AWANA Class

My church runs a Bible club for kids called AWANA (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed) that takes place every other Friday night. Most of you probably know about it. Anyway, last year I had the awesome opportunity to teach the 9-12 year old class there. I still do it, except now another guy and I alternate classes. Teaching has been such a blessing to me (I think sometimes Christians use "blessing" to the point of cliché but I really mean it here); as I prepare the lessons I'm about to teach the kiddies I learn so much myself. I'll share the idea of last Friday's lesson here, as it is relevant to Thanksgiving. This isn't the way I actually taught it, it's sorta different writing it down as opposed to saying it, but all the important ideas are there.

**********************************************************

What do you want more than anything else? Now, what would you do if someone gave you that exact thing?

Here's a story about ten men who had that very thing happen to them, and how they reacted to it.

Luke 17:11-19--11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, 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 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Leprosy is a terrible disease. Nerve endings die, flesh rots, fingers fall off, and extremely contagious. Not only did these men suffer from the actual symptoms of the disease, but the contagiousness of the disease meant that they were unable to be with their friends or families, and were forced to live as outcasts. I'd say the one thing these guys wanted more than anything else was to get rid of their leprosy. And guess what? They got it. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest (God ordained the priests as the identifiers of leprosy--Leviticus 19 gives a detailed explanation of what the priest looked for to diagnose those thought to have the illness), and as they were on their way, "they were cleansed".

Now what did they do?

Luke 17:15-18 says that only one of the ten went back to thank Jesus. Only one. The others just took the blessing and ran off excited that they had just gotten their life back.

I find what the Bible says about that one leper and what he did interesting, and a good lesson for us. First off, in verse 15, it says that as soon as he saw he was cleansed, he returned. As soon as he noticed God's gift, he acknowledged it and went to thank Jesus for what He had done for him. Not only did he go back to thank Jesus in person, he "with a loud voice glorified God." Not whispered a thank-you to God for helping him, not secretly rejoiced in his heart about what had happened, but out loud, so that others could hear and know what God had done for him. That part there was the most convicting to me, as I tend not to talk much about what God has done for me. After praising God out loud, the leper who had been healed went straight to Jesus and worshiped Him. He realized the power of God because of what had been done for him and worshiped Him for it. And the last thing this verse tells us about this man is that he was a Samaritan. A man who, in the Jew's mind, was lower than they were and sinful. The other lepers were probably Jewish, but he, the Samaritan, was the only one who did the right thing.

And when Jesus saw that man, the only thankful leper, after He pointed out the fact that only the Samaritan had thanked Him, He told him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well." Now, I think we can say that He wasn't talking about the leprosy. The other nine lepers all were cleansed, yet none of them showed any signs of faith. The Bible doesn't tell us whether or not that man believed, but Jesus knew the man's heart, and since we see the man's outward signs of faith, it's very reasonable to say that that leper, once he saw what had been done, understood who Jesus was and believed. And his faith healed him from his sin.

Now, to draw some parallels from this story to our lives.

Here in America, we enjoy many, many blessings. We have freedom of religion, we have a safe place to live, we live in a place where all our physical needs can be met. But besides this, we have a blessing somewhat in common with those lepers. Leprosy and sin are much alike: they both cause much pain, spread, and result in death. But, if we have accepted Jesus as our savior, we have been cleansed from our sin, just like the lepers were cleanse of their leprosy. Yet, how often do we thank God for what He's given us? Do we glorify Him with a "loud voice" so that others know? And when new blessings come our way, do we acknowledge that they're from God, or just take the blessing and continue along our merry way, happy that our life is now better, without recognizing their true source or thanking God for it? And do we worship Him for His wonderful grace and power? I know that I, at least, don't do this nearly as often as I should.

As Thanksgiving comes tomorrow, let's remember not only to thank Him on Thanksgiving for what He's done for us, but also to thank Him as He gives us blessings.

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!