{"id":36717,"date":"2025-07-21T22:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=36717"},"modified":"2025-07-16T13:08:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:08:57","slug":"mark-1_40-45-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark-1_40-45-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Touch of Your Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 1:40-45 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 1:40-45.\u00a0With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 1:40-42 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
\n41\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
\n42\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
\n<\/em>
\nOn verses 40-42:\u00a0 When the leper cried out to Jesus for help, Jesus showed that he was full of compassion as well as the power to heal.\u00a0 What touches me most is\u00a0the way<\/em>\u00a0Jesus healed this leper: he touched him.<\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 time, lepers were the untouchables of society.\u00a0 Lepers were not allowed to touch anyone and no one was to touch them.\u00a0 Yet when the leper cried out to Jesus for help, Jesus reached out and touched the leper.\u00a0 Could you imagine how that leper must have felt when Jesus touched him?\u00a0 That touch from Jesus was likely the first time the leper felt a loving touch in years, maybe decades, maybe ever.\u00a0 Jesus could have spoken out his healing from a safe physical distance.\u00a0 Instead, he touched the leper, and in so doing not only effected the leper\u2019s physical healing, but his emotional healing as well.<\/p>\n

Most people would think that \u201cif I touch this leper, I will get sick too.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus thought, \u201cif I touch this leper, I can make him well.\u201d\u00a0 I love how Jesus comes to meet us in that very place where we are hurting or in need.\u00a0\u00a0Just one touch from Jesus can change an entire life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark 1:43-44a (NIV)<\/strong>
\n43\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“See that you don’t tell this to anyone\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 43-44a:\u00a0 The fact that Jesus warns this former leper not to tell anyone about this miracle tells us a number of things, one of them being:\u00a0\u00a0Jesus didn\u2019t just do miracles to show off<\/strong>.\u00a0 Rather, Jesus performed miracles because he genuinely loved the people he was doing them for and had compassion for them.<\/p>\n

Mark 1:44b (NIV)<\/strong>
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u2026But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
\n<\/em>
\nOn verse 44b:\u00a0 Why did Jesus tell the former leper to show himself to the priest and offer sacrifices for his cleansing?\u00a0 It\u2019s because unless the former leper was examined and cleared by the priest, he would still be socially ostracized and considered an outcast.\u00a0 So in order that this former leper could be included back into society, Jesus tells the former leper to have a priest examine him.\u00a0 It goes to show that\u00a0Jesus cares not just for the restoration of our physical bodies, or our emotional healing, but also wants us to live in healthy relationship with others too.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Jesus knows that we don\u2019t just need physical health, but we also need to belong to a community.<\/p>\n

Mark 1:45 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n45\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 45: \u00a0\u00a0Jesus had sternly warned the former leper not to spread the news about his healing,\u00a0but the former leper didn\u2019t listen, and the consequences were real: Jesus could not move freely through a town anymore but had to stay outside in lonely places.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When we don\u2019t heed Jesus\u2019 warnings, when we don\u2019t obey Jesus\u2019 commands, we make it harder for God\u2019s kingdom to advance in and through our lives so that other people can be blessed.\u00a0 God will still find a way to do His work, but it will not be less because of us and more in spite of us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus, thank You for being the One who heals me and restores me in every way \u2013 physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially.\u00a0 Thank You that just one touch from You can change my entire life.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 1:40-45.\u00a0With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 1:40-42 (NIV)
\n40\u00a0\u00a0A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
\n41\u00a0\u00a0Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
\n42\u00a0\u00a0Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 40-42:\u00a0 When the leper cried out to Jesus for help, Jesus showed that he was full of compassion as well as the power to heal.\u00a0 What touches me most is\u00a0the way\u00a0Jesus healed this leper: he touched him.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36719,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36717\/revisions\/36719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}