Touching His Hem

"And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.  When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,  because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped
and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering."  What is your "bleeding"?  Many of us struggle with different things.  The poison of sin lives in each of us.  I was reminded this past week while having my time with the Lord that we all have a sin nature.  Many of us try very hard to be obedient and honor God with our lives, but if we are honest with ourselves we know there is a deep sin that is hidden within us.  In the words of Oswald Chambers, "the greatest characteristic of a saint is humility, as evidenced by being able to say honestly and humbly, Yes all those as well as other evils, would have been exhibited in me it it were not for the grace of God."  Unfortunately, we all have the sickness called sin.  It just looks different on each one of us. "We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind."  Isaiah 64:6  "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard."  Romans 3:23  My favorite scripture or should I say the one that really gets my attention is Psalm 19:12 "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults."  If you are reading this and think you don't need to make your way through the crowd and touch the cloak of Jesus, meditate on that truth.  We all have ugly hidden faults.  The only reason we think we don't is because typically we tame them so we won't be looked down upon by others.  We all have evil thoughts and the capability of doing bad things.   

Just like the woman seeking to touch Jesus' hem in the scripture above, some of us spend years living with our sin.  Instead of working on being healed, by placing ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the disease/sin continues to get worse.  The woman in the scripture made a decision to find Jesus - seek Him out after she heard about Him.  Hopefully when we hear about Jesus, we too will fight through the crowd of people and confusion of this world and reach for Him.  In the Bible, Jesus changed the lives of so many. Mary Magdalene was demon possessed... she was freed from this after she met Jesus. She became one of His followers.  In fact, she was given the privilege to be the first one to meet Jesus after He resurrected from death.  Then there was the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said unto her, "Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." (John 8:10-11)  "And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eat your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meant, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9:10-13)  "And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom [IRS]: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him." (Matthew 9:9) "When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."  Jesus came to die for us - our bleeding, our disease, our sin.  Don't partake in self-deception and tell yourself you are without sin.  "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  1 John 1:8-9  In the words of Boyd Bailey, "Self deception is a sick condition.  It chokes the soul; it quenches the Spirit; it strangles love; it sucks the life from relationships.  Self-deception is destined to stay in control unless there is a reckoning with sin."  Recognize your sin, reach for Jesus-touch His hem and be healed.