The month of June was not what I call easy or comfortable.
Because of the crazy stuff going on in life I didn't have time to post extra post after the first 25 devotions from Luke. I have a lot in the draft pile but I didn't have time to get them ready.
However, tomorrow the devotions will return. I hope they are a blessing as you are growing as a disciple
Charlie
Luke 7:11-17
There are some questions that can never be answered. Why this young man and not some other or all young men? There was no doubt there were many funeral processions across Palestine that day. But it was this one that Jesus interrupted. Some questions are easy to answer. Why did Jesus do this act of kindness? Because of compassion! The Greek doctor Luke writes the gospel to Theophilus who would have been well aware of the Stoics. Every religion and philosophy has to deal with the problem of pain. The approach of the Stoics was if you don't care then you'll never get hurt. They projected this toward their concept of the divine; God was completely apathetic about suffering. Nothing hurt him because he had perfect apathy. This worldview both explains the presence of evil or suffering and at least, in theory, provides a way for them to deal with suffering.
In a worldview where god cares not at all, Jesus comes and is full of compassion. It is expressed for this poor widow. Compassion so strong His stomach was tied in knots. It was compassion so intense that it compelled Him to heal the young man. In verse 15, Luke uses the medical term “sat up”. This is a term used by doctors to describe a completely healed person.
In the world religions it is not hard to find a god that is vengeful, vindictive, peevish, angry or apathetic. But a caring deity, this is the greatest of rarities. Luke by the guidance of the Holy Spirit links these two stories. First is the story of faith great enough to ask and then a story of the God who cares. We can live in the realization that what breaks my heart is known to God and beyond that He cares.
So, what are my fears, what are my hurts, where do I need the Lord to do what only the Lord can do?
Luke 7:1-10
Jesus and “The Long shot”. Luke who was the only gentile Gospel writer, brings us this story of an outsider being treated amazingly well. There are plenty of reasons that the man should not have received this blessing. First, he was a gentile. Jesus himself said that he was in pursuit of the lost sheep of Israel. The effort to reach the gentiles was not yet on the schedule. Second, the elders of the Jews were making the request. These were likely the leaders of the synagogue. Is it from this synagogues that the opposition to Jesus was being formed? These leaders were not necessarily supporters; in fact, they may have been part of the opposition movement. Third, their claim as to why Jesus should do this miracle was that the Centurion earned it. To say, “he is worthy of” about any human being must be said in the context of punishment, hell, or damnation. This man had not earned God's favor; no one has!
But there was something about this man; it was his faith. In fact, Luke tells us that Jesus marveled at him. The word “marvel” is often used for and translated “wonders” the tremendous miracles of God that cause people to be awestruck. Such faith is so rare in that moment that Jesus was awestruck by this man's faith. God is never left speechless, but for this instant God made flesh comes close. Jesus was in wide-eyed wonder.
Nothing could be a better recommendation than to have the Lord say, “Your faith amazes me.” Where in my life is there a place where my faith can so be described?
"Lord, Help me have a faith that amazes You. AMEN"
Luke 6:43-49
How many times have we heard after the conviction of a person for some horrible crime their parent, friend, or spouse or the convict himself/herself says he/she is not a bad person or protests they’re really a good person. Jesus takes a different position. Jesus says that the evil that we produce and manifest comes from that which we have stored up in our hearts. Behavior is the overflow of the warehouse that we call the heart. We are the ones who admit or reject the packaging or the cargo that comes to the warehouse of the heart.
There is an unbreakable link between our hearts and our behavior. Talk is cheap, especially religious talk. Mouthing the right religious or pious words without the heart commitment is in Jesus' opinion a perfect plan for disaster. When behavior does not conform to the will of the Lord (note He said nothing about words) it is like a house built on sand. Jesus says nothing about the motivation for such a building plan. He expresses the fact that ruin is the only possibility for a house built without a foundation. Comforting and pious words that are not true words, that do not warn, are the most deadly poison. While not stated directly, we can suppose without doing violence to the Scripture, that the man who built without a foundation was shocked. He had no idea that his home would be completely ruined. For him ruin was inconceivable, the inevitable never occurred to him.
What fills out heart inevitably comes out; that is inevitable. We need to learn to ignore our own pious words and take careful, serious inventory of our hearts.
“Lord, bring your judgment on the contents of my heart. AMEN”
Luke 6:39-42
There is no point at which a disciple can say, “I have arrived.” A disciple will never surpass the one who is teaching them; the most we can hope for is to be fully like the teacher. As a disciple of Christ, I am therefore in pursuit of being fully like Christ. In my pursuit of being like Jesus others may help me, but if they are not in pursuit of Christ they will blindly lead me into a pit. They may have a piece of lumber in their eye as they try to correct my vision. Others may help me along as I follow Christ, but it is Christ alone whom I follow. It is also incumbent upon me that I make sure people do not follow me as my disciple; if they follow me it is only as we follow Christ together.
