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 cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
Toward the end of last month, the British newspaper, The Sun, broke a story that said 40 al-Qaeda fanatics had died.
No, they hadn’t been shot in a battle or killed by a bomb.
The terrorists died of bubonic plague. You know, the Black Death. It’s the disease that wiped out 30 to 60 percent of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages.
Apparently, the men had been working with the plague virus, trying to figure out how to use it as a terrorist weapon on their enemies. Somehow the illness got out of their control and infected many of the men at their Algerian camp.
Forty of the al-Qaeda terrorists succumbed to the terrible disease.
Sadly, their deaths were not necessary, as the illness that killed these men is treatable.
Doctors say the plague responds to antibiotics when those medicines are given in a timely manner. Sadly, these men preferred to play with the plague and neglected to stock up on the medicine that would have saved them.
Yes, antibiotics could have cured the ailing bodies of these men.
But how about their souls? Souls can’t be healed with a handful of drugs. There is only one thing that would have managed a cure for these 40: the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, their Savior.
If they had seen the sacrifice the Savior made for them through His life and death, if they had been brought to faith in the risen Lord, if they had acknowledged Jesus as their Redeemer, their souls would have been healed and they would have lived with their Lord for all eternity.
As John said, if they had known Jesus as their Savior, they would have been healed. That’s because the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, would have cleansed them from all sin. That blood is the only sure and real cure for the soul there will ever be.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, in a world filled with the sickness of hatred, I give thanks for Your love. By the Holy Spirit’s power, may those filled with anger come to know Your blood-bought forgiveness and be healed. In Your Name. Amen.
Pastor Ken Klaus Lutheran Hour Ministries http://www.lhm.org/ all rights reserved; not to be duplicated without permission.