Thoughts From Luke - Day 57

                                                      Luke 12:4-12

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. ⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
⁸ “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. ⁹ But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. ¹⁰ And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
¹¹ “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”


            Who are you afraid of? Maybe it's your boss who has the power to fire you and totally upend your life. Maybe it's crazy, drugged people who break into houses. Maybe it's terrorists who could blow up a building at any time. Maybe it's gunmen who could go into a mall and start shooting. We hear about all these things on the news and if you spend too much time contemplating them, it can make you paranoid to leave or even unlock your house. Of course then there are things that could happen to your house like fires, Carbon monoxide or Radon poisoning, earthquakes, tornadoes, trees falling that could make you afraid to be in your house. Though most of us don't think this way, a lot of people repress these thoughts along with other fears and drown them out with anti-anxiety pills and sleep medicine in order to cope. Jesus addresses this in this passage as He mentions fear or worry 6 times. Here are some remedies for anxiety.

        First, give your life to Jesus. If you haven't been saved but are still in rebellion to God and running your own life, you have plenty of reason to fear. Your life is totally random. Whatever happens is fate or luck. You can't control anything that happens. Yet, if you are saved, you have entered into the family of God and He has a plan for your life. Nothing can happen that He hasn't ordained and He is a good Father that only wants the best for you. If He cares for sparrows or the lilies of the field, certainly God will watch over you. Not only will He take care of you here on Earth but He gives you an eternal home. If you haven't received Jesus, then you are committing the sin that He doesn't pardon - blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What is that and why won't it be forgiven? My thinking on that is that if you are still Lord of your own life, then you are closing the door on the finalized plan of the gospel which is the control of your life by and the entering in of the Holy Spirit to transform you. You are telling God, You are not in control of my life - my life belongs to me. If you die in that condition, there is no other plan to unite you with God. You will experience Hell. That is reason to fear, but you don't have to. Just humble yourself before Him.

       Secondly, and I don't even think there should be a secondly but unfortunately Christians still suffer with fear and anxiety. Why is this and what is the remedy? One way is to remind yourself daily and be in fellowship where you can remind each other of your value to God. You are His Children. If He had a refrigerator, your magnet would be on it. He loves you so much He sent His Son to die for you. You are valuable to Him. The safest place to be is in His will. The second safest is my adult Sunday School class where 3 out of 5 people have carrying permits. The second cure is to remind yourself daily and remind others that this world isn't our home. We are just visiting this planet. A deadly occurrence just brings us home quicker - what's to fear in that? The third thing is to surrender your life daily to the control of the Holy Spirit. Don't worry about how to act, what to say, what people think, just let Him be you. It takes all the pressure off.

       Lord, help me to practice what I preach and not be an anxious person. Amen

Thoughts From Luke - Day 56

                                                Luke 12:1-3

Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ³ What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.


            Have you ever been in a situation where you have about been trampled? The whole issue is that everyone in the crowd is looking out for themselves and will run over you if you get in their way. Could it be that this is why Jesus says what He does here, or is Luke just trying to tell us the extent of Jesus' popularity? I'm not sure but his comments here would fit with the first. The people, while appearing to be interested in the spiritual teachings of Jesus, in actuality were showing that His teachings weren't sinking in by pushing and shoving and wanting to get the prime spots to see and hear. This is just what the Pharisees did. They sought the prime spots in society at the expense of everyone else while appearing to be righteous. This is self centeredness and this is hypocrisy and even if you don't see it in yourself others will see it.

          I enjoy contemporary Christian music so much so that I have been to a lot of Christian concerts including a Christian music festival or two where 60,000 people camp out and listen to music and teaching for 3 days. When the main band comes on in the evening, the crowds stake out their positions hours ahead of time to get the prime positions - there are no seats, it's all standing. Some large groups have large colored tarps on the ground for their group to stand or sit on and you best not get on their tarp if you aren't with "Freedom Baptist". But then, when the music starts the fun begins because all those who haven't planned ahead to get the best spots start pushing through people to move to the front. You can see the irritated people yelling at the late - comers and blocking their quest to the front. It's hypocrisy at its best. It's Phariseeism in action. It's me blocking people and holding on to my spot and being so focused on that, that I'm not enjoying the concert. Haha, but true.

