Bruce Collins, Evangelist

Meditation for the week of November 9, 2008

Mark 2:17
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

I go to the doctor only when I know I am sick and when no home cure will work. If you are like me, going to the doctor is the thing you do only when you are convinced there is no other choice. Over the years, I have been to the doctor maybe two or three times. I am sort of like people who go through life not wanting to get “checked out” by the Great Physician. Many of them know something is wrong but they don’t want to face the problem. However, the Lord can see inside us and always gives a proper diagnosis (sin is eating away at us) and has the proper solution (the blood of Christ that cleanses from all sin) and His price is right (He pays the bill and we go free).

Recently I had a physical examination. It was the first complete one of my whole life. I went into the physical feeling fine. I came out being told I was sick. The tests showed that my heart wasn’t all that it was supposed to be. I was told that the problem could have been congenital and the problem might be something that I could live with until I die (and that is sort of what they said), and the problem might be something that they could correct if I would let them do it. I decided I had to trust the doctors who tell me that they know what they are doing so, even though I was symptom free, and I let them do an angiogram. They found out that I had one artery that was ninety percent blocked high on the trunk of the main artery tree. A complete blockage there would have affected at least half of the heart and would likely have meant instant death. The doctor was able to put in a stent and he says he corrected the problem.

Again, I think this is the case with many of us when we hear the Gospel. We don’t think we are sick. Life is good, and we are feeling good. Who needs God to tell us that we really aren’t “well” at a time like that? But if we allow our Great Physician to “check us out”, we will find out that we have a disease that needs correcting and He has the ability and the authority to correct it. He has the ability because God not only created us so He knows how we work, but He also sent His son to Calvary to redeem us or buy us back from the slave market of sin Most of us don’t know we are sick until we start reading the Bible and looking at how we should live and think and then as we compare the Biblical standards to how we do live and think we are convicted that something is wrong. Once we are convinced we are sick, we usually are willing to find a good doctor.

Many people today say that they are Christians but they seem to lack an understanding of their disease or their depravity. It is almost as if the Lord cured or saved those who were well. God doesn’t save the saved, he saves the lost. And we are all lost because of this disease called sin that we inherit from our forefathers. So whether we found out we were in need of a physician because we knew we were sick or whether we found out we needed a physician through a Biblical check up, I can assure you that once we acknowledge that we have the disease, the Lord has the right prescription. I trusted a doctor I didn’t know and he has found and corrected the problem. He probably saved my life..

In order to be cured from the disease of sin, we have to trust the Lord who loved us enough to die for our sins. Trusting anyone is hard for me but I have trusted the Lord and I have let the Lord deal with my sin problem. If a person can trust a doctor that he doesn’t know and who is making quite a little money off of curing his patients, one should not have a problem trusting the Lord who wants to cure us and save us for free. We can read all about Him and in that way get to know Him by reading the Bible. He has the cure for this disease called sin.

Bruce Collins