God and God alone can help me......I feel an excitement in my spirit at what is coming next, but at the same time, I'm scared. I'm scared, because I know I can't live the "old" way anymore, and I don't know how I'm going to do something else. Does that make sense?Well to me sister Dian it makes all the sense in the world ...The Holy Ghost, via my pastor last Sunday, gave a wonderful sermon about the 10 lepers ...Luke.17[11] And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.[12] And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:[13] And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.[14] And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.[15] And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,[16] And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.[17] And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?[18] There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.[19] And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.The Spirit pointed out that these poor, shunned, disease ridden, beggars, when they saw Jesus, knew instantly that tho unworthy, He was there only means of help ... And so they cried out! ...Pastor went on to preach how we should all notice that Jesus did no fanfare with the lepers, He didn't ask them if they wanted to be healed, nor did He stop and heal them right there on the spot, but made only this one simple statement, "Go shew yourselves unto the priests" ... And immediately, with no other personal assurances or visible signs by Christ, the lepers began hobbling off towards the Temple at Jerusalem, and then the scripture continues with this wondorous little phrase "as they went, they were cleansed" ...If you've truly accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as your only means to being made right with the Father, by being covered in His sanctifying shed blood on Calvary's cross, to the remission of your sins, then you are saved ... But the "leprosy" of our prior Christian life, the "leprosy" of our old man, of our old carnal sin nature, now that's a different story ... And that story has to do with our Christian walk toward Jesus, for not only is our Lord the Master of our own initial individual spiritual salvation when along our road He met us, and we called out to Him for Mercy, but He is also our High Priest in heaven that we're supposed to be walking toward in our subsequent earthly Christian walk ... The Hebrews writers words below gives me Holy Ghost chills every time i read them ...Heb. 4:[14] Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.[15] For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.[16] Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.The initial salvation experience is the easier part, for when we're diseased and dirty, and most in need of miraculous life saving spiritual healing, He meets us along our road, we recognize Him as our only hope of salvation, we cry out for mercy, He grants His initial recognition just on our call alone, then tells us to come even further to Him, by faith, by spiritually walking toward Him also as our High Priest, and as we do so we get better, and better, and better as we go ... And over a period of time you'll begin to discover, that the closer your walk towards our Priest, BY FAITH, the healthier, and healthier, and healthier you'll become spiritually ... i've been saved for 25 years, and i can tell you as a witness that my own personal leprosy is no where near as awful as it was when i first met Christ on the road in 1979 ... In fact i can also tell you that what was once a slow painful hobble in this walk, eventually became a slow walk, then a stride, oft times a power walk, and even at times a full out run, toward our Priest ... And i do look forward to that day where i can personally thank Him in glory for my full, 100%, clean bill of health from ALL symptoms of my spiritual leprosy contagioned from Adam ...But in the meanwhile, as i pray you, and all other saints of God still on this low road toward heavenly Jerusalem, that we all thank Him everyday for bringing us this far by faith ... To this point of where we know we're not as well as we're gonna be, but praise His Holy name we're no where as sick as we once were ...Sister Dian, you said;Quote;I don't know how I'm going to do something else.My tried and tested advice to you ... Keep on walking toward the Light ... Keep on walking toward Jesus, and you'll not have to be concerned about "how" to do something else, because you'll already be doing it! ...God bless you sis! ... And one of these good old bright days you'll look into your spiritual mirror, and that reflected ugliness of ourselves that made us all call out to the Master in the first place will be gone! ... All you got to do is keep on walking toward Him (in deed and study), praising Him daily for each days continual improvement! ...Be excited! ... for your heartset most assuredly has our God excited about you! ... Amen
