On Rounds with Jesus

Tag: Christian living

  • The one who came back

    The one who came back

    Scripture reading: Luke 17:11-19

    You can listen to this devotional via Spotify or YouTube.

    Sometimes work becomes so overwhelming that we begin to treat our clients as though we are doing them a favour, when in reality we have been placed there to serve them. Perhaps that explains why one client returned to thank me for simply doing my job.

    I had not done anything extraordinary. I listened to her complaints, examined her, ordered a few laboratory tests to review later, and discussed what her condition might be—just as I had done for many others that day. Yet sometime later she returned simply to say, “Thank you.”

    Perhaps she appreciated the care she received, care she might not have been used to. But even if such care was expected, why hadn’t the others said thank you?

    In today’s Scripture, Jesus passes between Samaria and Galilee and enters a village where ten lepers meet Him. Standing at a distance, they cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” These men were helpless and hopeless. Their disease not only ravaged their bodies but also made them outcasts from society. Separated from family, community, and worship, their lives were marked by isolation and suffering.

    Moved by their plea, Jesus healed them and instructed them to go and show themselves to the priests, as required by the Law of Moses (Leviticus 13–14). The priests would examine them and declare them clean so they could return to society.

    Overjoyed, the ten men hurried off. But one stopped and turned back. While the others continued ahead, this man returned, “praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks” (Luke 17:15–16).

    Even more striking, the one who returned was a Samaritan, a people many Jews despised. Jesus remarked with surprise that although ten had been healed, only one returned to give thanks and glorify God.

    Do you see yourself in the grateful leper, or among the nine who never returned?

    We often pray to ask God for what we need, and rightly so. Jesus encouraged us to ask the Father (Matthew 7:7–11). Yet we frequently move from one request to another without pausing to thank Him for what He has already done.

    The fact that you are alive today, that you are healthy, that you were able to eat, or that you woke up this morning is not accidental. These are all expressions of the grace and mercy of God. Yet when we begin to treat such blessings as expected, gratitude quietly fades.

    Jesus did not withhold healing from the nine who failed to thank Him, but He did highlight their lack of gratitude (Luke 17:18). All ten were physically healed, yet His final words to the Samaritan suggest something more: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).

    It seems this man received more than physical cleansing: he experienced spiritual wholeness.

    When we pause to acknowledge the Giver and not just the gifts, we honour the Lord and experience the deeper blessing that grows from a grateful heart.

    Let us pray

    1. Pray, thanking God for all he has done for you – the good and the not-so-good. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 says, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Pray that God will give you a heart that remembers to thank Him for His daily mercies and blessings.
    2. Pray that the Lord will open your eyes to recognise His hand in both the big and the ordinary provisions of life, that He will guard your heart from becoming like the nine lepers who received blessings but never returned to give thanks.
    3. Ask that your words, attitudes, and actions will continually honour God for what He has done in your life.
    4. Pray that your faith in Christ will lead not only to receiving His gifts, but to a deeper relationship with Him and true spiritual wholeness.

    Amen.

    Thank you for joining us for today’s encouragement. If this message blessed you, kindly share it with someone who may also be encouraged by it.

    Until next time, stay blessed.

  • Immunity

    Immunity

    Scripture reading: John 8:31-36

    You can listen to this devotional via Spotify or YouTube.

    Immunity is the ability of the body to recognise, resist, and eliminate harmful organisms or substances such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins. In simple terms, immunity is the body’s defence system against disease. This immunity can be innate—the natural immunity one is born with—or acquired, that is, immunity that develops after exposure to a pathogen.

    Acquired immunity can be active or passive. Active immunity occurs when the body produces its own antibodies through natural infection or vaccination. An example is the immunity one gains after recovering from chickenpox. Passive immunity, on the other hand, is immunity derived from antibodies received from another source. An example is the administration of Rho(D) Immune Globulin to prevent rhesus isoimmunization, as we discussed in last week’s devotional, “Sensitisation.”

    The truth is that the Christian is not entirely immune from sin. Even after salvation, believers still struggle with sin. We will not be completely free from it until we die or until Jesus returns. Yet becoming a Christian results in a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17). When a person accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour, he becomes a new creation. He moves from a kingdom where, by virtue of his sinful nature, he could not help but sin, into a new domain where he is clothed with Christ. Christ becomes his righteousness. In that sense, Christ becomes his new innate immunity by virtue of the new birth.

    Instead of producing the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19–21), the believer begins to display the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), as the indwelling Holy Spirit increasingly takes control of his life. This transformation does not occur instantly, but it does occur progressively. The old nature begins to lose its dominance. The flesh begins to die.

    Along the way, the believer also develops something like acquired immunity—a growing resistance to sin. Through conscious striving, repentance, and sensitivity to the Spirit’s guidance, he learns to keep sinful acts at bay. If a person claims to believe yet shows no evidence of a changed life, it raises serious questions about the genuineness of his faith.

