WHY PUT THIS STORY IN PRINT?For those in the Church:
Julie wants to witness to those in Churches today just as Jesus commanded the leper in Matthew 8:4 “And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” Julie wants to show herself to the new testament priests — the body of Christ — that she is clean. For those caught up in a sinful life: Julie wants people who are caught up in a lifestyle of drugs, drink and promiscuity, to know that whilst at first these things are ‘enjoyed’ for a season, sin will destroy you; it will ‘eat your inner man away’. It is her prayer that those who find themselves on a precipice as she did, will cry out to God, and find deliverance and freedom as she did! |
 |
Modern Leprosy – SIN
Leprosy in the Bible is a picture and type of sin. . .
. . . as sin will do to your soul, what leprosy does to the flesh; sin will eat away at your soul and ultimately destroy you if not healed. Sinful lifestyles or habits are those things which are forbidden by God in His Word, the Bible, as God knows how destructive these will be on our lives. Drug addiction, like every other sin, will destroy a person's body. Homosexuality, like every other sin, will eat away the soul; homosexuality, like alcoholism, like drug-addiction, like a life of crime, will destroy your inner man.
Let's take a closer look at the picture of sin given to us by God in the details of a leper.
Leviticus 14: 4 -32 is a beautiful picture of the cleansing of a healed leper. Please read it.
Now let us put this passage in contemporary terms. The leper, once he saw that he was healed of leprosy, had to present himself to the priest who then instructed the leper to bring certain animals for an atoning sacrifice. This is a picture of the sinner going to the Saviour to confess Him, Jesus Christ, as his Lord and Saviour. The priest then took the blood of the sacrifice and put it on the tip of the cleansed leper’s right ear, his right thumb and his right big-toe. A beautiful picture of the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, shed for you at Calvary — let us expand it:
The blood on the right ear is a picture of your senses; all that you have experienced being wiped away: sights and sounds will be forgotten. What a glorious thought: things which we have seen, heard or experienced can all be washed away by the blood of Jesus. It will be as if you never saw, heard or experienced the awful things from your sinful life.
The blood on the right thumb is a picture of your deeds being cleansed – you can’t do much without your thumb. Whatever you have done, NO deed is too bad — Jesus died for ALL to be saved.
The blood on the right toe is a picture of where you have been being wiped away; the places you have been to — you can’t go anywhere happily without your big-toe!
The leper was then told to wash himself, his clothes and shave off his hair, but on his return to the camp he had to “tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.”
Now if you ‘tarry abroad’ you are going to be seen by everyone in that camp. For a whole week men, women and children are going to ask you where you live, with whom you live and why you are outside of your home-tent day and night. You cannot but be noticed, and since this practice was confined to the cleansed leper, everybody would know that you had been a leper. God will put you out there to show everyone clearly that you are cleansed! It is God’s will that people know when leprosy (sin) has been cleansed.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, after seven days living and sleeping outside in public view, the cleansed leper had to “ shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off”. Now, without eyebrows, hair or facial hair (beard) he would have been unrecognizable! It is difficult to identify even a close loved one without eyebrows alone let alone all these features. Again, what a beautiful picture of what God does in the life of a sinner. He removes our sin and the marks of our sinful life so well that we are unrecognizable!
“And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs [very expensive!] without blemish . . . And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand . . . And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot”
Once we are saved, washed in the blood of the Lamb, God wants to pour His oil, His Holy Ghost upon us. The promise of our inheritance is the baptism of the Holy Ghost and it is this anointing which will keep sin from our door.
Ephesians 5:18 “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” This phrase ‘be filled’ is a present and continuing verb – be continuously filled. But what about the New Testament admonishing: Ephesians 5:11 - 13 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light”
Most often verse 12 (“For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret”) is quoted in isolation and used to back the reasoning that it is a shame to speak of a sinner’s past (those things which are done . . . in secret), but verse 13 lifts those things of the past from a place of shame and dark in to a place of light because they are reproved. This word reproved means ‘to tell a fault’. Then ‘made manifest’ literally means to render apparent/declaration. We could paraphrase and interpret verse 13 thus: when we speak openly about sins (tell a fault) of which we have repented and have allowed God’s light to shine in on, the testimony (declaration) of the changing power of God will bring glory to God.
