To See the Truth

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

TO SEE THE TRUTH

Luke 6:39-40

39 He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

NIV

How can a blind man lead another blind man? Jesus was speaking about the spiritually blind, but religious Pharisees, and the teachers of the law, who were leading their students into a pit, or destruction, right into the pit of hell. Suppose we, as teachers of the gospel do not teach Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to earth in the form of man, was crucified, taking our sins with him, buried, resurrected, and ascended back to the right hand of God. In that case, we are not any better than the blind leading the blind into the pit. If we do not teach that Jesus fulfilled all the law, putting it aside to create a new covenant then we are not any better than the blind Pharisees leading other blind into the pit. If then, if Jesus set the law aside, rather than abolishing it, the law has been set aside and we should not be blind people, trying our best to create a new law for us to blindly stubble around in until we fall into the pit. Of course, we are never above Jesus, for he is the Son of God, and we are but his creation. However, we are his students and are being fully trained by his very words, for every word in the scripture is God-breathed, profitable for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness so that we will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In other words, we will be fully equipped to be like our teacher, Jesus, the one who did every good work there was ever to be done. This is why we study God's word, so we can learn to be like Jesus. Any other learning is simply that which is taught from the mind of blind men, although some of them may have great minds, if they are not teaching from the teacher, Jesus, they teach blindness. Although education may seem good to man, if that education is not centered on Jesus, it has no value in keeping one from falling into the pit. Yes, degrees in certain fields aid humankind, but what good is humankind if they are left blind, for they will fall into the pit. Can we combine education from the mind of man, and from the word of God, yes, of course we can. We can use the greatness of our minds to study the word of God so that we can learn to be like our teacher, Jesus. That is far greater than learning from the mind of man, to be like the man-teacher, for then if that is the only learning, it is nothing more than the blind teaching the blind. Jesus gives the blind sight, so let us sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him and then we will see the truth, and the truth will set us free. 

Give and It Will Be Given

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GIVE AND IT WILL BE GIVEN

Luke 6:37-38

 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." 

NIV

It is interesting the Greek word translated as give has no other meaning than to simply give. However, most of the forms it implies to give someone something of our own accord. That would mean we should not give under some compulsion placed on us by someone else. In other words, someone should not be telling us we should give something to someone. When we give, we should be giving simply because we want to give it. This would also mean that we should not give someone something simply because is going to bless us by giving more to us than we gave away to someone. Although that is true. When we give from our own self-compassion God will take that which we have and he will press it down, shaken together, and running over will he pour that which we gave onto our laps. We are not sure how that looks in real-time, and when he will press down and shaken together and running over he will pour whatever it is into our laps. We do recall many years ago in our first years of being saved, someone gave us a TV, but we knew someone who needed a TV, so we gave it to them, and then someone else gave us another TV, and this went on for as I recall about five or six TV's until my father-in-law bought us a TV and we felt we just could not give that way as it would be an insult to him, and that was the last TV we ever received for free. Of course, that was back in the day of the big tube-type televisions, some of which were received and given away were big consoles. Maybe that is how this is supposed to work, the more we give to someone, someone else will give to us, and that is all through the movement of the Spirit. However, we think this has nothing to do with giving at church a tithe or free gift. That is simply our privilege to support both the physical care of the building and the financial care of those who have been called to serve full-time in ministry in the church. This “give, and it will be given to you”, is about personal giving within or outside the church. Still, what is received as a good measure, pressed down and overflowing may not be the same that which we give. It might not be this seed faith concept that a more famous preacher wrote the book, “Seed Faith” where he said, “If you need money, give money, if you need love give love, if you need clothes, give clothes, etc., etc., etc. I have never given away a car, yet somehow God has seen to it that I have received two cars, for free. He has seen to it to give me two new homes. I must have given something, maybe it was myself. Maybe God has poured blessings into my lap because I have given myself to his calling. I don’t know, I cannot figure out why God has poured so much into my lap. I feel so unworthy, however, I give him all the glory and praise for everything he has done for me, in me, and through me. I don’t know what else my lap could hold, but I will keep giving myself. 

No Condemnation

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

NO CONDEMNATION

Luke 6:37-38

37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." 

NIV

Is there a difference between judging and condemning? Why would Jesus make a point of saying that we should not judge or at least with the measure that we judge other people, that is the measure God will judge us and then say that we should not condemn? When we look into the difference between the two Greek words we get a little more clarity about the differences. When we decide that someone has committed a sin, or judged that they have sinned, it is still not right, for we are looking for the speck in their eye when there is a log in our own eye. We are simply making a judgment about their having sin in their lives, which is not acceptable, but when we condemn then we are pronouncing the fact they are guilty and thus deserve punishment. Is that how we want God to look at our sins? Do we want him to first judge us as sinners and then pronoun that we are in fact guilty and in need of punishment? We know that God sent Jesus to take all our sins and was pronounced guilty and took all our sins to the cross, paying the punishment for our guilt, our sins. So then that is how we are to live in the community of faith, having no judgment and no condemnation toward anyone. The fact is that we desire God to forgive all our sins, and in fact, he has forgiven all our sins, it is a done deal, Jesus took all our sins to the cross. Therefore, we must always forgive any sin anyone in the body of Christ might commit. It is interesting, however, that we are also told that if we do not forgive someone when they sin against us, God will not forgive us when we sin against him. This is the harshness of the truth. When someone hurts our feelings or does some other wrong against us, we must forgive them instantly. Now we are not sure what defines a sin against us, or a wrong against us, but we would have to assume there are certain behaviors or words, that could be considered damaging to our character, like gossiping.  Living in a community of faith is one that should always be guided by love over all other feelings. When we love, we are imitating God, for he so loved us that he gave his only Son so that if we believe in him we will not perish, but have everlasting life. It would make perfect sense that we should act in the same manner as loving others, giving ourselves to them, without judging them, or condemning them in any way whatsoever because we love them. If there is no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus, then we cannot condemn anyone, but only love them with the love of God. 

Judge and Be Judged

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

JUDGE AND BE JUDGED

Luke 6:37-38

37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." 

