WEEK 9 DAY 1

DAY 1 – NOVEMBER 21

TITLE: “CALL OUT TO JESUS”

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-19

DAILY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-13

KEY VERSE: “…and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’”

Luke 17:13

The story of the ten lepers is one of many stories of people calling out to Jesus. As Jesus was traveling along the border between Samaria and Galilee, on His way to Jerusalem, these ten lepers called out to Him loudly, asking for mercy. In chapter 8 of his gospel, Luke records the story of a ruler by the name of Jairus who came to Jesus, for his only daughter was dying. While Jesus was on his way, he passed by a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She came behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Because she reached out to Jesus in faith, her need for healing was met.

Matthew records the story of two blind men who were sitting by the roadside when they heard that Jesus was going to be coming by. As Jesus passed them, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” The crowd tried to quiet them, but they called out all the more to Jesus. Matthew records, “Jesus stopped and called them. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked. ‘Lord,’ they answered, ‘we want our sight.’ Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.” Matthew 20:32-34. Jesus responded with mercy as they called out to Him.

As a young person, I remember singing a chorus by Bill Gaither that went like this:

Since Jesus passed by, Since Jesus passed by;

Oh what a diff'rence, Since Jesus passed by.
Well I can't explain it, And I cannot tell you why,
But oh what a diff'rence, Oh what a diff'rence,

Oh what a diff'rence, Since Jesus passed by. (Bill Gaither)

The psalmist understood the privileged of calling out to the Lord. Take a few moments to reflect on these verses from the Psalms. “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God.” Psalm 4:1. “Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.” Psalm 4:3. “I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer.” Psalm 17:6. “Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me.” Psalm 27:7. “From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.” Psalm 86:3-7. “He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.” Psalm 91:15. “I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me.” Psalm 120:1. “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Psalm 145:18. Will you call out to Jesus today?

DAY 2 – NOVEMBER 22

TITLE: “OBEDIENCE”

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-19

DAILY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:14

KEY VERSE: “When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.” Luke 17:14

God calls us to obey His word. Without obedience to His word, we cannot experience all that God has for us to experience. Reflect on the importance of obedience as you read the poem, “The Kite and it's String--"

Once on a time a paper kite

Was mounted to a wondrous height,

Where, giddy with its elevation,

It thus expressed self-admiration:

"See how yon crowds of gazing people

Admire my flight above the steeple;

How would they wonder if they knew?

All that a kite like me can do!

Were I but free, I'd take a flight,

And pierce the clouds beyond their sight,

But, ah! like a poor pris'ner bound,

My string confines me near the ground;

I'd brave the eagle's towering wing,

Might I but fly without a string."

It tugged and pull, while thus it spoke,

To break the string--at last it broke.

Deprived at once of all its stay,

In vain it tried to soar away;

Unable its own weight to bear,

It fluttered downward through the air;

Unable its own course to guide,

The winds soon plunged it in the tide.

Ah! foolish kite, thou hadst no wing,

How could'st thou fly without a string!

My heart replied, "O Lord, I see

How much this kite resembles me!

Forgetful that by thee I stand,

Impatient of thy ruling hand;

How oft I've wished to break the lines

Thy wisdom for my lot assigns?

How oft indulged a vain desire

For something more, or something higher?

And, but for grace and love divine,

A fall thus dreadful had been mine." (--John Newton)

DAY 3 – NOVEMBER 23

TITLE: “PRAISING GOD”

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-19

DAILY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:15

KEY VERSE: “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.” Luke 17:15

Author, Don McMinn, in his book, The Practice of Praise, says, "Praise is acknowledging and celebrating the person and work of God." This leper began to praise God loudly in celebration of his healing. He was not silent about what God had done for him. Christians are not to be silent about who God is and what He is doing in our lives. You and I must praise His name out loud so the people around us will know who God is and what He is doing. We can praise God loudly with our voices, words, attitudes, and actions. I pray we will not be stingy with our praise to God. We can never praise God too much for all He has done for us.

In this story, only one leper returned to give God praise. He made a decision of the will to praise God. The Psalmist made a decision of the will to also praise God. He said,

“I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 146:2. Will you join in the chorus of praise to God? The more people who praise Him, the more God is praised. The Psalmist said, “May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.” Psalm 67:3.