The context in which Julie’s story is told is one of a great light (Jesus Christ) penetrating the darkness in which she lived. Matthew 4:16: “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
In the gospel of Luke we are told about one of ten lepers who returned to Christ to thank him for healing him. It says: Luke 17:15 “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God.” Anyone who knows Julie, knows that she has a loud voice and knows that she uses that voice to turn back and glorify God!
The scripture in Matthew 8:2 – 3: “And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” brings much joy to Julie because Jesus Christ did touch her and IMMEDIATELY cleansed her. Julie did not have to spend hours in a programme of rehabilitation, but was immediately cleansed. Now like the leper, she wants to return and give thanks to God, her maker and sustainer.
In the Old Testament, lepers had to live outside of the camp and a wide space was left between them and healthy civilians. But in Jesus’ time the Lepers came running to Him and they were healed. Sadly in the modern church homosexuality, more than any other sinful lifestyle, has become the modern-day leprosy. The subject is given a wide space, moreover, it is hushed and whispers accompany the subject more than any other sin, indeed shame accompanies this sin above all other sins yet Jesus Christ came, died and rose again to deliver men and women from homosexuality as much as the alcoholic from alcohol, the drug addict from drugs or the criminal from his crime.
If it is not hushed then increasingly the opposite occurs as the church world seems to be split clearly in two on this subject; one shuns the subject and the other embraces it as a permissible lifestyle.
In the former, if you were a practising homosexual before you came to Christ, you can be sure that in many churches you will not be asked to testify or you might sense that you should ‘leave that part out’. Yet murderers, drug addicts and adulterous men will testify openly of God’s saving grace upon their sinful lives.
In the latter, and on the opposite side of the pendulum, there are those who openly welcome the practice of homosexuality and erroneously assure the homosexual that they can continue in the homosexual lifestyle whilst proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord of their life. This is heresy and one that keeps thousands in captivity. It is not we, but God who names homosexuality as an abomination (Leviticus 20:13). Friends, God has not changed. He is still the same Holy God He was when He created the earth and the same Holy Spirit, which wrote the 66 books of the Bible, has not changed His mind from Old to New Testament on this subject. God has always loved the sinner; God has always loved the homosexual but he abhors the homosexual sin.
Julie wants it to be known that Christ has set her free. She longs that people who have been told in error that they can be a Christian and a homosexual will hear and learn the truth. She longs too that they will see that God hates sin, but loves the sinner. God loves the homosexual as much as He loves the drug addict, as much as He loves the person who has lived a ‘good’ life, but to live as a homosexual is to utterly disobey God, and God desires obedience above sacrifice. (Article #4 on Sexual Immorality/Homosexuality and the Bible)
Let's take a closer look at the picture of sin given to us by God in the details of a leper.
Leviticus 14: 4 -32 is a beautiful picture of the cleansing of a healed leper. Please read it.
Now let us put this passage in contemporary terms. The leper, once he saw that he was healed of leprosy, had to present himself to the priest who then instructed the leper to bring certain animals for an atoning sacrifice. This is a picture of the sinner going to the Saviour to confess Him, Jesus Christ, as his Lord and Saviour. The priest then took the blood of the sacrifice and put it on the tip of the cleansed leper’s right ear, his right thumb and his right big-toe. A beautiful picture of the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, shed for you at Calvary — let us expand it:
The blood on the right ear is a picture of your senses; all that you have experienced being wiped away: sights and sounds will be forgotten. What a glorious thought: things which we have seen, heard or experienced can all be washed away by the blood of Jesus. It will be as if you never saw, heard or experienced the awful things from your sinful life.
The blood on the right thumb is a picture of your deeds being cleansed – you can’t do much without your thumb. Whatever you have done, NO deed is too bad — Jesus died for ALL to be saved.
The blood on the right toe is a picture of where you have been being wiped away; the places you have been to — you can’t go anywhere happily without your big-toe!
The leper was then told to wash himself, his clothes and shave off his hair, but on his return to the camp he had to “tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.”
Now if you ‘tarry abroad’ you are going to be seen by everyone in that camp. For a whole week men, women and children are going to ask you where you live, with whom you live and why you are outside of your home-tent day and night. You cannot but be noticed, and since this practice was confined to the cleansed leper, everybody would know that you had been a leper. God will put you out there to show everyone clearly that you are cleansed! It is God’s will that people know when leprosy (sin) has been cleansed.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, after seven days living and sleeping outside in public view, the cleansed leper had to “ shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off”. Now, without eyebrows, hair or facial hair (beard) he would have been unrecognizable! It is difficult to identify even a close loved one without eyebrows alone let alone all these features. Again, what a beautiful picture of what God does in the life of a sinner. He removes our sin and the marks of our sinful life so well that we are unrecognizable!