          The other manifestation of hypocrisy that Jesus mentions here is acting one way in public but acting and speaking another way at home. This is hypocrisy. It will come out in stressful public situations like standing room only concerts or sporting events, but most of the time we can keep it hidden. You know how it comes out? In the kids you raise. They see you being one way at home and another way in public and it bothers them. They will act and follow the pattern in public that you set at home. They will publically reveal your private home life. I think of, not that they are Christians, the HGTV show Flip Flop. They portray the beautifully rich, happy, successful, in love couple doting over their 2 little children (boy and girl), while turning disastrous houses into show pieces making $50k a pop doing very little work themselves. They are the American dream. However, behind closed doors, all kinds of bad things are happening which is now coming out. Jesus says in the above passage that you can only hide who you truly are for so long. It eventually comes out and if it doesn't, it will come out on judgement day where you can't fool God.

           Lord, deliver me from hypocrisy today. May I not be one way on the outside and another on the inside. Cleanse my inside so I die to self and live for You. Amen.

Thoughts From Luke - Day 55

                                                     Luke 11:47-54

“Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. ⁴⁸ So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ ⁵⁰ Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
⁵² “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
⁵³ When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, ⁵⁴ waiting to catch him in something he might say.


         How do you respond to being told you are wrong? It grates on you doesn't it? It bothers me a lot. My wife is constantly pointing out to me that I'm doing things wrong from where and how I park, how I make the bed, how I take out the garbage, how I pack the dishwasher, packing the car, etc. I call it micromanaging but in effect it's telling me how I'm doing things wrong. My first red flag about marrying her, believe it or not while we were still dating , was as I was washing a car she told me that I was doing it wrong! I mean, is there one right way? I knew that my life would be filled with ,"there is one right way to do things and I know what that is." I had to decide if I could live with this and the answer was I couldn't live without her. It's amazing how after 35 years of marriage this still surfaces on a regular basis. Why does this bother me so much and why did it bother the Pharisees and people of the Old Testament? This is why they were going to kill Jesus, right? This is why they killed the Old Testament prophets, right?

        Christianity is unique to modern thinking. We have come to a point where, in order to get along (because no one wants to be told that they are wrong) we tell everyone that they are right. You believe what you believe and I'll believe what I believe and as long as it works for you and you are sincere it's good. We both have our own truths. Jesus comes into that and says, "I am THE way, THE truth, THE life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Wow! You mean if you don't believe in Jesus you are wwwwwwrong?  Yes! It appears I'm not the only one who doesn't like being told that they are wrong. The prophets, like Zechariah, told King Joash that he was wrong so he had Zechariah killed. John the Baptist told Herodius she was wrong so she had him beheaded. Jeremiah told people that they were wrong so he was thrown into a well. Elijah told Jezebel she was wrong so she scowered the country looking to kill him. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are wrong so they are looking for a way to kill him.

       Why do we all hate being told we are wrong? It's a pride thing. We all have this need inside us to be important, to be significant, to be worthy, and so, like my Christmas inflatables, we blow ourselves up. Statements like, "You are wrong" in effect stick a knife in us and let the air out. Suddenly we are flawed. Suddenly we are inferior to the one who is right. Suddenly, the way we reason, the way we have come to do things throughout our whole life, the way we understand reality is wrong. That hurts. That deflates. That makes you less than the one who informed you of this. And this is the crux of salvation that people including the Pharisees stumbled over - admitting we are wrong.