NIV

If there is one thing that is true is that we are not to judge one another, that is we are not to make a judgment if someone else has sinned. Although, it is true that Jesus said, according to Matthew's account that if a brother sins against us we should go to them privately and settle the matter. But that is someone who commits a sin against us. We are not sure what would constitute a sin against us would be. But the point here is that Jesus is very straightforward about not judging another person, not looking to find someone committing a sin and then either going to them and condemning their actions as sinful, or simply making a secret judgment in our hearts against them, holding a form of contempt against them because it would seem they are getting away with their sin and nobody else cares or sees their sinful ways. What we have to consider is how do we want to be judged by God? Therefore, that is how we should be judging others.  If we want to be judged by the righteousness of Christ, which is declared holy and blameless in the eyes of God, then we should see all other believers as holy and blameless in the eyes of God. Yes, we all still have some sin in our lives, of course. Have we developed levels of sin, that some are more grievous than others? Over the years we have changed some of them, based on our culture. When first became a believer many years ago, we were given a list, at least a verbal list, of actions that were considered sinful, drinking, smoking, dancing, going to movies, roller rinks, and a few other things, of which over the years we have those taboos or supposed sins, melt away, or at least been revised. The problem with all that type of sin is that is it based on man’s judgment, and not on the word of God. Therefore, we should not make judgments based on what we think, and simply let God make all judgment. Once again the basic underlining truth; How do we want God to judge us? That is the way we are to judge others. 

How to Live

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

HOW TO LIVE

Luke 6:32-36

32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.   34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

NIV

Love, doing good, and lending money are the three areas Jesus is dealing with. It appears Jesus is not that happy with a nice little church where all those are with each other and avoid at all costs getting involved with those dreaded sinners. As long as we love each other that is good enough and as long as we do something good that benefits each other we are spot on with the will of God. We are not sure about lending money to each other for it seems to me, that we all are pretty tight with our wallets or purses except when it comes to giving. I have been in many churches where the congregation is a very giving, in fact darn right generous, people for the needs of the church. From my own experiences with those in the church regarding lending money, I knew someone who said that he never gets financially involved with anyone because it ruins any chance of a relationship. Then, on the other hand, I had someone lend me money, with only three percent interest, what a friend he was indeed. Of course, then he felt that he had the right to overlook my life and any spending of funds that he thought was frivolous. I did whatever it took to pay him back in full and of course, our relationship was never the same, in fact, it ended. The love of money will always ruin any chance of a relationship in regard to lending. Jesus is giving us the instruction to go out in the world and be the light giving love to the unloved, being kind and compassionate to them, giving, instead of lending, when a need arises. It does not have to be millions, thousands, or hundreds; it can be simply a few coins sometimes. As I work at a self-checkout area, there have been times when a customer ends up short a quarter and asks to cancel one item. I have quarters in my pocket, and I put the quarter in and that is a thank you and I thank them for coming in the store today. Understand, I am not lifting myself up, just giving a real experience, of that once-in-a-while time of actually doing good, loving the sinner. I know a loving Christian man who keeps a five or ten-dollar bill in his wallet so that when he sees a person standing asking for help and senses the truth, without question, the bill is handed out. It is difficult at best, to be all that Jesus wants us to be, loving those who do not love us, doing good to them even though they will never do good to us. Giving, not lending, so there will be no chance of any strain in trying to be a friend to the unfriendly. And, of course, all we do we are not, or should not be doing it, looking for the great reward in heaven. We live this way just because we love Jesus. 

Christlikeness

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

CHRISTLIKENESS

Luke 6:27-31

27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

NIV            

This is a life of total commitment to Christ. It does not matter who does what, or who likes us or doesn’t like us, in other words, our commitment to living a life in Christ means that we are not a person of responses, behaving in accordance to what someone does to us, or says something about us, or to us that is less than Christlikeness, we still exhibit the love of Christ. This may happen in the world more often than we want to admit, at least if we are being the image bearer of God, and letting our light shine. There are times when non-believers, although they might be intelligent and have some great cause, like the environment or climate change, or humanitarian relief programs when it comes to accepting what we say or stand for, tell us we are nuts, or off our rocker to believe such hogwash that Jesus lived, died, was buried and was raised from the dead, and ascended back to heaven, then because all that, we are going to have eternal life. Most of the time that type of person is not the kindest if we are speaking up, taking our stand, and allowing the glory of God to reflect in us. But the thing that can be troubling is there can be this same type of dissension or non-loving behavior in the community of faith, the church. The establishment of cliques that exclude someone in need of friendship, or fellowship does not line up with living a Christ-like life or following the commands Jesus had laid out for us. This "Do to others as we would have them do unto us" forms the wholeness of being a Christian. In other words, if we want to be loved, then we must love. If we want fellowship, we must extend fellowship. If we want a friend, we must be a friend to them. If we want acceptance, we must give acceptance.  If we want or need forgiveness, we must first forgive. This applies also within a marriage. If all that is said and done is in accordance with Christ, then love will abound, and acceptance, forgiveness, friendship, and fellowship all will flourish. It all comes down to living a life of love, that which Jesus said was the greatest of all commands. What we have to come to grips with is defining what love means in our daily living, as we follow Jesus. 

Pleasing God or People

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

PLEASING GOD OR PEOPLE

Luke 6:24-26

24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

NIV

There is a danger when people speak well of us. Why would that be? Are we not supposed to reflect the glory of God? Are we not supposed to be image bearers of God, the light of the world, the salt of the earth? Are we not supposed to declare the good news? Why then would it be bad for people to speak well of us? We know about the false prophets of today who are most likely the same kind of men that were in the time of Jesus. They speak with a silver tongue, tickling the ears of those who hear them. They tell people what they want to hear and gather crowds to themselves, followers that support them, and their abundant lifestyle. It is all about making people speak well of them. That is the example Jesus used to warn us not to be like them. That is, we should not be about looking to make ourselves look good to people. Should we be living in a manner to please people, telling them what they want to hear, instead of being truthful about the good news? Of course, we are not sure which people group Jesus was referring to. It could be the group of people who have yet to hear the good news or have heard it and rejected it, preferring to live in the darkness. He could have referred to the people group that are believers and those we live with in the church. In that case, it would not be good to live within a façade, showing ourselves as being holy and righteous, almost as one who does not sin, in essence living to please the others in the church, instead of living transparently, admitting we are simply another sinner saved by grace. But the whole message here, the truth Jesus is speaking is that we should be living in a manner that pleases God, rather than pleasing people. Yes, we are still supposed to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the image bearer of God, the reflector of his glory, so that people will see the light in us, they will see the glory of God reflecting off of us, and they will see Jesus when they see us, then we will be pleasing to God, and just maybe some people will be pleased enough to come out of the darkness and into the light of Jesus. 

