The Cost of Faith

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, 10th November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to Matthew 8 and I am reading from verse 2:

“And behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Are we prepared to get our hands dirty? That is the question the Lord is asking us this morning... because Jesus is. You know, I went to a men's prayer meeting and one of the men quoted this scripture that I have just read and again it challenged me deeply.  

There was a book written in 1896 called, In His Steps written by Charles Sheldon. A fictional book, not a true story. It has sold over 50 million copies, one of the all-time best sellers. It is the story of a homeless man who staggers into a very plush and wealthy church. He walks down the aisle and collapses in front of the pulpit. The parishioners didn’t know what to do and of course, the pastor himself was challenged by their lack of participation. The theme of the book was: Love your neighbour.

Now, the younger people will remember (and the older) that there was a bracelet we used to wear. On that bracelet was WWJD which stood for What would Jesus do? I wore that on my wrist for years - Maybe we need to ask ourselves that question again today. We need to get our hands dirty, we need to get involved.  

In the book, I remember two incidents... One was a young opera singer, she was just about to embark on a tour of Europe. This was her big moment and after being challenged by this situation, she cancelled her trip and went down to the ghetto and started singing for the poor and those that were homeless. The other was an editor of a newspaper who had just got a huge scoop about a heavyweight boxing championship of the world. In those days, of course, they boxed without gloves - It was bare-knuckle fighting. That man was convicted that Jesus wouldn’t accept that and so he said, “I am not printing the story". You can imagine the pressure and the criticism he got from the company. 

If your faith is costing you nothing, it is worth nothing. Today, let's get our hands dirty. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.