I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 21-22.

    I am not sure that today’s blog entry will have any continuity. As I read the passage there were several things which I wanted to comment on that are not connected in my thoughts. The passage begins with Jesus’ commentary on the widow’s offering. Entire sermons have been, rightfully, written on this three verse passage. We have no basis for taking any pride in our giving until our giving means we may miss a meal because we cannot afford it. Jesus is not saying that we should give to the extent which the widow did. However, His message throughout was that serving God should mean more to us than having food to eat.

    In discussing the coming trials and struggles which His followers will face Jesus warned us that people would appear claiming to be Him, or claiming to fulfill His role. He assured us that there will be no mistaking when He returns. Everyone will know. We will not need someone to tell us that Jesus has come back.
    This passage also contains Luke’s account of the Last Supper, which was the Passover Meal. Here Jesus says something to which I do not think we pay enough attention: ” For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” A few years ago, the pastor of the congregation I was attending preached a sermon series on Passover, including the meaning of the meal. I can think of one or two other times in my life where the meaning of the Passover Meal was discussed. I have been as guilty of this as any. I do not think I have put much thought into the meaning of the Passover Meal, even when I am writing on the passages in the Bible where it was instituted.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 19-20.

    The story of Zaccheaus is the perfect model of Christian outreach. First, Jesus did things which made Zaccheaus curious enough to look to see what was going on. Then Jesus reached out to Zaccheaus and treated him as a friend, not as a pariah. The people condemned Jesus for associating with someone as corrupt and evil as Zaccheaus. Jesus responded by indicating that He came to seek and save the lost. This is an important lesson for the outreach we conduct today. We are not called to make our congregations better than others so that people will change from those others to ours. We are called to seek those who have not yet come to know the Lord. This theme continues in Jesus clearing the Temple. Those selling animals for sacrifice had turned the courtyard of the Temple into a stockyard, making it inhospitable to worship by Gentiles, who were allowed no further into the Temple.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 17-18.

    Right after telling His disciples that if they had faith like a mustard seed they could tell a tree to be uprooted and it would happen, He tells them that they should not expect to be praised for doing as He commands. If our faith is true we will do as God commands because it is our duty to do so, not because we expect to be rewarded for doing so. Looking at the connection which Jesus makes here between the impact of our having faith on doing God’s will gives me a new insight into the parable of the persistent widow. In that parable Jesus tells us to learn from the woman who got justice from an unjust judge because she was persistent. In the same way, we are to be persistent in our prayers. The thing which connects this to the earlier teaching about faith is that Jesus wraps up this teaching by asking how many He will find with faith when He returns. Do I have enough faith to be persistent in my prayers?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 14-16.

    In yesterday’s passage the leader of a synagogue where Jesus healed a woman reprimanded the woman, and the others present, for seeking healing on the Sabbath, saying that healing was prohibited because it was work. So, in today’s passage, Jesus asked the religious leaders who were present if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. I had not touched on it in yesterday’s passage, but the main thrust of Jesus’ teaching on this subject is that it is never wrong to do good for others. From there Jesus transitions to talking about puffing ourselves up. I see an important connection between what Jesus says here and His teachings about those who serve others being the greatest. If the most important question we ask when deciding whether or not to do something is “What’s in it for me?” we have failed at the most basic level to understand what Jesus taught.

    As followers of Christ, each and every one of us is called to obey the Great Commission. We are to go forth into the world and make disciples. However, sometimes in our eagerness to make new disciples we downplay the difficulty of being a follower of Jesus. Jesus tells us that it is important that we be aware of what it will cost us to be His follower. No one should be encouraged to start following Jesus without first knowing the trials and suffering which they will face as a result. Our eagerness to bring others to the Lord is not misplaced, as Jesus makes clear in the parables He tells in chapter 15. However, we must make sure that we do not convince people to follow Jesus under false pretenses. The cost of following Jesus is high, higher than most are willing to pay. We know the reward is worth it, but that is a decision which each person must make for themselves.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 10-11.

    “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.” I was going to say that is even more true today than it was when Jesus said it, but that is not true. However, much to our shame it is as true today as it was when Jesus said. And why is it so true? Because we do not pray enough(more on that in the next paragraph), nor hard enough for the Lord to send more workers. Look around at our society, if your heart does not break for those who do not know and serve the Lord, my heart breaks for you. I want to make it clear that when I say “we do not pray enough” I am most definitely including myself in that “we”. I think it is time for me to stop just praying where I am when the conviction comes upon me to pray and for me to get down on my knees to pray. I need the Spirit to fully overcome me so that I speak God’s word to those in need of it around me.

    There is much in today’s passage which connects to how we should approach the “harvest”: the story of the Good Samaritan talks about how we go about the harvest, as does the story of Mary and Martha. Then Jesus teaches us about prayer. Notice how sparse and clean is the example prayer which Jesus gives us. Our prayers are not better for being wordy. The contrary is true. Let us keep our prayers simple and direct. We do not need to tell God why it is His will to answer them. He knows that already. However, Jesus does remind us of the importance of persistence. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. If we believe that what we are asking for is God’s will, why are we not asking for it again, and again, and again, and again. If we believe that what we are looking for is necessary to perform God’s will, why do we give up when we do not find it after a day or two. We should keep on looking until we find it, even if it takes decades. If we believe that God wants us to go through that door, why do we stop knocking when nobody answers it the first time? Instead let us make sure our ring is turned in and knock harder, look for a doorbell, find a stick so that our knocking can be louder, and keep knocking until someone opens the door. And if we do not believe it is God’s will, why were we knocking in the first place?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 6-7.

    The part of this passage which the Spirit brought most to my attention was the verses from chapter 6 verse 41 through verse 44. We need to focus on what we are doing wrong, not on what others are doing wrong. It is important to note that “doing wrong” includes not doing right. That is, if we are not doing things we should be doing it is just as bad as doing things we should not be doing. If I fail to help those in need, I am as much of a sinner as a person who murders someone. While the verses about the relationship of good and bad fruit to good and bad trees is not directly related to the teaching about worrying about our own faults, there is a connection. Someone who spends their time focusing on the shortcomings of others will never overcome their own shortcomings. It also provides us with a measuring stick by which we can measure ourselves. Are we producing good fruit? Are we doing the sorts of things which show God’s love to the people around us? Because, if we are not, then we are not only not producing good fruit, we are producing bad fruit.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 4-5.

    The three temptations which Luke describes Jesus experiencing in the wilderness describe the three basic temptations faced by those who desire to make the world a better place. The first temptation is to supply people’s material needs, making them dependent upon you. They will need to do the “right thing”, or you will cut them off. The second temptation is the temptation to compromise with evil in order to gain political power. Sometimes this is justified by the belief that, once political power is gained, you can go back on the compromise. It never works that way. Once you have justified compromising with evil you can always find a reason to do it again. The third temptation is to harness the power of religion and spirituality. Declare that all who do not fully support your agenda are heretics and servants of Satan. All of these represent attempts to take shortcuts from the hard work of convincing people, one at a time, to surrender their lives to God.

    When Jesus spoke in the synagogues His teaching was different than most religious teachers of His time. He did not refer to other people’s interpretation of Scripture. Jesus went directly to the Scripture and justified His teachings based on what was written there. We should follow His example. This does not mean that we should not study what others have said and written about Scripture, or that we should not use their teachings in teaching others. No, what is means is that we should treat only the Bible as authoritative and trust the Holy Spirit to show us what it means. If you hear or read someone’s teaching about God’s will and do not find it a convincing explanation of what is written in the Bible, set it aside and rely on what you read in the Bible.