Chose Today

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

CHOSE TODAY

Luke 6:24-26

24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

NIV

What a warning against seeking the fame and fortune of this world. Jesus is warning those who look to the system of the world for their own well-being, filling their pockets with gold and silver, and finding comfort from their great wealth. It is the same type of person who looks to the wealth of the world for comfort and laughs at God. What is most interesting is that it looks like Jesus is comparing the kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world. Blessed are the poor in spirit, but woe to the rich in spirit. Blessed are the humble in spirit, but woe to the proud and haughty in spirit. Blessed are those who have chosen the kingdom of God, but woe to those who have rejected His kingdom for the kingdom of the world. What we are concerned about is whether we have or will try to have one foot in each kingdom. That is, we want to follow Jesus, or at least confess that Jesus is Lord, but then we still fight to gain and store up as much wealth as we can for our future old age. How can we trust in Jesus and trust in money at the same time? Of course, we need some amount of money to live in this world. We have needs, housing, food, clothing, and transportation so we can get to work, which provides the paycheck or income needed to pay for the things of life. But the problem is when we get so invested in the ways of the world, that we forfeit the way of God, maybe try to live both ways, bringing back to one foot in each kingdom. Yet, Jesus spoke directly to that issue when he said that we cannot serve two masters, living in two kingdoms, it has to be one or the other, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of this world. Joshua said it best, “Chose this day whom you will serve, but as far as my house, we will serve the Lord. 

Rejected and Rejoicing

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

REJECTED AND REJOICING

Luke 6:20-23

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

NIV

We have come to the part where men hate us exclude and insult us and reject our name as if it is evil. Of course, we do not think they think our Christian name, such as the name our parents gave us, but we can be sure some think the name, “Believer”, “Follower of Jesus”, Jesus ‘freak”, “Christian” or whatever other titles people can put on us, as evil in their eyes. This may be because of the conviction they feel just being in our presence. We have experienced this at work, in the lunch or break room as they are chatting, or perhaps gossiping and we walk in and their voices lower so that we cannot hear them. In essence, they exclude us from their conversation because they know we would disapprove of what they are saying, or they think we are not worthy of being included because we are not qualified to know what they speak of. However, the point is that we are separate from them because they know of our faith in Jesus, and they reject us because we make them feel uncomfortable. That is sad, because we love them and want them to experience the joy we have, the comfort and peace we so enjoy in Christ. But the truth is they love the darkness they live in because it hides their sins, and their thinking maybe because they cannot see their sin, it does not exist. However, when we, the light of the world, come into their presence, they can see their sin, so they reject our light to remain in the dark. However, that does not mean we should hide our light under a barrel, no, we should always let our light shine, so all in the house can see, even is some close their eyes, or cover their eyes, because they hate our light, hating us because we are that light. But we stay firm, standing in the lampstand and shining our light brightly reflecting the glory of the Lord, and we will rejoice and be glad for that day is coming, our great reward in heaven, the day our redemption is complete, and we stand in the presence of God. There is no greater reward. 

Weeping and laughing

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

WEEPING AND LAUGHING

Luke 6:20-23

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

NIV

Blessed, happy, content, satisfied, and fulfilled are we when we weep now for, we will be laughing later. What? We are blessed because we weep, mourn, or lament? What are we weeping or mourning about? It is interesting this Greek word, Klaioo, carries the meaning of weeping as a sign of pain and grief for the thing signified. Certainly, we do not weep and mourn or lament because of a few aches and pains that are a result of our aging body. However, living in this body in the here and now might well be the reason we should weep, mourn, and lament, for as long as we are captive in this corruptible and perishable body, we are absent from being in the everlasting face-to-face presence with our God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Paul tells us. this mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed. This mortal form with be clothed with immortality, and indeed we will be laughing as a sign of rejoicing for we will be standing in the eternal presence of our Lord. We will see God face to face, and live forever in his kingdom, in a place that Jesus prepared just for us. However, in the meantime, although we are weeping because of being struck in the perishable form, we are also clothed right now, with God's incredible armor so that we can take our stand against the spiritual forces of this dark world and the schemes of the devil, because we are operating in the spiritual realm with the armor of God. We can also rejoice now even if we are weeping, for we know the truth of our salvation and our future with God. We can rejoice as we look forward to the age that is coming, even if we are weeping in this present age. So we weep and we laugh.

Being Hungry

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BEING HUNGRY

Luke 6:20-23

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

NIV

Blessed, happy content, satisfied, fulfilled, complete, at those who hunger now, for they will satisfied. Matthew makes this fuller in that he records Jesus saying “Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” What does it mean to hunger? The Greek word peinaoo has a direct meaning of: to hunger, however when used metaphorically it means to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire, with the accusative of the thing, which is referred to Matthew’s record, the thing is righteousness. So, what does it mean to seek with eager desire after righteousness? How can we attain righteousness? There is so much wrapped up within the Greek, with different forms of the same base word meaning righteous. It is somewhat difficult to grasp the fullness of its meaning. This form used in Matthew is different than other forms that are used to render one as righteous or the quality of one who is righteous. What we are seeing is that we are to seek ardently with an eager desire to be righteous, which is the way of thinking, feeling, and acting wholly confirmed to the will of God, and therefore we need no rectification, (The act of correcting or making something right) in our heart or life and that we are approved by God, acceptable to God. We know we can think rightly, because we believe in the one God sent, Jesus. That can be the only way to think, and we are always eagerly seeking more of Jesus, more of the truth to which we have dedicated our life to. When we say that we want to be more like Jesus, we are saying that we want to live in complete conformity to the will of God, for that is how Jesus lived and taught us how to live. In the fullness of righteousness, we know that Jesus is our righteousness, and that as we fully live in Christ, fully eagerly desiring to live in Christ, forsaking all else, even forsaking our own desires for the things of this world, with all its fame and fortune. When we seek after Jesus, when we turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. When we hunger after Jesus, when we seek after Him, we will be well satisfied. 

