Last night we began our study of the Friends of Jesus by Karen Kingsbury. It was a wonderful night surrounded by a group of beautiful women all eager to learn about Jesus and how to be a friend like Jesus.

We studied Simon the Leper. Now there is not much in the Bible about Simon. The verse (Matthew 26:6) pretty much proves that he was a real person and that he had been healed of leprosy because it said he was living in Bethany (that is where the “sick” would be sent to live). So we had to seek out other scripture to learn a few more things about this dreaded disease.

Off to Leviticus 13-14. to find out the history of leprosy and how it was “diagnosed”…but what I want to focus on today is in chapter 13 verse 45:

“Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!'”

Can you imagine? Every time you saw anyone else you would have to shout that out…Unclean! Unclean!

What if we had to do that? What if we had to shout out our most unfavorable trait?

Liar! Liar!

Cheater! Cheater!

Gluttonous! Gluttonous!

Sinner! Sinner!

Praise be to God…we don’t! See, just like Simon was touched by the Master’s hand and made whole again…we can be too!

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
    says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
    they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

Through Jesus and His compassion for us…we ARE MADE CLEAN!

So head up today girls! We have a friend who sticks closer to us than any other and because of His love we can shout…

All Beautiful!

Forgiven!

Free!

Clean! Clean!

White as Snow!

What are you shouting today?

~Donna