    And sometimes, the believer may still fall. But he does not remain in the dirt. That fall often strengthens his resolve to rise again and continue pressing forward. In that sense, each failure, met with repentance, builds a kind of active immunity against repeating the same sin.

    The difference between a sinning unbeliever and a sinning believer is this: one loves his sin, while the other hates it.

    The believer who stumbles regrets it, confesses it, and longs never to repeat it. He seeks God’s grace and power to avoid it in the future. He does not ask how much he can sin and still be considered a Christian. Rather, he asks how he can avoid even the appearance of sin.

    The believer may stumble, but he does not settle in sin. Grace lifts him, repentance cleanses him, and the Spirit strengthens him. Over time, the soul that walks with Christ becomes increasingly resistant to the very sins that once mastered it.

    Just as the body develops immunity to resist disease, the believer must develop a growing resistance to sin. The goal is not to see how close we can live to sin, but how far we can live from it. A healthy spiritual life is one that increasingly rejects what once infected it.

    To conclude, let us reflect on this question: If I truly belong to Christ, do I see evidence that my desires, attitudes, and actions are gradually being transformed?

    Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for the new life we have in Christ. Help us to grow in our resistance to sin and to walk daily in the power of Your Spirit. When we stumble, grant us hearts that quickly repent and return to You. Shape our lives so that we increasingly love righteousness and hate sin. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

    Thank you for joining us for today’s encouragement. If this message blessed you, kindly share it with someone who may also be encouraged by it.

    Until next time, stay blessed.

  • Sensitisation

    Sensitisation

    Scripture reading: Matthew 5:27-30

    You can listen to this devotional via Spotify or YouTube.

    For today’s rounds, we return to the familiar field of obstetrics, reflecting on rhesus sensitisation.

    A rhesus-negative mother may feel completely well after exposure to her fetus’s rhesus-positive blood. There is no fever. No pain. No outward sign that anything lasting has occurred. Yet quietly, within her immune system, something permanent has taken place: memory has formed.

    The next exposure will not be silent. It will be swift. Forceful. Harmful. The consequences may unfold as recurrent miscarriages, fetal anaemia, hydrops fetalis, intrauterine fetal demise, or hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. To prevent this, pregnant women are screened for their Rhesus status. If a mother is Rh-negative and the baby may be Rh-positive, she receives anti-RhD immunoglobulin to stop sensitisation before it begins.

    In today’s passage, Jesus reshapes our understanding of sin. It is not merely the outward act that matters; it begins in the realm of desire.

    Small exposures can carry far-reaching effects.

    In Song of Solomon 2:15, Scripture urges: “Catch the little foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines…” Not wolves. Not storms. Not raging fires. Little foxes.

    Vineyards are rarely destroyed overnight. Damage usually comes slowly, through small breaches, repeated nibbles, subtle erosion over time. So, it is with the soul. The first compromise seldom feels catastrophic. The first indulgence rarely feels fatal. The first step away hardly feels distant. But something forms inside: memory.

    From there, progression is familiar. James 1:14–15 describes it plainly: desire is conceived, conception gives birth to sin, and sin matures into death. It begins quietly, internally, almost invisibly. No one sets out intending to ruin their integrity, marriage, or ministry. The path often begins with exposure that is entertained rather than resisted.

    The enemy seldom presents the outcome. He offers only the first step. Just look. Just try. Just once. Just this small compromise.

    Yet repeated exposure reshapes the heart. In immunology, sensitisation makes the immune system more reactive. Spiritually, repeated compromise often produces the opposite effect — dullness. Hebrews 3:13 cautions us not to be hardened through sin’s deceitfulness. Sin deceives because it hides its destination. It whispers that nothing has changed. But over time, what once convicted now entertains. What once disturbed now feels normal. What once shocked barely registers.

    As 1 Timothy 4:2 describes, the conscience can become seared. Wrong remains wrong, but sensitivity fades.

    Prevention is better than cure. Once Rh sensitization occurs, it cannot be reversed. Management becomes complicated. Risks increase. Spiritually, the stakes are even higher. Small patterns form strongholds. Private indulgences shape public outcomes. Tiny permissions grow into entrenched habits. No one drifts into holiness. Drift moves in the other direction.

    But here the analogy reaches its limit, and grace begins. In medicine, sensitisation is permanent. In Christ, renewal is possible. 1 John 1:9 reminds us that if we confess our sins, He forgives and cleanses.

    Let us pray

    Lord Jesus,
    Guard my heart from seemingly innocuous exposures that could eventually turn it away from You.

    Help me catch the little foxes before they spoil the vine.

    Holy Spirit, soften my hardened heart. Convict where numbness has grown and renew where drift has occurred. Do not let what is wrong become normal in me. Renew my sensitivity to Your voice.

    Amen.

    On today’s rounds, the lesson was not only about antibodies, it was about attention.

    What you repeatedly tolerate, you eventually normalize.
    What you normalize, you eventually defend.
    And what you defend, you eventually become.