Blessed Are the Poor

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BLESSED ARE THE POOR

Luke 6:20-23

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

NIV

If we were looking at the gospel according to Matthew, we would be looking at what is called the beatitudes, eight or nine of them, depending on how they are counted. Here, Luke gives us three or four, but again, as we are looking into the record of Luke, let us deal with each one of these. First, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours of the kingdom of God.” First, the word blessed would include happy, content, satisfied, fulfilled, and complete.  Now. we do have to include “poor in spirit” as that is how Matthew records it. We would not think that Jesus excludes people of wealth from the kingdom of God, although it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than a camel going through the eye of a needle. Material wealth gives a person the ability to provide all their desires and perhaps it might be more difficult to depend on Jesus. However, to be poor in spirit would include all people no matter their personal financial picture. When we yield our spirit, when we face the fact, that we are a poor wretched soul, lost in this dark world, with no strength to save ourselves from death, then we see the light of Jesus and understand that He is the only way to life, we yield ourselves to him. It is just as Paul puts it, we offer our bodies, our self, as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is our act of spiritual worship. How can we ever think that we are rich, and yes, rich in spirit? Spiritual vanity would be our ruin, even after we have accepted Jesus and are given the right to be called children of God and have abdicated our citizenship in the world and become a citizen in the kingdom of God because of our poorness in spirit, we could be in danger of beginning to have a certain level of spiritual vanity. We could be in danger if we begin to think our education or knowledge of the scriptures or our position in the body of Christ make us better than others, boasting in a sense, then spiritual vanity is our downfall. Let us always approach our lives in Christ always seeking him and his kingdom above all else, looking only to Jesus for everything, knowing we need Jesus and only Jesus because we see how poor we are. 

Flowing With Power

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

FLOWING WITH POWER

Luke 6:17-19

17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

NIV

First, we do not know if this record of Luke is the same event that took place as Matthew records, and that is considered as the Sermon on the Mount. The reason is the following verses that are the same as the beginning of what Matthew records, and His ending words are very similar in Luke’s record as is in Matthew’s record. However, we are not going to spend any more time looking at both, but rather simply deal with what Luke records. We want to remember that Jesus had just named his twelve after he had spent the night alone on the mountain praying. Jesus had just spent alone time with his Father, who is also our Father who is in heaven, the same Father who we hallow, or make holy, his name. It is not that we make the name of God holy, but we affirm that his name is made holy, but the fact God, and all that means is holy. We need to be careful in thinking that because Jesus spent all night in prayer is the reason that all the power was coming from him and healing all that came to him. However that is also not bad thinking, as when we spend time alone with our Father who is in  heaven, and we praise his holy name, we are also filled with his power, although we might not have that same kind of power that was coming from Jesus. We might not have that kind of power coming from us that we can heal anyone who comes to us, but we certainly can pray to our Father in heaven in the name of Jesus with power because of our faith which comes from spending alone time with our Father. We do wonder about those who are called prayer warriors, and if they have the power of God flowing from them enough to heal someone, is it just their faith is deeper than those who are not seen as prayer warriors. However, if we spent alone time with the Father, as Jesus did, perhaps we might see that power coming from us to do that which Jesus did, as he said that we would do even greater things than he has done. Perhaps praying is not about asking God for all the needs of others, but simply spending alone time, separated from all the voices of the world, just us and Him, alone together, and spending most of our time listening, hearing His voice speaking His truth into our lives, and as a result of being in the holy presence of our Father who is in heaven, there will be power coming from us, like shining with unveiled faces, reflecting the glory of God in ever-increasing glory and flowing with power. 

The Apostle

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE APOSTLE

Luke 6:12-16

12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

NIV

We know these are the twelve that Jesus chose and designated as apostles and that is who they will forever be throughout all of history for as long as the bible stays in existence. However, we do wonder when we look into the Greek word, apostolos. Certainly, we can see the English word apostle, but the meaning is where we get caught up in thinking about where this may apply to some believers in our culture today. First, and foremost, the word apostolos means to be a delegate; especially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ. This word can also be seen as a messenger, one sent forth with orders. When we look into what Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians where he stated the four gifts God gave to the church to prepare God’s people for works of service, this same word appears in the list, apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, and teachers. What this means, at least to me, is that although Jesus chose or selected twelve of his closest followers to be messengers sent forth with orders, that was not the end of apostles in the church. We know that an apostle is distinctively different than an evangelist, a prophet, or a pastor and teacher. We would think that each of those people who fulfill those positions in the church, do so because of the calling they heard from God. Because they are called by God to be one of those gifts to the church, each of them fills a vital role in the spiritual and physical growth of the church. However, the Apostle is sent as a gift to the church to serve as an ambassador of the Gospel. These apostles of today still have special orders to be a commissioner of Christ. We are not sure why they are included as ones that prepare God’s people for works of service unless, they are meant to bring Christ to the forefront of the church, and yet, as we look back at the twelve, they ministered to those who had not yet accepted Jesus as the Christ, but also served as the spiritual leaders of the new church. The twelve had special powers, when Jesus sent them out, power to heal the sick, drive out demons, and perhaps even more power we have not heard of. Would the apostles of today have those same powers, or are they simply called to be a messenger of the gospel, or maybe even serve as spiritual leaders of the church? One thing we know for certain is that somewhere in the church, and we are not sure if that means the church at large, or within each local church, there is at least or should be at least one apostle, just as they should be an evangelist, a prophet and pastors and teachers. But where are they? Who is the apostle? 

Good or Evil

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GOOD OR EVIL

Luke 6:6-11

6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"  10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

NIV

Because we focused on the idea that Jesus knew their thoughts, how Jesus is God, and that God surely knows our thoughts, we did not get to the healing of the man with the withered hand. It is interesting that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law knew there was this man with a withered hand in the synagogue but did not have any compassion on him but were only watching to see if Jesus would have compassion on him and heal him and do so on the Sabbath, which they would consider as doing what should not be done on the Sabbath. They were more concerned with the law than with the poor condition of this man with a withered hand. So, Jesus did not disappoint them and had the man stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus asked the very important question. “which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good, or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?” We understand the first part of his question about good or evil, but we are not sure about saving or destroying a life. Perhaps this had more meaning to the Jews, as one of our scholars of old thinks this was a maxim of the Jews. Nevertheless, the truth that strikes a chord with us is concerning whether to do good or evil on the Sabbath. We wonder if we are doing good on Sunday in church, or are there moments of thinking evil, or even doing evil on Sunday. Do we truly love each other when we gather, or are there those that we would rather avoid, or not want to talk to, or greet with love in our hearts? Are we putting up a façade looking holy and righteous, but have some not to loving thoughts about a certain one among the congregation? Of course, Jesus was talking about whether it was right to heal someone on the Sabbath, which would be saving a life, or letting the man continue to live with a withered hand, which would be destroying his life. But do we look to heal any broken relationships, if there are any, while we gather to worship God? Or do we allow those hurts that we may have caused by actions, or inactions to go unhealed, leaving someone leave the church still hurt, or unhealed?  Let us always be about doing that which is good, especially while in the assembly of the people of God and during worship.

