A LAME MAN MADE WELL
PETER was a good man! He was always ready to do what God wanted him to do. A short time after the Holy Spirit had come upon Peter and the others, he went to God’s temple one day, and saw a man who was not able to walk, sitting at the gate of the temple which was called “Beautiful.”
This man was begging. Peter didn’t have any money to give this poor cripple, but he did something for him which was much better. He used the power of God to make the man’s legs well so he could walk! Wasn’t that a wonderfully kind thing to do?
Now that the Holy Spirit was upon Peter he could make sick people well, and dead people alive, just as Jesus did. Many people saw what Peter had done, and it made them very curious. Then Peter told them about Jesus—that he was the One whom the prophets of God had said would come. He said that Jesus’ enemies had put him to death, but that God had made him alive again. Then Peter explained that the power which God had given to Jesus and now had given to the apostles had made this lame man well.
The man certainly must have been very happy when he found out he could walk just like other people! The Bible says that he leaped, or jumped up and down. You couldn’t blame him for that, could you?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the lame people in the world were made well? I suppose you are thinking that it would also be quite wonderful if all the blind people could see, and if all the deaf people could hear. Well, God has promised that this is just whit he will do for all such people when the right time comes.
In the 35th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, God tells us about this. There God says that those who are lame “shall leap like an hart.” A hart, you know, is another name for a deer. Have you ever seen deer in a zoo, or running wild in the country? If you have, you will know how well they can leap and jump.
Of course, when all the lame people are made well they won’t keep on leaping and jumping all the time. Deer jump and run because they are happy—that’s what God means. When all the lame people are made well, and the blind people are able to see, and the deaf people are able to hear, they will all be very, very happy.
You must be wondering when God will do these wonderful things for the people, so that is what I want to tell you.
After Peter had healed the lame man who sat at the gate of the temple, and explained to him about Jesus, Peter said that when Jesus came back to earth again it would then be the time for all the people to be made well. Won’t that be a grand time? Peter called it “times of restitution.”
I hope you will remember that word “restitution.”
It’s a wonderful word. It means to restore, or to bring back again. All the sick people will be restored to health. All the dead people will be made alive. How do we know? We know because Peter says that this is what God has promised. He tells us that God caused all his prophets to write down his promises, so that we might know what he plans to do for everybody in the whole wide world. And we know that all of God’s promises will come true!
QUESTIONS
- Will the time ever come when all the lame people in the world will be made well?
- What does the word “restitution” mean, and how many of God’s prophets mentioned it in their writings?