A legend is told of a contest between an elephant and a small brown wood thrush. The elephant said to the wood thrush, “I can be heard to the furthest point of the forest.” The wood thrush looked at the elephant and accepted the challenge, and so, confidently, the elephant raised his trunk into the air and sent forth a piercing blast. The wood thrush sat on a limb of a tree and sang its sweet but soft song. The judges were sent out into the forest to see how far each had been heard. As the judges traveled, they asked, “Did you hear the elephant with his piercing blast? Did you hear the song of the wood thrush?” Further and further they went. Soon it was reported that the elephant’s piercing blast had not been heard, but the song of the wood thrush had been heard. When the judges returned, everybody was astounded, and they turned to the wood thrush and said, “How was it that your soft song, ever so soft and sweet, was heard into the forest beyond that of the elephant?” The little bird explained, “In the family of the thrushes, we have sentinels, and when one sings a song, another picks up the song and passes it along, and another picks up the song and passes it along, so the whole world hears the song, yet it is started by a single bird.”

As each of us praise God through our lives and proclaim His praise to others, the message of praise goes forth from sentinel to sentinel until, indeed, the whole world is circled by praise for God. Will you join in the chorus of those who, like the one leper, praised God in a loud voice? Praise is part of the lifestyle of the transformed.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heav’n-ly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.”

DAY 4 – NOVEMBER 24

TITLE: “GIVE THANKS”

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-19

DAILY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:15-19

KEY VERSE: “He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him-and he was a Samaritan.” Luke 17:16

Jesus expressed His disappointment over the fact that only one returned to give thanks. He had healed all ten, but only one returned to give praise to God and express thanks. With the same intensity he had asked the Lord for mercy, he now spoke out in praise to God. Jesus pointed out that there was only one voice shouting praise when there should have been ten. The question, “Where are the other nine?” keeps me mindful of my own need and opportunity to give the Lord praise and thanks. Will you give Him thanks today?

In his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, Abraham Lincoln said these words. “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizen in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART
GIVE THANKS TO THE HOLY ONE
GIVE THANKS FOR HE'S GIVEN
JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON

AND NOW LET THE WEAK SAY I AM STRONG
LET THE POOR SAY I AM RICH
BECAUSE OF WHAT THE LORD

HAS DONE FOR US

GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART
GIVE THANKS TO THE HOLY ONE
GIVE THANKS FOR HE'S GIVEN
JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON
GIVE THANKS…

DAY 5 – NOVEMBER 25

TITLE: “THANK HIM”

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-19

DAILY SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:16

KEY VERSE: “He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him-and he was a Samaritan.” Luke 17:16

I like the story about the man who was writing at the post office desk when he was approached by an older fellow who had a post card in his hand. The old man said, "Sir, could you please address this post card for me?" The man gladly did so, and he agreed to write a short message on the post card, and he even signed it for the man, too. Finally, the man doing the writing said to the older man, "Now, is there anything else I can do for you?" The old fellow thought about it for a minute, and he said, "Yes, at the end could you just put, 'P.S. Please excuse the sloppy handwriting.'"

A few years ago, the Peanuts cartoon pictured Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy’s dinner on Thanksgiving Day. But it was just his usual dog food in a bowl. Snoopy took one look at the dog food and said, "This isn’t fair. The rest of the world is eating turkey with all the trimmings, and all I get is dog food. Because I’m a dog, all I get is dog food." He stood there and stared at his dog food for a moment, and said, "I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey."

This ex-leper had so much to be thankful for. His life had been transformed by Jesus. He had been destined to be isolated before he met Jesus, but now he was being set free to return to family and friends. Before he met Jesus, he had to keep his distance from others because he was a leper, but now he could throw himself at the feet of Jesus and thank Him. WOW! He was aggressive and passionate about thanking Jesus, for Jesus had done so much for him. Though he was a Samaritan and though others might not have expected him to act that way, he humbly and wholeheartedly expressed his thanks to the Lord. Is there anything that is keeping you from throwing yourself at Jesus’ feet and thanking Him today? The Samaritan’s heart and passion to thank the Lord was greater than his reasons not to. One poet of yesterday expressed it in this way:

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses;

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes;

Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears;

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean;

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself. (Unknown)