He Knows

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

HE KNOWS

Luke 6:6-11

6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"  10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

NIV

First, it is interesting that as Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, the Pharisees, and teachers of the law, were watching to see if he would heal someone on the Sabbath. They knew Jesus had the power to heal people, which of course, they did not. Why were they so intent on finding a reason to accuse Jesus? Was it jealous on the part of the teachers of the law, that Jesus was teaching instead of them? There was great tension between them and Jesus, but Jesus had no tension with them, it was all them, hatred, and jealousy, that drove them to not only accuse but to find a way to do something that would hurt Jesus, and destroy his authority among the people. But Jesus knew their thoughts. Once again, we see the Godhead in Jesus, because although he was in human form, Jesus was God, and had and has the ability to know the thoughts of man. This brings us to wonder about whether God is always aware of our thoughts all the time, or it is just when we come to him in our time of conversation with him, which is usually called our time of prayer, or when we pray for something. When Jesus knew what they were thinking it was because of their time of encountering each other, just as it is when we and God encounter each other when we pray. Although, God is so powerful, so always present, always knowing, always everywhere, that we would have to think He is always aware of each and every one of us, who we are, and how we think. He knows when we fail him, but He also is always extending His grace to us because we believe, we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It does not appear that Jesus extended grace to the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were opposed to him, and wanted to find a way to accuse him of wrongdoing against the law. There too, is another lesson for us. It is not right for us, as believers, who have been commanded to love each other as Christ has  loved us, to look to find is another believer is guilty of an offense, even of one against us. We wonder, if when we think that we have been offended, is it because we are thinking more highly of ourselves than we should? When we feel hurt, is it because we are thinking too much about ourselves, that everything revolves around us, and we are not thinking or acting with grace? If we are trying to be more like Jesus, then forgiveness should always be before any other feelings that might be within us. Well, that is enough rambling, we did not even get to the healing part. Nevertheless, we have learned something about ourselves and reminded ourselves that Jesus knows. 

Searching for Wrongs

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

SEARCHING FOR WRONGS

Luke 6:1-5

6:1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" 3 Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."  5 Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."  

NIV

The first thing we need to clear up is this Sabbath. We do not understand why the King James version is the only one that we find records of this was the second sabbath after the first. Then our scholars of old, perhaps having only that version, and not going back to the Greek or even the transliteration of the Greek version, which never have anything to say about a second Sabbath after the first. But they make so much hay about this time of the second after the first. However, the point is that on one Sabbath, which makes no difference which Sabbath it was, he and his disciples were walking through a grain field. We do not even know if this was a wheat or barley field, but it was the type of grain that the head of the plant had small kernels, which were the part of the plant that would be harvested. Taking a few of the heads of the plant and rubbing them in their hands produced the kernels that were edible. As seen by the law, that would have been a form of harvesting that the Pharisees understood was unlawful to harvest on the Sabbath. We wonder why the Pharisees followed Jesus and his disciples through a grainfield. We would think that on the Sabbath they would be in the synagogue praising and worshipping God. But they were more interested in following after Jesus and his disciples for the express reason to charge them as sinners. Just another thought, did the Pharisees count their steps as they were following Jesus, for on the Sabbath they were only allowed, by their own rules, a certain number of steps. That brings us to a truth in our time, in our churches as we live in the new creation time and have our citizenship in the kingdom of God. Do we approach our life as the Pharisees did, in that we are looking to find some fault in someone else, just to make the point that we are so holy, and they are committing a wrong? The Pharisees were judging Jesus and his disciples, condemning them in a sense as committing a sin against the law, while they, the Pharisees, remained holy and pure. Of course, they may not have heard the teaching of Jesus that we consider the Sermon of the Mount when he taught about the log and the speck in our eyes, and that we should look for that log, the sin in our own lives, before we go following after someone to see if we can find a speck in their eye. That is what Jesus was telling the Pharisees. They did not see the truth about the Sabbath, and even the great King David ate consecrated bread, and about Judging instead of knowing the truth. How careful we need to live, first making sure we are living for God, and giving attention to the cleansing blood of Jesus over our sins, the forgiveness of God, and His grace we should not be looking for wrongings in others, especially when we have not overcome wrongs we commit, perhaps on purpose or inadvertently without knowing we did so. As we live in this new creation with love and forgiveness, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, and we won't see those specks, or search for wrongs. 

New and Old

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

NEW AND OLD

Luke 5:27-39

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" 31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."  36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" 

NIV

 

It is time to ponder on this wineskin and cloth parable Jesus told the Pharisees and teachers of the law because they were being self-righteous accusing Jesus of eating and drinking with the cursed tax collectors. we think the best application is about the fact the disciples were Jews and thus lived most of their lives under the law taught by the teachers of the Law, Rabbis, who belong to the sect of the Pharisees. But now they have the light of Christ, a new law, a new way of life. Once someone has this new life, it would not be right to try to take this new way of life and sew it into the old way of life. Once one has experienced salvation in Christ Jesus, to try to combine that with living as the world does, would tear the new way of life and add it to the old way of life, the new way of life in Christ would be torn, or be ruined in some sense, by trying to live under some other law, or rule and regulation. It is the same with wine and the wineskin. The idea here is that old wine is the wine that has been aged and is thus mellow with a great aroma and smooth to the palate, while the new wine is tart, sour as new grapes would be, and unpalatable. This life in Christ is smooth and good to the taste, as we read the scriptures and see we are told to taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Why would we take our smooth and great taste in life because we are in Christ and try to put our new life back into the old wineskin, the old life of our past? If we try to live according to Christ but also try to live according to the ways of the world, we will be torn apart, ripped, or burst open, so to speak. We can never try to combine living in the kingdom of God with living in the kingdom of this world, it simply will not work, and if we do, it will take all the joy we can experience in Christ and tear it away from us. All our joy will be stolen from us because we are trying to live in two kingdoms. We are pouring our new lives into the old ways, or trying to sow our new lives onto that old life of the past. No, we are new wine living in new wineskins, and we have new clothes washed in the blood of the Lamb and have thrown out all our old clothes. We know the new is better because we have tasted it, and we would never say the old is better. 

