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.

    As I was reading the passage today and came to the parable of the great feast I saw it in a completely different light. Here in Luke this parable immediately follows Jesus’ teaching about throwing parties for those who cannot throw parties to invite you to in return. I think that because it is similar to the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew we tend to read some of the meaning of that parable into this one. In light of the previous few verses, and other teachings of Jesus presented by Luke, it strikes me that we receive our invitations to God’s great feast when we have opportunities to help others. How often do we pass on the opportunity to help those in need because we are busy with something else? More importantly, do we recognize the blessings we are foregoing when we do so? One of the things we often miss when we read the Gospels is that central to Jesus’ teachings was the idea that the reward for doing good was doing good. Or to phrase that another way, doing good is a blessing in and of itself.

    I am struggling to get my mind around all of my thoughts concerning the impetus we should have to bring a lost soul to God. The message contained here is why I am so hesitant to suggest that missionaries who spend years in a location with few, if any, converts should pull up stakes and find a new location for their mission. We should expend whatever resources necessary to bring to God those lost souls we encounter, and we should make life choices so that we encounter lost souls. However, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus points out that there is a limit to what tactics are worth using. When the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers, Jesus tells us that Abraham replied that if they did not believe Moses and the prophets they would not believe someone returning from the dead. The lesson here is that those who demand proof of God’s existence will not accept any proof with which they are presented. Those who do not want to believe will find a reason to not believe.