    Stay vigilant. Stay sensitive. Stay surrendered.

  • Viral

    Viral

    Scripture reading: Matthew 28:16-20

    You can listen to this devotional via Spotify or YouTube.

    Viral infections are known to be highly contagious. Once an infection is established, it can spread through direct contact, through the air, on surfaces, via carriers, or even from mother to child. One infected person can transmit it to many, who in turn transmit it further. What begins with a single host can expand exponentially across communities, cities, and nations. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is a clear case in point. What started in one location quickly spread across the globe, affecting millions.

    In the digital world, “viral” content spreads in a similar way. On platforms like TikTok or YouTube, one person shares a video or post, others repost it, and networks multiply it rapidly. Algorithms amplify their reach, and soon it is everywhere.

    Virality, whether biological or digital, follows a simple pattern: contact leads to multiplication, and subsequently expansion.

    In Matthew 28:19–20, Jesus gave His disciples this charge: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” It was, in essence, a command to make the Gospel spread to the ends of the earth. Not long afterwards, empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), the Gospel began to spread rapidly. By the time we read Acts of the Apostles 17:6, critics were saying: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” The message spread so widely that it unsettled the Roman world. Many believers paid for it with their lives. Yet they could not remain silent. The message was too good, and everyone needed to hear it.

    The Gospel literally means “good news.” It is the message of God’s love and redemption through Jesus Christ. The Gospel announces that: Humanity was separated from God because of sin (Romans 3:23), God provided a way back through Jesus Christ, who lived perfectly, died for our sins, and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:3–4), Whoever believes in Him receives forgiveness, new life, and eternal life (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17), and this new life transforms character, relationships, and purpose (Ezekiel 36:26; Galatians 5:22–23).

    The Gospel is not merely moral advice or a religious story. It is “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16). It is the ultimate life-giving contagion because it strengthens, restores, and multiplies in ways nothing else can.

    If today a cure for HIV/AIDS were discovered, that news would spread instantly across the globe. The Gospel proclaims the cure for sin. It announces deliverance from eternal separation from God (John 5:24). Everybody needs to hear it. Every true Christian is called to share it.

    How to we Spread This Holy Contagion

    1. Abide in Christ

    Jesus revealed the foundation in Gospel of John 15:4–5:

    “Abide in me… Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”

    Abiding produces fruit. Fruit carries seed. Seed multiplies life.

    Spend time in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), in Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16–17), and in worship. Let your relationship with Christ shape your every word and action.

    2. Live a Fruitful Life

    The fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control — is listed in Galatians 5:22–23.

    Let others see Christ in your conduct before they hear Him in your words (Matthew 5:16). A transformed life is compelling evidence of a transforming Saviour.

    3. Share Your Testimony Naturally

    “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

    Speak about what Christ has done in your life. Share your struggles, victories, and growth. A witness simply tells what they have seen and experienced.

    4. Engage Your Networks

    Viruses often spread from an epicenter. In the early church, that center was Jerusalem (Acts 1:8). Start with your immediate circle — family, friends, colleagues, church, and online communities — and allow the message to multiply relationally.

    5. Use Every Platform Faithfully

    No avenue is insignificant. Whether through social media, small groups, writing, music, or conversation, share Scripture and encouragement (Colossians 4:6).

    6. Pray for opportunities and Open Doors

    Paul asked believers to pray “that God may open to us a door for the word” (Colossians 4:3). Ask God to prepare hearts and to make your witness fruitful.

    7. Teach and Disciple

    The command was not merely to make converts, but disciples (Matthew 28:19–20). Guide others to grow. A disciple who bears fruit becomes a multiplier (2 Timothy 2:2).

    A Sobering Reminder

    Recently, reports indicated that a popular actor, Eric Dane, died from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In his interview on Netflix, it was painfully evident how severely the disease had taken its toll on him.

    In Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), motor neurons slowly degenerate and die. As they stop sending signals to the muscles, the body weakens, deteriorates, and eventually loses vital functions.

    Sin operates in a far deeper way. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Left untreated, it cripples and ultimately destroys.

    The Gospel proclaims the cure for sin, and it remains truly “good news” only if it reaches its hearers in time. The longer it is withheld, the more firmly sin entrenches itself. If you possessed the cure, would you keep it to yourself, or would you share it?

    Questions to Reflect On

    • If someone spent a week near me, what would they “catch”?
    • Am I abiding deeply enough for fruit to form?
    • Does my witness flow from transformation or obligation?
    • Am I intentionally using my networks to spread life?

    Let us pray

    Lord Jesus,
    Abide in me as I abide in You.
    Let Your life take root so deeply that fruit becomes inevitable.

    Make my love visible.
    Make my peace steady.
    Make my witness natural.
    Make my life a channel of Your transforming power.

    Help me share the Gospel through words, actions, and presence,
    so that Your life spreads, multiplies, and bears eternal fruit.

    Amen.