One with Christ

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

ONE WITH CHRIST

Luke 5:27-39

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" 31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."  36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine enmust be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" 

NIV

Now that we have decided to respond to the call of Jesus to follow him, and we have admitted that we were one of those sick people that needed the doctor, a sinner, and we have repented, or changed the way we think, with Jesus in the center of our thoughts and lives. We now want to ponder on this bridegroom and fasting. Of course, that may have been just regarding that particular time because Jesus was physically present and was talking about someday he would not be as he would be going back to heaven. However, the church, or rather the people of faith, are still the bride of Christ. At least that is the application or the example that Paul uses in his letter to the Ephesians, where he speaks of a relationship of a husband to his wife, and then says it is a profound mystery, but he is speaking of Christ and the church. That would mean Jesus is the husband or the Groom, and we are then as the wives, would be the bride of Christ. It is interesting that is we expound on that truth we find that Jesus as the bridegroom, the husband, ought to love his wife, which Jesus does, and give ourselves up for our wives, loving them as we live our own bodies and Paul goes on to make the point that we leave everything behind and we are now with our wife and become one flesh, just as Jesus and the Church. Jesus said that very thing about a husband and a wife become one flesh, both Matthew and Mark record those words of Jesus.  Jesus has said that He and the Father are one,  and has made the point as we, being the submitting wife of our husband, Jesus, we have become one with Him. So we believe that we are one with Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he speaks about us being united with Christ in his death, so we are united with in his resurrection.  We are one with Christ. John, in his gospel records those words of Jesus when he speaks about that we might be one as He and the Father are one. It simply comes down to the fact that we are one with Christ, and as such we should live accordingly.

 

Calling All Sinners

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

CALLING ALL SINNERS

Luke 5:27-39

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" 31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."  36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" 

Now that we are following Jesus, we need to look at this banquet and what happened there. First, Jesus was eating with tax collectors, the worst of the worst among the Jews because they worked or were willing to be employed, used by Rome, in cahoots with their occupiers. When questioned about his eating with such awful people by those who thought themselves to be righteous through the law, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinner to repentance.” The question is who was he referring to, those tax collectors he was eating with, or those who complained to Jesus’s disciples? Did the law forbid them to eat with people of their own faith? Did they think the tax collectors rejected the law, just because they appeared to be sympathetic to Rome, but collecting taxes for Rome. But the point is that Jesus came for us, sinners who were in some sense living under the law of sin and death. He redeemed us and set us free from our captivity. We were desperately in need of a doctor, for we were not healthy and doomed to die from the sickness we were infected with sin. We do not understand why the Pharisees and the teachers of the law thought they were righteous. If they had studied the law, they would have seen that it was impossible to adhere exactly to it, that they needed a sacrifice, the spilling of blood to atone for their sin. But they made up their own law, rules, and regulations to which they could follow and thus made themselves righteous. It is always simpler to make up our own rules and regulations because we make them for ourselves, knowing we can fulfill our own rules. However, when we fellowship with Jesus, when we sit with him at the banquet, dining on his words, digesting the word of God, then we fully understand that Jesus came for us sinners. However, we praise His holy name, for we are saved by grace, and not by our works, so that we cannot boast in ourselves, like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. However, we can boast in Christ because he came to call us sinners to repentance, to change the way we think, that is we cannot heal ourselves by any means, we need Jesus for He is calling all sinners.  

 

 

Follow Me

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

“FOLLOW ME”

Luke 5:27-39

27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" 31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  33 They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 34 Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast."  36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" 

NIV

There are several great truths here, of course, every word spoken by Jesus is a great truth. The first, which is but two words, “Follow me”, carries a huge significance in every persons life. We know Levi better by the name of Matthew, who ended up writing a gospel of his own. However, when Jesus told Matthew to follow him, it did not just mean walk behind me. We are well aware of what it means to follow Jesus. Of course, we surely want to follow him to the place he has prepared for us in heaven, or rather in the kingdom of God. But then, we are already living in the kingdom of God. Both Mark and Luke record Jesus saying, “The kingdom of God is near”. The Greek word translated as near, carries the meaning of come near to you. However, as we are in Christ, and He is in us, the kingdom of God is at hand, as in, we are in it now, living under the rule of Christ. We once lived under the rule of the powers of this dark world, and the power of Satan, but we have abdicated our citizenship to this world, and became a citizen of the kingdom of God, following Jesus. When Jesus told Matthew to follow him, he got up, left everything, and followed Jesus. We know from history that tax collectors worked for the Romans, and as such, lived a fairly well-to-do life, for it was known they collected more tax than Rome required, and kept that extra for their own good lives. It is no wonder they were hated by their fellow Jews. However, Matthew left all that behind and not only follow Jesus, but invited him into his home, and threw a great banquet, inviting other tax collectors to meet Jesus. We have not been able to physically throw Jesus a great banquet in our homes, but we can give him a fantastic banquet in our hearts, as we follow him. In fact, we have offered our whole bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual act of worship. Of course, we do not put ourselves on an altar to be slaughtered, but we offer ourselves to the service of God in His kingdom. That is, He is our Sovereign, our King, our Ruler and we serve at his pleasure. That, and much more, is what is all wrapped up in the response to the call of Jesus, “Follow me”. 

The Power to Forgive Sins

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE POWER TO FORGIVE SINS

Luke 5:17-26

17 One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."  21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."  25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."