“And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs [very expensive!] without blemish . . . And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot: And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand . . . And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot”
Once we are saved, washed in the blood of the Lamb, God wants to pour His oil, His Holy Ghost upon us. The promise of our inheritance is the baptism of the Holy Ghost and it is this anointing which will keep sin from our door.
Ephesians 5:18 “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” This phrase ‘be filled’ is a present and continuing verb – be continuously filled. But what about the New Testament admonishing: Ephesians 5:11 - 13 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light”
Most often verse 12 (“For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret”) is quoted in isolation and used to back the reasoning that it is a shame to speak of a sinner’s past (those things which are done . . . in secret), but verse 13 lifts those things of the past from a place of shame and dark in to a place of light because they are reproved. This word reproved means ‘to tell a fault’. Then ‘made manifest’ literally means to render apparent/declaration. We could paraphrase and interpret verse 13 thus: when we speak openly about sins (tell a fault) of which we have repented and have allowed God’s light to shine in on, the testimony (declaration) of the changing power of God will bring glory to God.
The context in which Julie’s story is told is one of a great light (Jesus Christ) penetrating the darkness in which she lived. Matthew 4:16: “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
In the gospel of Luke we are told about one of ten lepers who returned to Christ to thank him for healing him. It says: Luke 17:15 “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God.” Anyone who knows Julie, knows that she has a loud voice and knows that she uses that voice to turn back and glorify God!
The scripture in Matthew 8:2 – 3: “And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” brings much joy to Julie because Jesus Christ did touch her and IMMEDIATELY cleansed her. Julie did not have to spend hours in a programme of rehabilitation, but was immediately cleansed. Now like the leper, she wants to return and give thanks to God, her maker and sustainer.
In the Old Testament, lepers had to live outside of the camp and a wide space was left between them and healthy civilians. But in Jesus’ time the Lepers came running to Him and they were healed. Sadly in the modern church homosexuality, more than any other sinful lifestyle, has become the modern-day leprosy. The subject is given a wide space, moreover, it is hushed and whispers accompany the subject more than any other sin, indeed shame accompanies this sin above all other sins yet Jesus Christ came, died and rose again to deliver men and women from homosexuality as much as the alcoholic from alcohol, the drug addict from drugs or the criminal from his crime.
If it is not hushed then increasingly the opposite occurs as the church world seems to be split clearly in two on this subject; one shuns the subject and the other embraces it as a permissible lifestyle.
In the former, if you were a practising homosexual before you came to Christ, you can be sure that in many churches you will not be asked to testify or you might sense that you should ‘leave that part out’. Yet murderers, drug addicts and adulterous men will testify openly of God’s saving grace upon their sinful lives.
In the latter, and on the opposite side of the pendulum, there are those who openly welcome the practice of homosexuality and erroneously assure the homosexual that they can continue in the homosexual lifestyle whilst proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord of their life. This is heresy and one that keeps thousands in captivity. It is not we, but God who names homosexuality as an abomination (Leviticus 20:13). Friends, God has not changed. He is still the same Holy God He was when He created the earth and the same Holy Spirit, which wrote the 66 books of the Bible, has not changed His mind from Old to New Testament on this subject. God has always loved the sinner; God has always loved the homosexual but he abhors the homosexual sin.
Julie wants it to be known that Christ has set her free. She longs that people who have been told in error that they can be a Christian and a homosexual will hear and learn the truth. She longs too that they will see that God hates sin, but loves the sinner. God loves the homosexual as much as He loves the drug addict, as much as He loves the person who has lived a ‘good’ life, but to live as a homosexual is to utterly disobey God, and God desires obedience above sacrifice. (Article #4 on Sexual Immorality/Homosexuality and the Bible)
— free indeed!
Julie wants it to be known that Christ has set her free.
She longs that people who have been told in error that they can be a Christian and a homosexual will hear and learn the truth.
She longs too that they will see that God hates sin, but loves the sinner. God loves the homosexual as much as He loves the drug addict, as much as He loves the person who has lived a ‘good’ life, but to live as a homosexual is to utterly disobey God, and God desires obedience above sacrifice.
(Please go on to read Article#4 on Sexual Immorality/Homosexuality and the Bible)