Carolyn-Coming in Faith #1

Our good friend, Carolyn Hinkle, wanted us to share with you some of her thoughts on coming to the Lord in faith.
She points us to Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Today, she views faith through the eyes of “the leper,” as she writes…
My name is…well, my name doesn’t really matter…what matters is what happened to me. I was a leper! Do you know what that means? Understand, you don’t have much of that around in this day and time, and you’ve even got a fancy new name for it, Hansen’s Disease.
But let me tell you, in my day the very word was enough to cause people to throw stones at you to keep you away from them.
We weren’t allowed to enter walled towns or cities. Consequently, we mostly lived out in the countryside. We tended to band together to help each other. That was the only way we could survive. Sometimes, kind folks would bring food and clothes, but they didn’t want to get too close…and were always careful to keep UP-wind.
I agree…we weren’t pretty to look at…and we smelled…no STUNK…something awful. But we were still people. People just like you…with the normal wants and needs. Welll, one day we began to hear about some Jesus fellow that was going around talking about love, and joy, and happiness. Some of us got a real hoot out of THAT. “Yeah,” we said, “he should come here and talk about love, and joy, and happiness. One whiff of us and he’d just LOVE to be someplace else.
But, you know, I got to thinking about it. Why, I had even heard someone say that they thought someone said that he claimed to be the Son of God. I didn’t think that could be possible, but…WHAT IF IT WAS? The talk grew stronger and stronger. They said he was going around the whole area, and all kinds of people with all kinds of sicknesses were getting HEALED, even epileptics and paralytics. There was even talk of a man who had been blind all his life who could now see!!!
The more I thought about it, the stronger my desire to see this man. I just wanted to see him. I knew the crowds wouldn’t let me get too close, so I had to pick my spot carefully.
He had been up on the mountainside for quite awhile…some said teaching some more on how to be happy. I figured that would put the crowd in a pretty good mood, which might help me to get closer. So, I scouted out the area and found a spot where I would be in a shadow, right by the path he would have to take down the mountainside.
It worked just perfectly. I could see him coming. Large crowds followed him, and they did seem to be pretty happy.
I watched and waited. He got closer and closer, and the closer he got, a strange feeling, a conviction came over me. There was just something about him. I can’t really describe it, but I began to think he really might be able to heal people. HE REALLY MIGHT BE THE SON OF GOD.
He came even closer, and the next thing I knew, I was kneeling before him in an attitude of worship and saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” And, strangely, at that moment, I believed what I was saying with all my heart. Stranger still, he didn’t kick me away, or throw-up at the sight and smell of me. He reached out his hand AND TOUCHED ME…and said, “I am willing. Be clean.”
I can’t even begin to describe what happened to me in that moment. It was like a sharp heat…no, a tingling…no, like a sensation you feel sometimes when you are close to lightning.
All I know is, I was having strange sensations all over my body.
In the middle of all this, this man Jesus was instructing me not to tell anyone what had happened to me but to show myself to the priests and offer the gift of one who has been cured of leprosy, as commanded by Moses.
Hardly believing it myself, I did as I was told, and…don’t ask me how or why…but all signs of leprosy left my body completely.
Talk about a changed life! I had given up hope!
How did I have enough faith to do that…jump out before him in the middle of all those people? I really can’t say. It just seemed to build of its own accord.
The more I heard about him…and then when I sought him out…the closer he got…until finally I was looking full in his face.

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