Neglected, Overlooked, and Forgotten

 

What misery sin has brought into the world!

• Well may we be told to pray for the coming of God's kingdom!
• Well may we be told to long for the second advent of Jesus Christ!
• There will be no chronic invalids and incurable diseases when Christ has renewed this earth.

How great is the mercy and compassion of Christ.

• He is far more ready to save than man is to be saved,
• far more willing to do good than man is to receive it.
• No one ever need be afraid of beginning the life of a true Christian, if he feels disposed to begin.
• Let him not hang back and delay, under the vain idea that Christ is not willing to receive him.
• Let him come boldly, and trust confidently.
• He who healed the cripple at Bethesda is still the same.

Renewed health should send us back to our post in the world... 

• with a deeper hatred of sin
• a more thorough watchfulness over our own ways
• and a more constant purpose of mind to live for God.
• "Let me sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto me."

Let us with grateful hearts, bless God that we have such a Gospel and such a Savior as the Bible reveals.

• Are we ever sick and ill?  Let us remember that Christ sees, and knows, and can heal as He thinks fit.
• Are we ever in trouble?  Let us hear in our trouble the voice of God, and learn to hate sin more.

Adapted Excerpt from J.C. Ryle's The Gospel of John