      We must admit that our lives have been wrong - we are sinful. We are not good people but deep inside we are evil to the core. I guess if you have a problem with that, you could ask yourself, "Do I like being told that I am wrong?" That should expose your rottenness if you are denying and repressing it. Not only must we admit we are sinful but we must admit that our efforts to get to Heaven are wrong. Christianity is counter intuitive. Christianity says that trying to be good doesn't get you any closer to Heaven than trying to be bad. Being a good person in order to get to Heaven is wrong. Ouch! You mean my whole philosophy on how I live my life is wrong? Yes. Proverbs says, "There is a way that seems right to man, but the end leads to destruction." Jesus came down from Heaven and paid the price of sin for us and by faith takes us to Heaven. It's not our efforts climbing up Jacob's ladder (Huey Lewis got that one wrong), but Jesus climbing down the ladder and carrying us up.

       People get offended by Christians saying we are right and they are wrong. The fact of the matter is that in order to become a Christian, we have already had to say we are wrong. We beat them to it. We say, "Welcome to the club. Stop hating on me, humble yourself so that He can inflate you."

Thoughts From Luke - Day 54

                                                Luke 11:44-46

 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”
⁴⁵ One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”
⁴⁶ Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.


       Numbers 19:16 says that anyone who touches a grave will become unclean for seven days. A lot of the laws had to do with cleanliness and germs. For example, touching a dead body could give you the germs that killed it and in order to keep from spreading disease throughout the camp, the person touching the body should be isolated. This law has to do more with spiritual uncleanness. God is not into death, wasting, dissipation - that was never His plan. Therefore, touching a grave was symbolic with hanging out with death and God says, "I'm not into death, I'm into life - eternal life." Therefore, when Jesus says that the Pharisees are like unmarked graves, He is saying that people that come in contact with them are defiled. How? For one thing their teachings lead to death and secondly, they themselves are dead.

        How did their teachings lead to death? They taught a salvation by following the law and then clarified the law by adding multiple other addendums to it. For example, the afore mentioned tithing on mint, rue, and garden herbs is an addendum to the tithing laws. People would ask, "what should I tithe on? I want to make sure I don't miss out of Heaven because I am forgetting to tithe on something." Therefore the Pharisees came up with a list of things to tithe on. Today, people ask, "Do I tithe on my pre-tax earnings or my post-tax earnings?" I'm not sure that even deserves an answer when everything we own belongs to the Lord. The better question is, how much of the Lord's money am I allowed to keep for myself? The Pharisees and teachers of the law had missed the point and therefore their teachings and their very lives were headed to death and hell. They were teaching, like every other religion in the world other than true Christianity, if you want to go to Heaven, you have to follow a bunch of rules. They were teaching works salvation. Jesus was adamantly opposed to this because if this worked, His very incarnation was a waste of time. The reason He came was because works salvation doesn't work.

        Jesus is teaching here that the law points to the fact that no one can keep it so don't keep adding more laws that no one can keep. The Pharisees are like the guy in the crowd who asks Jesus to specify who is his neighbor that he is supposed to love when Jesus tells people to love their neighbor. The man wants to know, is it the guy on my street or does it include my whole neighborhood? Give me an addendum. Jesus basically answers by saying loving your neighbor in order to get to Heaven is an impossible task, that's why I've come. Jesus has come because the Pharisees' teachings lead to impossible demands and therefore lead to death. Jesus came not only to lift a finger to help but also to have His whole body lifted up to help. He alone gives life by fulfilling the impossible demands of the law on our behalf if we just humbly acknowledge our inability and receive His free payment on our behalf. No wonder Jesus was so upset with the Pharisees - their teachings were leading people to hell. We likewise need to stand up against false religions that teach this and not be worried about offending them. Jesus wasn't because He knew it was a matter of eternal life and death.

       Lord, help me to be bold today in rescuing people from eternal death in Hell. Help me to boldly proclaim the name of Jesus and salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. Amen

Thoughts on Luke - Day 53

                                               Luke 11:43

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces."


