Luke 17:11-19

It happened as he was on his way to Jerusalem, that he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee. As he entered into a certain village, ten men who were lepers met him, who stood at a distance. They lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” It happened that as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. Jesus answered, “Weren’t the ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there none found who returned to give glory to God, except this stranger?” Then he said to him, “Get up, and go your way. Your faith has healed you.”

If you ever have a doubt about the sinful nature of man, this is a good passage to remember. Mankind has the shocking ability to take from God and then completely forget about Him. In this case 90 percent of those who were healed failed to give glory to God. This is a serious problem in our world today too.

Today, there are many who see that God has clearly given them food and health and demonstrated His power in all things in the earth. Even though what God has done in creation is obvious, many people completely ignore it and, instead, labor to support a strange and unscientific creation myth we call “evolution.” This myth violates the basic laws of science such as “cause and effect” upon which all scientific experimentation depends, yet, in stubborn determination, they continue to try to find a way to not give glory to God for creating the universe. If it wasn’t for the grace of God, I probably would have believed this or something else that failed to give glory to God too, as I continued in my rebellion.

This story, however, deals more with people who were already “a people of God.” We have far more to give thanks for than just for the Glory of God’s creative power. The basis for everything we do as Christians is a response to the grace of God because God has already blessed us as believers with more blessings that we can even understand at this point. As Christians, we were blessed by faith, without doing any good work at all. When I fail to give God glory, I demonstrate my lack of faith in these things. May God help us all to remember that Jesus has removed the punishment that we deserved, and that God has also decided to call us His very own children, and that He has blessed us by sending the Holy Spirit to live permanently inside of us, and that He will make us to be rulers together with Jesus, and that He will wipe every tear from our eyes.

When we remember what God has given and promised to us, there is obviously no other thing to do but to give glory to God!

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ;