Observations/Interpretations:
I asked myself what did the man do?
The man could have easily been conditioned to accept his defeat in life living in the PAST but he did not. One day he found out about someone who loves others so much and who performs miracles. He took an active step hoping to receive help even with all the fears he may have stored up inside because of his PAST:

1. He came to Jesus with the disease that made him feel like an outcast. (Skin falling off and blisters everywhere)

2. He fell on his knees and begged Jesus, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’

Observations/Interpretations:
I asked myself why the leper used the words, ‘If you are willing’!
This tells me that there were many people who were not even willing to be near him. We can infer that he was not sure if Jesus was going to have anything to do with him especially from the PAST bad experiences he may have had. Yet he takes the daring step and says, "If you are willing, you can make me clean"

Observations:
I asked myself what were Jesus’ reactions towards the leper and the significance of each reaction?

1. Jesus was filled with compassion.
2. Jesus reached out his hand.
3. Jesus touched the man.
4. Jesus said, "I am willing"
5. Jesus said, "Be clean"

Point 1: Jesus was filled with compassion.
It is important to remember if Jesus had not left Simon and Andrew's place with his disciples after spending time in prayer, the man would not have had an encounter with Jesus. Jesus already knew there was a leper who needed His help.

Jesus showed his compassion to the man who was sick and who wanted to be clean from his PAST. Jesus did not shun him but goes a step further and exhibits His compassion by the next action He takes which is evident by point 2.

Point 2: Jesus reaches out his hand.
Picture the person with leprosy whose skin was filled with spots and was falling off. Now picture it being a contagious disease that is spread by touch. No one would even come close to him but now Jesus reached out His hand. This is so significant to me because by reaching out His hand, Jesus started the process of healing the man emotionally and psychologically. For the man's emotional and psychological wounds from the PAST were very deep. He basically had lost the loving touch of a family member, a friend, etc. We were made to be in relationships with one another beyond relationships that are just romantic. There are three types of love: Agape, Phileo, and Eros. This man needed the Agape love and he had lost that because of his outcast status.  Yet, deep inside this man had to know even as an outcast to society that he was loved by One person who really mattered.  That is why he goes to Jesus. Jesus did not stop there by reaching out His hand but goes a step further which is evident by point 3.

Point 3: Jesus touched the man.
I believe when Jesus touched the man, at that point the man was healed spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, and mentally by the loving Hands of Jesus. Imagine how that would have made you feel if no one touched you because of your sickness and now Jesus touches you with His warmth of love. By touching the man in his sickness and disease, Jesus was letting him know that he is loved unconditionally as he is with all the baggage of the PAST: The man is loved with all his scars, with all his wounds, with all his puss, with all his shame, with all his sin. Jesus is letting the man feel and know that he is valued as a person regardless of his disease. Wow! That is awesome to know! Jesus does not stop there after touching the man but gives him words he wanted to hear. This is evident by point 4.

Point 4: Jesus said, "I am willing"
These are the words the man wanted to hear from Jesus and must have been ecstatic to hear them. Lepers were usually confined to a lepers colony and could not do a lot of things that healthy people were able to do including making a financial living. Now he knew he could be part of the community again because Jesus would help him become part of the community that he lost because of his PAST. This is evident by point 5.

Point 5: Jesus said, "Be clean!"
Immediately, the leprosy left him and he was cured!!! Praise God! Amen! He was instantly healed spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, and mentally from the PAST trauma he faced after a personal encounter with Jesus.

Jesus became the LORD OF THE PAST for that man and helped him move forward. The wounds of yesterday were taken by Jesus and Jesus brought healing because Jesus can do anything. Thank you Jesus! There is a wonderful song by Bob Bennett called 'Lord of the Past' you can find on YouTube.

Implications:
I asked myself why is the man's actions significant and it's implications for my own life?
The man with leprosy did not let his PAST come in the way of receiving healing in the present and moving forward. It could have been easy for the man to have dwelled in the past and allowed his negative experiences and thinking to rule his life and given up. He did not but decided to take a risk and it paid off.

It is exciting to know what Jesus did for the leper He can do for us too when we have a personal encounter with Him. He waits for us to come to Him to clean us even from our PAST! Yes, He does! I don't know His timings but I know He loves us and wants the best for us!

My friend Annette prays for me that I experience God's depth of love in a deeper way. I thank the Lord for that. We had studied this passage briefly on Tuesday night too at 'Pittsburgh Standard Investigates Jesus: Investigate the 7 C's of Jesus: His Capability, His Character, His Claims, His Credibility, His Commitment, His Circumstances, and His Convictions led by Brian Hu.

Studying this passage briefly with Brian, David, and Al on Tuesday night in the William Pitt Union made me want to study it more as I had done in the past. I was hoping my friends Ralston, Yifei and Cecilia could make it but they could not that night due to prior commitments. I am glad I can share with them what I have learned that day and today.

Christians are not exempt from the pain of the PAST and Jesus is there to bring healing when we turn everything over to Him. When JESUS becomes the LORD OF THE PAST, moving forward can become easy with His hope, help, and healing because He will also permeate your present and future.

“This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”- Isaiah 43:16, 18-19

Thank you Jesus for your own healing in my life and you do not want me to dwell in the PAST. You will take the Dragons of my life and defeat them by the power of Your love. Thank you so much Jesus! Amen!

There is a wonderful song called 'Power of Your Love' by Vineyard Music. You can find it on YouTube.

I ask you now dear friend, how can you let Jesus be the Lord of your P.A.S.T and move you forward?
Dear friend, Jesus loves you so much and wants to be the Lord of your PAST and move you forward. No matter what your PAST looks like, 'he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters' can make a way in the desert areas of your life and streams in areas you see as a wasteland.' Yes, He can friend! Jesus healed the wounds of the leper and delivered him from his PAST.  He can do the same for you.

You don't have leprosy but you may have a stigma of things that happened to you that brings you torment; you maybe feeling yucky on the inside because of PAST things; you may have tried to get rid of your PAST but cannot wash it away because the PAST sticks like glue to you just as the leper could not wash away his leprosy. Oh that you want to forget the PAST but the PAST won't let you forget!

But the Good News is you can give up on yourself and give in to the Savior who wants to become the Lord of your PAST so you don't have to live in the PAST anymore, no you don't. Whatever happened in JUNE 2010 or before, bring it before Jesus. Bring all your pain, guilt, suffering, shortcomings, stigmas before the CROSS OF CHRIST. Let His blood heal you where you are.

A wonderful song by Carman called 'This Blood' is so powerful. I hope you get to hear it on YouTube.

Jesus who had COMPASSION on the leper, will also have compassion on you! Jesus who TOUCHED the man to bring restoration in his life, will bring restoration to your life. Jesus who said to the leper, 'I AM WILLING' will say to you 'I AM WILLING' if you are willing to come before Jesus in your pain, suffering, torment, etc as the leper did. Then, as Jesus' touch and words healed the leper and cured him, Jesus can cure you too.

Yes, He can friend, Oh yes He can! Come as you are and find grace in time of need!

Friend, each of you has a PAST otherwise you won’t be in the present. You know the skeletons from your PAST! You know the deep hurts and scars that are hidden deep inside. You know the times of rejection, ridicule, etc you may have faced.

Many of you may still be carrying them with you as heavy baggage. It will not go away on its own but you can definitely find healing from your PAST and be set free once you start dealing with what happened and not hesitate to receive the help needed. Jesus wants you to come to Him as you are and He will not turn you away. He wants to clean out your PAST for you just as He made the leper clean. Yes, He does friend! Come as you are!

The man with leprosy was determined to receive help and did not let his PAST stop him nor 'what other people might think of him' and received healing! You do not have to let your PAST stop you from receiving the help the Lord wants to give you right now!

It won't be easy and there could be a lot of inner turmoil and pain but when you pour out your heart to the Lord showing him everything that has caused the wounds and scars of the PAST you are dealing with and ask Jesus to make you clean as the leper showed himself to Jesus and begged Jesus to make him clean, he was healed and so will you be in God's perfect timing.

The leper revealed his PAST to Jesus what was causing torment! You can do the same and need to do the same and then leave it in the hands of the Lord Jesus for hope, help, and healing.

When you pray to the Lord, listen to what He has to tell you. Jesus reached out to the man, touched him and spoke to him being willing to make him clean. Jesus wants to reach out to you, touch you in every area of your life, and speak to you so He can make you clean from the PAST. Oh yes, He can!

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

What He did then, He can even do now. The circumstances and situations maybe different but His compassion is the same.

Whether you have experienced a loss of a friend, any kind of abuse, a relational break-up, a family-dysfunction, guilt over sins of the PAST, death in the family, loss of a job, etc because of mistakes of the PAST, Jesus is willing to reach out to you with His Loving Hands, touch you with his healing love. Take the help He is offering you. He loves you so much.

I don't usually recommend movies during these devotionals but I highly recommend the movie: 'The Sin Eater'

Each of you knows what the Lord may want you to do to deal with what you are facing. Don't let your PAST or what other people will think about you stop you from receiving your healing. Just because you may have had bad experiences in the PAST and they hurt you so badly, don't let that govern your present and future.

One example is relationships. If you have ever experienced a bad-break up, it would be so easy to just give up and not be in a relationship with anyone else fearing you may get hurt all over again. But don't let that stop you from experiencing what the Lord has for you in the here and now. Sadly, sometimes relationships come and go; sometimes friendships that we thought would be close become distant; sometimes things just go haywire but you don't have to live in the PAST.

When it comes to any type of relationship, depend on the Lord to send the right person your way. I know He would because He created you, you are special in His sight and He knows that special one out there for you, who you can spend the rest of your life with. For the time being you may think you may never find a person like so and so, but the Lord of the Universe can find that right person for you. He knows you inside out and wants to help you. He sees everything. Oh yes, He does! He knows what you need right now at this moment. It may not be what you think you need but what He knows you need! Oh depend on Him! Yes, depend on Him!

Even if you have done things in a relationship you were not supposed to do, Jesus is there to forgive you and give you a new start. Yes, He is! Come as you are and receive cleansing for all your sins. Give your PAST to the Lord Jesus and be healed! Be healed and cleansed by the Lord as you turn to Him!

Whatever you are facing with, bring it to the Lord as the man with leprosy did and you will find healing in Jesus' Name! His love can enter everyone now and make them clean. Yes, it can friend! Amen!

The leper was seen as untouchable and unclean because of his leprosy. We all have a type of leprosy that is contagious and separates us from being in a community of Heaven because we become untouchable no matter who we are whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, male or female, whatever our ethnicity, etc because this spiritual leprosy is a  deadly virus that is more than a pandemic that started in the PAST. It has invaded all of humanity making us so unclean.  This virus has trapped us and is driven by Satan himself. He wants to take us to his colony for lepers and that colony is hellish where the burning never stops. This spiritual leprosy is called sin. This sin started in the PAST and all the problems we face is because of the SIN OF THE PAST which continues to affect humanity.

The leper became an outcast to the people around him because of his PAST condition but Jesus intervened to give Him new life. Now, friend all humanity is an outcast before the Lord because of this deadly virus. You see friend because of sin, we have been an outcast to God because God in His Holiness cannot allow sin to enter into His presence of Heaven.

So, God became the Initiator to save us from this bondage of the PAST since we cannot save ourselves from this sin. As Jesus went to save the leper from his condition, God also sent Jesus to save humanity from its condition of sin.

Jesus Christ went to the cross, shed His precious cleansing blood by dying on the cross for our sin, was buried, and came back to life on the third day to save. Now friend, we have an antidote to clean us of this deadly virus known as sin. The antidote is the precious cleansing blood of Jesus that can wash away all our sin. Jesus will set you free.

Jesus said, "You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free!"

Jesus also said, "I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!"

However friend, Jesus won't force us to take His antidote just as Jesus did not force the leper to come to Him. The leper chose to come to Jesus in His un-cleanliness and Jesus took care of the rest.  Jesus wants to do the same for us.  Jesus wants to rescue you from your sins by grace through faith and not of any good works that we can boast. Yes, He does! So, come as you are and find help in time of need. It is very important to remember that Jesus chose the leper first before the leper chose Jesus. That is why Jesus left Andrew and Peter's hometown to come where the leper was to bring healing. Jesus wants to heal you too.

If you are reading this and struggling with your past, could it be Jesus calling out to you to receive Him in all your pain?

Jesus wants to heal us of all our shortcomings, scars, shame, etc. Yes, He does friend. We can be set free from the PAST by the LORD and now is the time of Salvation.

Friend, you are loved so much and Jesus can redeem wherever you have messed up. His way will be the best way. Come to Jesus as you are knowing He loves you so much and has a plan for your life. You can be clean no matter what you have done! You are never out of His love and never out of His reach. That is amazing to know!

Al Denson has an awesome song called, "Never Out of His Love, Never Out of His Reach"

May you receive healing in the Arms of our loving Lord and Savior now and forever who wants to be the LORD OF THE PAST in your life right now. Yes, He does so come as you are in this month of July 01, 2010.

As my friend Annette motivated me to write poems on counseling again, I decided to give PAST a personification based on an old poem I had written.

I Am Your Bad Past
By Ramesh C. Reddy

Haunting you, I am your bad PAST!
With bad memories, you I blast!
So experiencing the present you won't last!
Showing you missed opportunities, I haunt!
Making you hurt and daunt!
I make sure you won't mount!
Wanted to make yourself hate!
Believing for healing it is too late!
Except the Savior's intervention did not count!
He makes sure you don't look back!
He makes sure your self-esteem does not lack!
His love now prevents my attack!
He has become your Gate
Delivering you from your broken state
Upon Him when you wait
I am in a bind
Because Jesus you find
He heals your mind
So to a lost cause am assigned
When you realize each day
Whatever comes your way
His mercies and blessings are new
How many situations in the past you blew
When you realize for you He died
Your shame He will forever hide
Bringing you to His precious side
Showing you His love so wide
With His blood, He covers your sin
So I cannot anymore win
Now haunting you, I lose
Because the Savior you choose!

Jesus gives you a promise: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”-(Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV)

P.A.S.T is "People's Anxious Surrendered Torment!"/"How will you let Jesus be the Lord of your P.A.S.T and move you forward?"

Please make this your prayer and let Jesus heal you as you are making it personal to you changing the us to me, etc.

Prayer: 
Dear Jesus, you remember everything. You remember the time the man with leprosy came to you and begged you to make him clean. You were filled with so much compassion and you reached out your hand and touched the man who was seen as diseased and you were willing to make him clean and healed him. Thank you so much Jesus. Thank you so much for the power of your love. Lord, you know the wounds and scars each of us face from our past or even the present. You know Lord what it has done to us on the inside and many times on the outside.  Lord when the pain is too much it is so easy to try to forget it by focusing our minds on other things so we do not have to deal with it. That won't help us in the long run. But, I know Lord you can heal each person who is faced with hurts when they come to you.  You can clean us of our sins and make us pure again no matter what we have done or faced with. Oh Lord, we need that cleansing in our lives right now. There are those right now Lord who need to feel clean but their guilt has a hold on them. Break that guilt Oh Lord and help them to hold on to you.  Help them come to know you so they can be covered in your precious cleansing blood. Let them know they are loved and can start over again as you gave the leper new life. Thank you Jesus. Please Jesus reach out to the one who is hurting right now and touch them with your love and power. Provide them the means to get the healing you want for their lives. Thank you Jesus so much. Please Lord help them not to let their past influence them from getting the help they need. You know how they can receive that help. Please make it clear to them. Thank you so much Jesus. Use your children to bring healing to others within your family and outside your family so one day they can come into your family. As you are our Wonderful Counselor who counsels us through all despair, help us to be used by you to do the same in other people's lives. Thank you so much Jesus.  Help us Oh God of our Salvation for the glory of your name. Please deliver us and provide us healing for your name's sake. Thank you so much Jesus. We trust in you giving you people's anxious surrendered torment. Please take it and heal them as you did the leper. Thank you that you not only hear us but answer us! In Your Precious Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!

One of my pastors, Pastor Hugo SHARED this example one Sunday at the RESURRECTION DAY SERVICE in the combined worship service of Pittsburgh Chinese Church-Oakland & Oakland International Fellowship:

If you look at it as GOD IS NO WHERE, you will still be lost in your sin and be in bondage locked away in your sins and problems finding no peace.

But  as my pastor spoke to the congregation and spoke to me, I am here to tell you that GOD IS NOW HERE.

Yes, friend God is aLIVE and wants to bring a transformation in your life through the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ for He paid the penalty on the cross to rescue you and me and came back to life to save us and LIVE with us.

Yes, friend that is exciting to know that we can experience HIS SAVING GRACE & LIVING GRACE.

When we mess up, we can go to Jesus with our shortcomings and He will forgive us and RESTORE us to Him and we will find peace in Him.

^"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, NIV)

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all 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 1:7-9, NIV)

Friend, we need Jesus because we have been separated from God due to our sin. Because of our sin, Jesus had to pay the price to become our bridge so we can reach God now not of our own good works but because of the finished work of Christ, the Lord on the cross.

"For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)

Come to Jesus as you are and pray this prayer to accept Jesus as your Lord and Personal Savior. He will transform your life around! Praise the Lord! You don't have to have all the answers! You can come as you are!

May the Lord Jesus guide you in His love leading you! Amen!