“But everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” What do the words “fully trained” mean? It is a little difficult to translate with a single English word. It could be translated fit, repair, perfect, bring to proper condition and adjust. It is a compound of the words meaning “down” and “complete” or “fitted”. An imperfect picture is that of a jigsaw puzzle-the right piece in the right place is the perfect fit. This is an imperfect description because the word implies that the piece is being shaped and does not come ready-made. Our role as a disciple requires our shaping. The word implies that there is a place in the puzzle for each disciple, but before they can be put into the puzzle they must be trimmed, cut down, or formed. This carries an implication beyond simply learning. We have assumed that becoming a disciple is almost synonymous with learning. Oftentimes discipleship training is a little more than an academic exercise. The reality is discipleship is about reshaping us to fit the shape of Christ. It includes knowledge, attitude and actions in which we are to be reshaped to be like Jesus. We will never fully arrive, but the goal and the direction is clear.
“Lord, shape me by whatever means necessary that I can be like Jesus. AMEN”
Luke 6:27-38
Verse 38 is often used to motivate generosity and giving. More than a few ministers have used this verse to teach that if we put money in the offering plate God will bless us with fabulous wealth. The problem is, that is not the context of this passage. It seems unlikely that Jesus would suddenly break his train of thought to give a proof text about financial generosity.
Proactive mercy is a uniquely Christian concept. Some religions teach mercy or forgiveness in a limited way. Some actually teach revenge. Most support a negative form of the golden rule, “Don't do to others the things that you would not want them to do to you.” This passage is a radical departure from everything else we see in faith systems. Jesus calls for proactive mercy. Not just mercy in response to evil perpetrated against us, but mercy actively directed toward those who have or likely will hurt us.
Giving and sharing with people who are like us has no real proof of moral quality or character; child pornographers share their pictures with each other. If we share with those with whom we have much in common we are at least as good as a child pornographer. God gives to those who are His enemies even while they are His enemies. He is kind to ungrateful and evil men. So, that is my goal, to be like my Father and to be kind to those who hold me with some antipathy. The last line in verse 37 is unnerving, “pardon and you will be pardoned”. This is not talking about earning salvation by forgiving, but rather, if we don't forgive we become a person so twisted that we will not want to be forgiven. But as we forgive we realize how precious it is and we begin to desire it. We desire it even for others. If verse 38 were paraphrased to include the context, it might read, “Give loving kindness and it will be given to you; loving kindness will fill every corner and crevice of your life and then more. The way you pour it out is the way you will want and get it.”
“God grant that I will be person of Your kind of mercy. AMEN”
Luke 6:20-26
The Sermon on the Plain is very like The Sermon on the Mount, but with a different context. Both were directed at Jesus' disciples. In this context, Jesus has just begun to be rejected by the religious elite and they were filled with rage beginning their discussions that would one day lead to his murder. Having been rejected and then appointing His apostles, Jesus tells his disciples that a completely different system of values and priorities needs to be theirs. Notice the contrast that Jesus sets up:
Blessed are you who are poor vs Woe to you who are rich!
Blessed are you who hunger vs Woe to you who are well fed!
Blessed are you who weep vs Woe to you who laugh!
Blessed are you when men hate you vs Woe to you when men speak well of you!
The list could have been nearly endless, but Jesus provides examples enough to demonstrate that the values of the world’s system are the opposite of the values of His kingdom. We ought to also note that the blessings are kingdom values, and relative to behavior. If a person is poor because they have given up all for the kingdom, they are blessed. But if they are poor as a result of addiction, or gambling, or investments and get-rich-quick schemes, there is no blessing there. These are kingdom values not circumstantial ones.
The four woes Jesus presents are a near perfect description of any self-centered culture especailly ours. What more could a person want other than to be well off, satisfied, having fun, and well liked? How much of our energy is directed at one of these four? But the result is that in the long run, none of them lasts. They all end in vanity and emptiness.
The Lord points out that with every blessing or woe there is a judgment. With each statement there are two parts-the current situation and the end result. The values of the world will always focus on the current condition. The disciple will always focus on the Kingdom condition. If all we look at are the current conditions, it makes no sense to be a disciple. But if what Jesus says about the Kingdom condition is true only a fool would desire the values of this world.
Blessed are you who are poor, you possess the kingdom of God.
Woe to you who are rich there is nothing more for you.
Blessed are you who hunger now, you will be satisfied.
Woe to you who are well fed now, all you have to anticipate is hunger.
Blessed are you who weep now, you will one day laugh.
Woe to you who laugh now, you will live in deep regret.