              Do you like to be noticed at Church? Do you like to be recognized for your acts of service? Do you want people at church to talk about you as being a spiritual giant, a prayer warrior, a sacrificial and cheerful giver, the backbone of the Church, a saint? Whereas all those descriptions are good, to strive for or care about being noticed, moves it into the Pharisee realm. I cringe at churches who offer better parking spots for higher donors, put framed pictures on the wall of the elders over the years, put names in hymnals of people who have donated the money for them, put names of families on bricks that are used to build structures that they have donated money for, etc. I even get concerned when people make extravagant gifts to the church that are earmarked for certain things outside of the general budget like a harp, pipe organ, piano, etc. Not only are these subtle ways of assuring that your style of music/ worship will be continued, but they draw attention to you everytime someone sees them.

          I think we have a vivid reminder of this in Acts. Barnabas sold a field and laid all the money at the Apostle's feet in the early church, and was recognized for it in Acts 4:37. That started the problem. Ideally it should have been done and no one knew where the budget suddenly got all the money from. However, people knew Barnabas did it, so along comes a couple named Ananias and Sappphira who decide to sell some property, keep some for themselves, which was fine, but then to tell the church that they, like Barnabas, gave all the money to the church. Why would they do that? They wanted to be recognized. They had Pharisee in them. They wanted people to say, "There goes Ananias and Sapphira that Godly couple". They wanted recognition from the apostles. They wanted to go out to dinner with the apostles. They wanted a plaque. They wanted their own pew. Whatever they wanted, it was wrong. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for it and he rebukes us for it. Let's stop it. Face it, we aren't any better than anyone else. We all are sinful to the core and the only good in us is Jesus so if we want to brag on Jesus - well OK, but if we feel it welling up in us that everyone is getting recognized except us, let's rejoice in that because we are beating down the Pharisee in us.

     Lord, deliver me from the desire to direct glory away from You and others, toward myself. You alone are worthy, not me. Amen

Thoughts on Luke - Day 52

                                                    Luke 11:37-42

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
³⁹ Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
⁴² “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.


           We sing a song to the grandchildren called, "I Just Wanna Be A Sheep, Baaa", and one of the verses in it goes, "I don't wanna be a Pharisee, I don't wanna be a Pharisee, cuz a Pharisee is fair I see, I just wanna be a sheep, baaaa"  Jesus, in the rest of this chapter blasts the Pharisees and teachers of the law, so much so that they plan to kill Him. I thought about doing the whole passage in one fell swoop but since I have a tendency to err on the Pharisee side myself, I felt like I should look more closely at each of His accusations to see how they relate to me.

         The first one involves doing everything right on the outside, but inside where no one but God can see, is a mess. Inside you have greed, wickedness, contempt for the poor, and very little love for God. We have been studying David lately in Sunday School and trying to figure out what makes him "a man after God's own heart". David doesn't do a lot of things right on the outside - he lies, commits adultery, fornication, bigamy, murders, has bloodlust, is a bad parent, doesn't deal with issues, and on his death bed he is thinking about revenge. So if you look at the outside of his cup, it is pretty dirty. Yet, as we get a glimpse at the insight of his heart in other passages of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and especially Psalms, we see a love for God and a relationship with God that is unparalleled. This is what God wants and in our day, when the Holy Spirit has been given to believers to indwell them, this is paramount because it leads to righteous behavior.

          We are often asked, what rules did you have for your kids in the High School years? What was their curfew? How did you control their friends? Did you let them go to parties where there might be alcohol? Were they allowed to miss Sunday School, youth group or church? Did you let them date unbelievers? When you look at those questions, they are all concerning the outside of the cup. The fact of the matter is that these things never came up because the kids were so clean on the inside (only God knows how clean) that these issues didn't come up. They had no desire to drink, party, hang out with non-Christians as close friends, miss church (because that's where all their friends were and dateable guys and girls) or get in trouble, so we really didn't even need to establish rules. Karen was teaching about this in Sunday School this week about watching out who your kids friends are, and I was thinking as she said this that who kids pick as friends is not an external issue, but an internal issue of the heart.

