Luke 14
Jesus at a Pharisee's House
1One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" 4But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
5Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?" 6And they had nothing to say.
7When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8"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. 9If 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. 10But 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. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
12Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
The Parable of the Great Banquet
15When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."
16Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'
18"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'
19"Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'
20"Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'
21"The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'
22" 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'
23"Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' "
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
31"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
34"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion:
Proverbs 3
Further Benefits of Wisdom
1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
2 for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you prosperity.
3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. [a]
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
8 This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
9 Honor the LORD with your wealth,
with the firstfruits of all your crops;
10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
and your vats will brim over with new wine.
11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline
and do not resent his rebuke,
12 because the LORD disciplines those he loves,
as a father [b] the son he delights in.
April 7, 2008
Why? Why? Oh, Why?
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READ: Proverbs 3:1-12
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. —Hebrews 12:7
Why must I suffer disappointment, sorrow, and tribulation? What have I done that God should send me trials? Is He displeased with me? These questions are constantly asked by God's dear children.
Much of this fear and questioning is due to our misunderstanding of God's dealings with His own. He has His good reasons. And one of those reasons is for our spiritual discipline. We should be far more afraid of being left alone than of God's chastening, for He wastes no time on worthless objects that give no promise of fruitfulness.
On the shores of Lake Michigan are great barren sand dunes that have never felt the point of a plow. But in the rich lowlands beyond them, the farmer is constantly cultivating the soil. The farmer knows what he is doing, so he keeps on breaking up the soil. The deeper the plow works and the more the sharp harrow, the more precious the crop will be when harvest time comes.
God's plow goes deep, but it is only that in the end we may forget the plowing and rejoice in the blessing of bearing much fruit for Him. "No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11). — M.R. De Haan
When blades of distress cut deep in the soul,
Breaking up ground that was untouched before,
The Lord is preparing soil to bear fruit
Fit for the harvest to feed many more. —Hess
All sunshine and no rain make a desert.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers:
April 7, 2008
Why We Lack Understanding
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READ:
He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead —Mark 9:9
As the disciples were commanded, you should also say nothing until the Son of Man has risen in you— until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you truly understand what He taught while here on earth. When you grow and develop the right condition inwardly, the words Jesus spoke become so clear that you are amazed you did not grasp them before. In fact, you were not able to understand them before because you had not yet developed the proper spiritual condition to deal with them.
Our Lord doesn’t hide these things from us, but we are not prepared to receive them until we are in the right condition in our spiritual life. Jesus said, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" ( John 16:12 ). We must have a oneness with His risen life before we are prepared to bear any particular truth from Him. Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t have His Spirit. And our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from revealing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us.
". . . tell no one . . . ." But so many people do tell what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration— their mountaintop experience. They have seen a vision and they testify to it, but there is no connection between what they say and how they live. Their lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in them. How long will it be before His resurrection life is formed and evident in you and in me?
"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft
One Solid Beginning
Monday, April 07, 2008
It's a good thing that out of our three children, we had only one daughter. I could only afford one wedding! Now my wife did all kinds of resourceful things to keep the costs way down. It was so nice of those guests to bring a sack lunch, I'll tell you. No, no, I'm only kidding. It was modest, but it was beautiful. But it certainly wasn't free! We enjoy watching the video of the wedding once in a while, but we won't have to do the wedding again! Can you imagine if her husband kept saying every few months, "I think we need to have another wedding. I want to make sure we're married." They haven't needed to do that! Neither have her mother and I because we know we got married that day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Solid Beginning."
Now there's no doubt about it, that day in June, I committed my life to my wife many years ago. If you asked me if I'm married to her, what would you think if I answered, "Well, I hope so; I think I'm married. We probably got married to each other somewhere along the way!" You'd probably say, "Ron, if you don't know you made a commitment to her, you didn't!" And you'd be right! It's the same way when it comes to a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our word for today from the Word of God is a great eternal life insurance policy for someone who's listening, but it's a life-or-death alert for someone else who's listening. John 5:24, "I tell you the truth," Jesus says, "whoever hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Man, this is an incredible statement about settling your eternity once and for all. Whoever believes will not be condemned - no fear of God's judgment for your sins, no fear of hell when you die, never condemned!
Notice the finality, it says, "He has crossed from death to life." It's like that day I made my lifetime commitment to my wife. I crossed over - past tense - from single to married. There's either been a time when that change took place, or not. It's the same way with knowing Christ. It's all based on whether or not there's been a time when you consciously believe - that means put all your trust in - Jesus Christ to have your sins erased from God's Book and your judgment cancelled because He took it on the cross.
After a recent meeting where many young people made a public commitment of their lives to Jesus, one young man said to me, "I've done this before. I've done it lots of times." Now, that would be sort of like me telling you that my wife and I have continual weddings to make sure we have a married relationship. The good news is if you've told the Lord you're turning from your sin and pinning all your hopes on Him, you have the relationship. You can quit trying to get it! You have passed over - past tense - it's settled! Satan would love to have you spend the rest of your life wondering whether or not you belong to Jesus so you'll never get on with really living for Him. If you know you've made that lifetime commitment to Him, let's get on with the relationship.
But, as I'm talking about this, maybe you're realizing there's never been a solid definite beginning with Jesus in your life. You may or may not remember a specific time, but you know if there has been a time when you've said, "Jesus, I'm yours." You may have been around Jesus all your life, you've learned tons about Him, you feel good about Him, and maybe even do things for Him, and yet you still may have missed your personal moment at His cross, trusting yourself to the one who is dying there for you. That's equivalent to my dating my wife, getting to know all about her, getting engaged to her, but somehow never having a wedding day.
If there's never been a clear, definite beginning to your relationship with Jesus, why don't you make it this day? Literally in these next few minutes you could cross over from death to life and know you did. See, the issue here is literally life forever or death eternally!
If you want to begin your relationship with Him, that's what our website is for - to encourage you and give you information that will help you do that. Would you visit us at yoursforlife.net? God may have given you this one more opportunity to move from death to life. It's the only opportunity you can really be sure of.