Blessed are you when men hate you, in the Kingdom you will be in great company.
Woe to you when men speak well of you, popular opinion is wrong and you are in the wrong company.
“Lord, help me to live the values of Your Kingdom and not this world. AMEN”
Luke 6:1-19
In this passage a subtle shift occurs. The opposition of the Jewish, religious elite becomes more public. Their efforts to “get” Jesus are more pronounced, determined, and open. Why did they notice that Jesus' disciples were eating on the Sabbath? Like tattletale children they were watching for something about which they could complain.
Was the man in the synagogue brought there as bait for an attack? Clearly, they paid close attention to him looking for a reason to attack Jesus. For Jesus, Sabbath was a good time to restore or to give life. For the religious elite, it was a good time to conspire to destroy a person. In verse 11, Luke tells us they were filled with rage. The word literally means “madness”. It is a compound word. The first part is negative and the second is the word for reasoning facilities. They were so angry; they had lost their mind. They gave up their capacity to think.
Sadly, this malady is still with us. Our emotions drive us to a course of action that is nothing less than idiocy. Marriages, churches, families, and friendships infected with emotional excess results in people wrecking themselves and their relationships because they lose their minds. In this case, faced with the threat to their control of the synagogue the religious people lose their minds and will ruin themselves and anyone else to protect their power and control. The problem with the fit of rage or madness is that once we have indulged in it, it becomes invasive, spreading in our lives. It is easy to express again and again and it stays with us longer each time. The mad fury expressed here in the synagogue will finally express itself in the murder of Jesus on the cross.
“Lord, grant that my acts of kindness are so many and so obvious that they drive Your enemies to madness. AMEN”
Luke 5:33-39
In the context of Jesus having dinner with Levi and the tax collectors, the religious elite contrasts the righteous behavior of their disciples and John's to the behavior of Jesus' disciples. The implication being, “If you were good your disciples would not share a party with bad people, but would spend time in fasting and praying”. Jesus responds that in the company of the Lord, i.e. the bridegroom, the reasonable and appropriate behaviors are celebrations.
Jesus often uses the metaphor of marriage for the life of a disciple. This is perhaps the most often repeated metaphor for the Lord's relationship with His disciples and the church.
We have devalued marriage to the point that we missed the power and the beauty of this picture. For a young Jewish couple the apex of life was marriage. Money, power, and success were not as obtainable for the average person in Jesus' day as they are today. So they did not pursue these things the way we do. For many, if not most, or indeed almost all, the apex of life was marriage and family. The week of the wedding was a once-in-a-lifetime feast. Sexual purity that was expressed in abstinence could in marriage be expressed in consummation. Marriage carried with it these two expectations and it still does. Those expectations are joy and adventure.
One of the challenges in our culture is that the joy and the adventure of young love, that often coincides with marriage, begins to fade as we enter middle age and the senior years. The expectations of responsibility and the fading energy as we age cause us to tend to gravitate towards the safety of the past and the predictability of routine. We think they can give us joy and adventure because we are serious and responsible. But what is the joyous adventure to which Christ calls us? If the Lord calls us to joyous adventure what pains will we endure to play it safe? What loss of life will we experience by living in the rut of the way we have always done it?
“Lord, grant that I will never become so ‘mature’ that I will loose my love for Your joyous adventure. AMEN”
Luke 5:27-32
It would be hard to imagine the hatred the Jews had for tax collectors. Someone once said, “Everyone hates crooked politicians and corrupt cops.” Tax collectors were both. Their authority was not clearly defined so they could get away with almost anything. For example, they could stop merchants on the road, tax them for using the road, tax the merchandise on the cart, tax the animal pulling the cart, tax the cart itself, and tax each wheel of the cart. The income to be made by tax collectors from sales tax of merchandise, other taxes, and for the privilege of being in the Roman Empire was immense. If the merchant didn't have the money, the tax collector could lend the money at an interest rate that would embarrass an organized crime loan shark. While many people barely survived, the Jews who collaborated with the Romans as tax collectors lived in luxury. In our society we may have no class of people hated, as were the tax collectors among the Jews. Jesus was in the habit of keeping company with the dregs of His society, including tax collectors.
The church today seems to have fallen into one of two errors. Some churches have lost any sense of right or wrong. They cannot bear to call anything sin. The other error is our separation from sinful people. Often the church has withdrawn from society into the cloistered walls of its sanctuary. Most of what the church does is focused on serving the membership of the church. We allow sinners to come to our events, but for the most part we are hosting events for the church people, at the church building, and hoping outsiders might come to us.