NIV

It is remarkable that Pharisees and teachers of the law, from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem came to hear Jesus teach. Mark mentions that this was in Capernaum. There are several things we should consider. We do not know why Luke made a point of saying that the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. We would think that power was always with Jesus as He is the Son of God, which of course, we know that Jesus is God. The gospel of John tells us directly the fact, that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and then John tells us the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So, there is no question that Jesus is God and God always has the power to heal. This gives us more than hope, it gives us assurance that because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we are always in the presence of God who consistently has the power to heal us, and those we bring to Him. That is the second great truth here, that this man who could not come to Jesus on his own strength had friends who were willing to do whatever it took to get him in front of Jesus. This proves not only the faith of the paralytic but of the faith of the four men getting him in front of Jesus. Although we are not told of the faith of the paralytic man, we are told of the faith of the men carrying him. All their efforts show us their faith. Sometimes we may be the one who has enough faith to bring someone before Jesus for a divine healing, even if the person who has some sickness, illness, or infirmity does not have enough faith. Now, as far as Jesus first forgiving this man his sins, we know that had some importance, because of the presence of the Pharisees and the teachers, or doctors of the law, or Rabbis. The Jews held to the opinion that sin is what causes sicknesses, or infirmities. We see this in the question of the blind man from birth, who caused this, the man’s sins, or his parents’ sins. Jesus understanding this, forgave this man his sins. Nevertheless, this also gives us great assurance because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have the complete forgiveness of our sins. This means that not any of our sins, past, present, or future, will ever be held against us, or in other words, we will not be held accountable for our sins. Of course, that does not mean we should just go about finding ways to sin, just because we are forgiven. We should try to live pure and holy, but we also know we will fail. But Jesus has the power to forgive our sins, that is still the truth, the assurance we live with.

 

I Am Willing

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

“I AM WILLING”

Luke 5:12-16

12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." 13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."  15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

NIV

There are two truths here that we need to see. First, in those days a person with leprosy was so ceremonial unclean they were not allowed to live in the general population, they were outcasts so to speak, and had to live in some kind of colony outside of town. Secondly, to touch a person with leprosy would make someone unclean themselves and they would have to go through the purification process before they could enter the temple courts. It is a good thing we do not have that kind of disease today, and the stigma associated with it. Of course, we do have, in some sense, a few outcasts in our culture today, and maybe even in the church, when we see this formation of, what I call, unholy cliques. If we are believers who share in common the love of God, and we are supposed to love each other as God loves us, than the exclusion of someone from some little group, a clique, is an unholy act. But I digress.  The truth we want to focus on is the words of Jesus, “I am willing”. Here is a man excluded from the group because of his leprosy, unliked by all others, sent outside, who does not just knell before Jessus but falls face down on the ground, laying himself prostrate before Jesus, and begs saying, “Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean”. Those beautiful words of Jesus ring loud and clear, "I am willing”, “Be clean”. We do not understand why Jesus did not want the man to testify about what Jesus did for him, however, again, in that culture the man still needed to go through the process of being declared clean by the priest after he brought the appropriate sacrifice. But here is where it gets a little dicey for us who suffer from some disease, illness, or infirmity. How often do we feel the touch of Jesus and his words, “be clean”? however, his words, “I am willing” still stand throughout the ages, and that means for us today. Jesus is always willing to heal all our diseases, all our illnesses, and all our infirmities. We just wonder how willing are we to come to him face down prostrate on the ground before him? Maybe we should do that in the physical sense, but even if we don’t come before him like that, are we laying ourselves before him, truly humbling ourselves before him, even in the spiritual sense? Have we become too prideful to beg Jesus for a healing? Have we become too sophisticated in our lives, that we cannot truly come humbly, begging Jesus saying, with the faith of that leper, "If you are will, Lord, you can cleanse me, you can heal me? We know that Jesus will always answer, “I  am willing, be clean, be healed” We do not have a record of Jesus ever saying, "No" or Not now" or "Wait". We only have a record of Jesus always healing ever disease, every illness, every infirmity  to those who came to him, humbly before him, with the words, "I am willing, be clean". 

Overflowing

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

OVERFLOWING

Luke 5:4-11

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."  5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."  11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

NIV

This is such a familiar passage of the bible, well known to many believers. We read it and with encouragement mostly thinking about the catching of men, that is we should be out there preaching the good news so that others might escape death as we have. Yet, the narrative also includes the idea that Peter worked all night without success, and fishing was his life, his trade, he was skilled at fishing, making his living from his boat and nets. In this particular scene, Peter was not doing well at his trade; in fact, he caught nothing at all. But when Jesus got involved in the trade of Peter, his catch was more he could haul in himself, and he needed two others, James and John to bring their boat to help with the extraordinary haul of fish. Here is our life lesson. We can apply all our knowledge and skills to attain the success we want in life, and perhaps many can achieve a multiplicity of things, but is it because of our greatness, our great knowledge, or is it because of the involvement of Jesus in our lives. Boasting about our achievements, and yes even all the things we do in the kingdom, our service, our ministry, all the deeds that we do are nothing, if Jesus is not involved, however, we he does get involved then we can boast about Jesus, rather than ourselves. Yes, we have a skill, a trade, a profession, just like Peter had, but with Jesus getting involved with us, whatsoever we do will prosper, for we do not take that advice of the ungodly, and we do not walk through life the same way the ungodly do, and we do not mock God, or give him lip service, but we delight in his ways, and we meditate day and night about God’s ways. Thus we will be just like a tree planted by living waters, Jesus, and our leaves, our works will not wither, and whatsoever we do will be a catch so large, a blessing so huge we will not have room to contain it. When we live with Jesus involved in our lives, blessings will flow from heaven, and our nets will break because of the vastness of what Jesus caused in and for our lives. So we walk with no fear because Jesus told us not to be afraid, he will do the work in and for us, to overflowing. 

Hand Picked

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

HAND-PICKED

Luke 5:1-3

5:1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

NIV

Yes, we are coming to the great event of Simon finding out about the power of Jesus over His created world, but first, we should spend a little time about the foreknowledge of Jesus. There were two boats at the water’s edge and of course, Jesus could have picked either one. We know from the rest of this narrative the other boat belonged to Simon’s partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee. We do not think this is just a coincidence that Jesus was there, because we know that all three men would end up being some of the disciples of Jesus, and yes, actually being three of the twelve apostles. There is just one Jewish custom that is shown to us here, in that Jesus sat to teach the people. This was common for a Rabi to sit when they taught the people. However, the truth we want to focus on is the foreknowledge of Jesus in first picking the place to be, and second picking the boat of Simon to sit in so as to teach the people. This leads us to think that it is also not a coincidence that we are sitting at the feet of Jesus learning from him, or that we are among the people listening to his teaching. What this means, is that we did not pick Jesus, but that Jesus picked us. We know that sounds a lot like predestination, but this is not that, for God wants all men to come to the knowledge of salvation through the redemptive act of Jesus. In fact, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to convict all men of their need for repentance. Therefore, in that sense, God has predestined all men to know Him and accept His grace. Still, we also believe there are some who are picked by God for special purposes as we are seeing here, with his picking of Simon’s boat. What we can see, is that God was not done picking those twelve for we know of others, that he picked for a special calling. We could name some of them, but what we want to come to is regarding our own calling. We are not sure about others that we fellowship with, but we are certain because of all the circumstances and leadings throughout our time with Jesus, but surely some of them are like we are, that He picked us and has told us to put out in the deep, so to speak. Simon was not looking for Jesus, but Jesus was looking for Simon, and we firmly believe Jesus was looking for us, hand-picking us for His purpose. 

