The Healer

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepard and Overseer of your souls.” -1st Peter 2 : 24 - 26

“He said, “Go and tell this people:

“Be ever hearing,

but never understanding:

be ever seeing, but

never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused;

make their ears dull

and close their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”” -Isaiah 6 : 9 - 10

“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.

For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.

Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.

Yet, before the twins were born or hand done anything good or bad — in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls — she was told, “Then older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

It does not, therefore depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

For scripture says to Pharoah: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimedin all the earth.”

Therefore God has mercy on those he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

One of you will say to me:

Then why does God still blame us?

For who is able to resist his will?

But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?

“Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some of common use?

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for his glory — even us, whom he called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them

‘my people’ who are

not my people;

and I will call her ‘my loved

one’ who is not my

loved one,”

and,

“In the very place where it was

said to them,

‘You are not my people,’

there they will be

called ‘children of

the living God.’””

-Romans 9 : 6 - 26

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” -John 10: 11 - 13

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as my Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my Father.” - John 10 : 14 - 18