Try this experiment: take several weeks worth of your church’s bulletins and count how many announcements are about events where your church specifically goes to the world outside of the church building. Then count the events for the members in which the world is allowed to attend. An honest examination of this sort is likely to reveal why most churches are stagnant or in decline. This passage is an invitation, by example, for believers to move the focus out of their buildings and into the world.
“Lord, help me to become friends with disreputable people so I can lead them to Christ. AMEN”
Luke 5:12-26
If the opportunity to eavesdrop on Jesus presented itself, nothing would be more interesting than to listen in on His prayer time. Frequently, we see Jesus going off alone to pray. What did He say? How much time was spent in silence? What role did Scripture play in these prayers? What posture was He in when He prayed? The fact that we are not told the particulars means that we do not need to know the particulars. Beyond that, prayer is such an intimate and personal thing that it would be an indecency to listen in.
For us, the practice of our Lord to get away is lesson enough to start with. To pray, really pray, is the hardest thing to do. It is easier to read the Bible or to study, to listen to a sermon, to sing or talk, but go to pray that is very hard. If we list all the things that describe our lives, prayer is nearly the perfect opposite. We want action now. Prayers are about waiting on God. We want to be the center. Prayer is about focusing on others. We like noise and distraction. Prayer demands we silence ourselves and calm our spirits. In almost every way, our fallen human nature desires the opposite of what prayer desires or requires.
Our best efforts at prayer are woefully inadequate. But it is also a grace, a means of grace and a medium of grace. The Lord will take our feeble but sincere efforts at prayer and treat them better than they deserve. Those beginnings are as simple as a child's recitation of the model prayer, into them the Lord breaths His Spirit and power. In this He meets us. The power of prayer is disproportionate to our holiness or our goodness or our ability. When we come with a true and sincere heart with the motives of dying to self and longing to be with our Lord, we have the beginning of prayer and it will have great effect. This beginning makes us a novice at prayer. As a novice we desire to move into deeper intimacy with God and to seek Him is the beginning and the end of all prayer. Begin. That is enough to start with. After all, we are all novices at intimacy with God.
“Lord, You never reject those who honestly seek You. Help my weak prayers to draw me into You. AMEN”
Luke 4:38-44
These seven verses are so filled with applications for our daily life that they could alone fill an entire volume. Notice how Peter's mother-in-law responds to being healed. Luke as a doctor describes a serious medical condition with a high fever often the precursor to death. The Lord heals the woman and notice that she immediately got up and began to serve.
What is our response to grace? Within much of Western Christianity there is a near complete absence of service. We act and often teach that once converted the new Christian is expected to do little more than attend worship, as if sitting and singing is service enough. Dare we say that we were saved to serve and not to sit? We do not need lessons on giftedness as much as lessons that the normal Christian life is serving. That is why being part of a faith community is so important; it gives us a place to be a part and it gives us a place to serve.
It appears from vss. 40-41 that Jesus served all night long and in the morning He went to pray. Serving is exhausting and that is why there must be the season of refreshing in prayer. Jesus didn't use this prayer as an escape from service nor was the exhaustion of service a reason not to pray.
Finally, notice that the people wanted to keep Jesus to themselves and a cozy little religion club. For the people there, comfort trumped the mission. That is often the case of the contemporary church. We are tempted to stay in our comfort zone, with Jesus doing for us what we want, enjoying the good things of church life and the sweet fellowship of our friends and forgetting and ignoring the lost world and the church's mission.
"Lord, help me never to too busy to pray or so praying that I never serve. AMEN"
Luke 3:1-20
The great drama begins with a listing of powerful people and a reminder of how irrelevant the appearance of power can be. Luke, the careful historian, lists seven powerful people. This gives us a careful and an accurate historical point of reference. From the mighty Tiberius Caesar to local political rulers we see the might of Roman political power. Luke also mentions two high priests Annas and Caiaphas. There were the two acting high priests. Caiaphas was the official high priest, and the power behind the scenes was his father-in-law Annas who was the deposed former high priest. With all that power structure outlined Luke then gives us, in English, seven words “the word of God came to John”.
It is pretty easy to become confused about the source of power. It is a human condition. We should begin to paraphrase the old song “Blinded by the Light” to become “Blinded by the Might”. The real power in this verse was not located in the seat of power. It was not in Rome or in a palace or in Jerusalem or even in the temple. The word came to a lonely figure on the fringe of society in an out-of-the-way place. In Luke 1:80 it says, “John grew strong in spirit”. There was the power.
Our temptation is to try to find a shortcut to power. We think that visible power is real power. That is not true. There is no other source, no shortcuts, and no options. The remarkable ministry of John (true of every great saint’s work) is that they were connected personally and directly to the Lord. Failure to connect to the Lord is a guarantee that we will be a failure and that we will fail in all we do.
"Lord, protect me from trying to find power in anything other than the power of living in Your will. AMEN".