Always Healing and Preaching

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

ALWAYS HEALING AND  PREACHING

 

Luke 4:40-44

40 When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.   42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent."  44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

NIV

Once again, we see the absolute authority of Jesus over all sickness, all infirmities, and all evil spirits. This is the Lord who has the authority over life itself, for he was there in the beginning, and all things that were made we made by Him. He is the one who gave us life in the beginning, and He is the one who redeemed us so that we might have life everlasting. Jesus is also the one who gave us the way to live. We understand that when He said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, he meant the way to eternal life, but because he is also the truth and the life, we could see that Jesus is the true way to live. We know that is stretching it a bit, but what we also know from all the other scriptures is that Jesus does show us how to live. What did he mean when he said, “Follow me”, other than for others to follow after the way he lived. What did he mean when he said that we would do even greater things than he did if he didn’t mean we would be able to have the authority over sickness, infirmities, and evil spirits. He gave his disciples that authority when he sent them out two by two. Of course, as sheep amount the wolves. But He also said that they and we should not rejoice because we have power or authority over all the power of the enemy, that the evil spirits submit to us, but to rejoice because our names are written down in heaven. However, Jesus told us that if we ask him anything in his name he would do it, and we know it is God’s will to heal, and that means all sickness and infirmities, and so we are meant to both rebuke those sicknesses, and infirmities in the name of Jesus, and rebuke all the dark powers of this world and all evil spirits in the spiritual realm. At the same time, we should be preaching the good news of the kingdom of God to other people, because that is why he was sent, and that is what he has sent us to do, to go and make disciples of all people and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as well as teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded, and he would be with us even onto the end. We live in the kingdom of God, and we should live as the people of God, with all the authority that has been given to us. This way we will not live as crippled Christians, living a weak and tired life, with no power, no energy, no life, but just an existence in this world, trying to make our way in our own power, our own abilities, and strength, which makes us weak with useless lives. Let us live up to the fullest potential Jesus meant for us, with the power and authority he has given us in His name, always rejoicing, always exerting the power over evil, sicknesses, and infirmities, always living for Jesus, and always preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. 

Rebuking

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

REBUKING

Luke 4:38-39

38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

NIV

We have read this account in Mathew and Luke several times. That is a slight difference in that Matthew records that Jesus touched her hand, and she got up to serve them. However, Luke makes the point that Jesus rebuked the fever. This gives us a clearer picture of what happened. Touching and rebuking are very different. We wonder as, again, over the years we have anointed people praying over them mostly for some infirmity rather than a sickness. Although we have prayed many times in the name of Jesus, and we have quoted Jesus about asking Him anything in His name and He would do it, with the expectation that infirmity would be healed. We are beginning to think that perhaps we need to rebuke that infirmity with the authority of Jesus, or rather the authority that Jesus gave us when he said that we would do even greater things than he has. It is not a matter that we do not have faith, we are filled with faith, as we live by faith and have since the first day we believed. God has done amazing work in and for us over the years, so much so that we could write a book of testimonies of what God has done for us. Therefore, we do not think it is a matter of our faith when we pray for others, anointing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Still, this narrative of Luke makes us wonder if we should rebuke with authority rather than ask in faith. What we want to see is that infirmity, whatever it is, to be instantly gone, so that person can get up take their mat, and walk, so to speak., but in this case, get up and begin to live completely healed. 

Be Quiet!

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BE QUIET! AND GO AWAY! 

Luke 4:33-37

33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!" 35 "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. 36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

NIV

Another example of the power of God. Demons are a member of the spiritual forces of evil, that we know about and the reason we dress ourselves in the armor of God. We can take our stand against those dark forces of the world and the forces of evil in the spiritual realm. Because we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, that is we have Jesus in our hearts, but we also have the Holy Spirit dwelling within who has all the authority against all the evil in the world and in the spiritual realm, because He is God. Just to think that we have God dwelling within should give us the most awesome feeling. But this knowledge of the Spirit living within us should also give us all authority over any evil spirit, any demon, that we encounter. That is the authority Jesus showed us in this narrative of the evil spirit Jesus encountered in the synagogue who possessed that man. If we think that we never encounter evil spirits in the world, we might be too naïve or so unaware of what we are up against. Of course, we know that we face temptations, but do we think those temptations are generated within ourselves? We just saw the temptations of Jesus and they were delivered by none other than the devil, the most evil spirit of them all. We know that we face temptations that are the result of some evil spirit coming to us and tempting us and we have the authority to tell it, or them, to be quiet, to go out from being near us, as we take our stand against it or them. They may not speak openly as they did with Jesus, but as we encounter people who are living in the darkness of this world, some of them could have evil spirits inhabiting them, who may try to get us to follow their advice, or engage in their pattern of thinking or behavior, even what might seem innocent enough. We hear people at work, known to us as non-believers, gossiping about other co-workers. What we have to remember is that if someone does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, then perhaps some other spirit is. However, the problem we see is gossip comes to believers, and we wonder who influences that voice of gossip. That is not to say everyone who does not believe is possessed by an evil spirit, or everyone who gossips is possessed, but they are very susceptible to being influenced by evil spirits. Of course, there are many other temptations we all face every day from the forces of evil, pride, boasting, jealousy, envy, and a host of others.  We have all the authority of Christ living within us, and we are able to take our stand against all the evil in this world and in the spiritual realm. Any time we hear a voice of evil we can tell it, at least in the Spirit, to be quiet and go away.