        As a Pharisee, I need to focus on my heart. If my heart is in love with God, my eyes will be pure. I will seek after the things He wants me to seek after, with feet, hands, mind, strength empowered by the Holy Spirit. Also, I will do thing for the poor because I love them, not because it looks good on my resume or because the Bible tells me to do it. We are continually amazed at the lack of true love for the poor and aliens among Christians. Sure, we do things for them, giving food, money, clothing, but we can see by how easily these programs get forgotten, replaced, displaced, unannounced, under funded, that they are more external shows than driven by an inside love of God and His people. We pat ourselves on the backs for our Spanish ministry and it looks great on our resume, yet they are not even a line item on our budget. We give them a place to meet, that is being unused, put our name on the ministry and proclaim how wonderful we are. I say this not to shame us or diss my church (it is an amazingly good church) but to remind us that we are in danger of being the church in Ephesus that was doing all the right things yet was rebuked by God for losing it's first love. If I didn't get paid for taking care of the aliens in our community, would I? Would I hire bilingual people? I don't know...

      Lord, increase my love for you. Help me to love the people You love. Help me to be more focused on the inside of my cup being pure so that by Your Holy Spirit, the external will also be clean. Amen.

Thoughts on Luke - Day 51

                                         Luke 11:29-36

As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. ³² The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.
³³ “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶ Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”


        Ever been asked, "What's your sign?" Do they even do that anymore? Believe me, it used to be big and Christians, since we believe that God is in control and determines our lives' outcomes not the Zodiac, came up with many witty and lame answers to this. This passage talks about signs - not those kinds, but the signs that come with believing in Christ. In the apostolic days those were healing, prophecies, tongues and supernatural manifestations but now I believe that they are the signs of a changed life.

        Jesus gave them a sign of the power of the Kingdom of God when He died and three days later rose from the dead. Sure, the healings and miracles were signs but when Jesus was asked to do them to prove He was the Messiah, He wouldn't - He just referred to the ultimate sign of who He was - His death and resurrection.

          Jonah was swallowed by a fish, probably bleached and pilocarped by fish stomach acid, spewed out on shore, probably in the sight of on-lookers, and preached to the people of Ninevah to repent - and they did! This passage says that it was not as much his message that made them repent but the sign that a man was vomited from a fish and lived to tell about it. His very appearance was a sign to people of the reality of God's truth.

         Solomon's divinely received wisdom was a sign to people that there is a God and He interacts with man. God gave him this wisdom early in his reign when God appeared to him and told Solomon to ask for anything and the request for wisdom to govern God's people so pleased God that He honored that request and gave Solomon everything else too.The Queen of Sheba came, saw his wisdom and by his words was converted because of the "supernaturality" of Solomon's life.

       What is the sign that people see in your life - the sign that there is the supernatural power of God in your life? What is it that is making you stand out or shine above the rest of humanity? I recently shared a car ride with a guy as we took a 6 hour trip, there and back, to go deep sea fishing. He shared with me his testimony and several stories he told kind of illustrate what I'm talking about. One story was about how he used to love hunting, and killing and skinning animals was fun for him. He said he used to ride a pig, slit it's throat and ride it till it collapsed. After he got saved, he totally lost the desire to kill, in fact he was asked to gut a pig and it made him physically sick. The other instance was that cussing and vulgarity was second nature for him. Now, when people talk like that around him, he uses it as a witnessing tool and tells them his testimony and how that way of life led him to despair. People look at him, that knew him, and he is a sign to them of a supernatural power that recreated him.

        I wonder what people would say about me that is a supernatural demonstration of God's power in my life? I hope there is something! What is your sign? Let it shine!

     Lord, fill me with your power. Transform me into something inexplicable by the laws of human nature. Let me shine it in a dark world that needs Your light so desperately. Amen