WEST CENTRAL INTEGRATED TREATMENT FACILITY – Mar. 21, 2015

Set Captives Free Ministries started and ended with an extra helping of praise and worship. Pastor Kevin Humphery turned up the volume on the speaker and the 27 women who shared the service with us, sang, clapped, and prayed with abandon. Kevin then gave testimony of God’s amazing answers to prayer during the past couple of weeks in his own life. After the service, several women shared ways God had “shown up and shown out” for them in unexpected and timely ways.
Set Captives Free Ministries started and ended with an extra helping of praise and worship. Pastor Kevin Humphery turned up the volume on the speaker and the 27 women who shared the service with us, sang, clapped, and prayed with abandon. Kevin then gave testimony of God’s amazing answers to prayer during the past couple of weeks in his own life. After the service, several women shared ways God had “shown up and shown out” for them in unexpected and timely ways.

Kevin taught “Hold On” from Luke 17:11-19. The story of the 10 lepers Jesus healed and the one who returned to thank God. First, Kevin correlated the site of the healing – Samaria – to the “hood”; the place of maximum temptation. Leprosy was whatever pushed you outside of “polite society” – drugs, alcohol, sex, and/or theft – and a leper was a “junkie” hooked on their sin of choice. The lepers/junkies were isolated to stop contagion. Sickness and sin carried them far from anyone who could love them and left them alone, angry, and in pain.

As their last hope, the lepers/junkies called out to Jesus for mercy. HEALING is for the sick – not the well and Jesus is our ONLY Hope. We must stop pretending “It is alright”, and put in HIS hands. Jesus told them to “GO”.
This is the test of FAITH – to GO without understanding where, when, how or why. Stepping out is HARD due to FEAR but each step is easier as we TRUST God more and see the differences in our lives. THANK God for the blessings BEFORE they arrive and then be responsible for the gifts. Go home from jail, raise your families, work and help others. God will use ALL that went wrong as a LIVING TESTIMONY of His Power and Grace.

The lepers were healed as they walked to the temple just like we are healed as we step out in FAITH but one rushed back to glorify GOD. When things start going well, remember WHO rescued you instead of taking credit personally. Jesus asks, “Where are the other 9 that were healed?” When life is calm, we often forget to be grateful. The one that came back was a Samaritan – an outcast – and KNEW that NOTHING but GOD’S power could have changed his life. Faith won’t make life all “sweet and easy” but with God supporting us as we LEAN ON HIM, it can be WHOLE and filled with JOY!
- submitted by Sheila Stover