Luke 13-15
I think today's chapters are my absolute favorites we've read so far! I just wanted to jump up and scream "I LOVE THE BIBLE!!" after reading them. You never HAVE to read the chapters that go with my devotion, but I really really stronglyyyyyyy encourage it today. In my opinion, they're even more fantastic-er than other chapters.
HUMBLE YOURSELVES, GOSH DANGIT!
There were a lot of great points in today's reading, which I'll be sharing with you later. But I think if I had to sum up most of Jesus' teaching in today's chapters, I'd get out the message of being humble. The world needs to stop thinking so highly of ourselves and focusing on the people who really need saving, and who really need love.
Jesus talks about the parable of the lost sheep, and the lost son. Both the sheep and the son represent nonbelievers, or people that have strayed from the path of God that He wants us to follow.
I think often we look down upon people such as these-- lost, broken, confused. We have our faith, and we're too self concerned to worry about them. But Jesus teaches us that these are the people we not only have to acknowledge, but make an extra-super-major-special effort to LOVE and pay attention to.
Or, rather, are we acting like the older brother in the situation, who is angry at the love his lost brother was receiving?:
But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
Luke 15:29-32
Jesus also teaches us that we must NOT think highly of ourselves, because we often think too highly, and Jesus has to put us back in our place. If we humble ourselves and put others first, Jesus can move us a little higher on the road, knowing that we deserve more than how we treat ourselves. Like this story:
"...When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Luke 14:8-11
We can't hold ourselves in laws and rules that society makes for us. Yeah, it's pretty normal to think highly of yourself, because people all around us are doing it all the time.
But what if we broke that status-quo? What if we treated others more important than ourselves? What if we put them in front of silly rules?
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
Luke 13:10-16
Help break free from the pack today, and tomorrow, and... forever!
Peace out.
I think today's chapters are my absolute favorites we've read so far! I just wanted to jump up and scream "I LOVE THE BIBLE!!" after reading them. You never HAVE to read the chapters that go with my devotion, but I really really stronglyyyyyyy encourage it today. In my opinion, they're even more fantastic-er than other chapters.
HUMBLE YOURSELVES, GOSH DANGIT!
There were a lot of great points in today's reading, which I'll be sharing with you later. But I think if I had to sum up most of Jesus' teaching in today's chapters, I'd get out the message of being humble. The world needs to stop thinking so highly of ourselves and focusing on the people who really need saving, and who really need love.
Jesus talks about the parable of the lost sheep, and the lost son. Both the sheep and the son represent nonbelievers, or people that have strayed from the path of God that He wants us to follow.
I think often we look down upon people such as these-- lost, broken, confused. We have our faith, and we're too self concerned to worry about them. But Jesus teaches us that these are the people we not only have to acknowledge, but make an extra-super-major-special effort to LOVE and pay attention to.
Or, rather, are we acting like the older brother in the situation, who is angry at the love his lost brother was receiving?:
But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
Luke 15:29-32
Jesus also teaches us that we must NOT think highly of ourselves, because we often think too highly, and Jesus has to put us back in our place. If we humble ourselves and put others first, Jesus can move us a little higher on the road, knowing that we deserve more than how we treat ourselves. Like this story:
"...When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Luke 14:8-11
We can't hold ourselves in laws and rules that society makes for us. Yeah, it's pretty normal to think highly of yourself, because people all around us are doing it all the time.
But what if we broke that status-quo? What if we treated others more important than ourselves? What if we put them in front of silly rules?
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
Luke 13:10-16
Help break free from the pack today, and tomorrow, and... forever!
Peace out.
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