Luke 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)

Max Lucado Daily: Because of God

“He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and now I see.” John 9:15

It isn’t the circumstance that matters; it is God in the circumstance. It isn’t the words; it is God speaking them. It wasn’t the mud that healed the eyes of the blind man; it was the finger of God in the mud. The cradle and the cross were as common as grass. What made them holy was the One laid upon them.

Luke 13

Repent or Perish

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 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. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 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?”

17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast

18 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”
20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

The Narrow Door

22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 John 1:1-5

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

The Human Camera

August 19, 2011 — by Dennis Fisher

The Holy Spirit . . . will . . . bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. —John 14:26

Steven Wiltshire, who has been called “the human camera,” has the amazing ability to recall tiny details about anything he has seen and then reproduce them in drawings. For example, after Steven was flown over the city of Rome, he was asked to draw the city center on blank paper. Astonishingly, he accurately reproduced from memory the winding streets, the buildings, the windows, and other details.
Wiltshire’s memory is remarkable. Yet there’s another kind of memory that’s even more amazing—and much more vital. Before Jesus’ return to heaven, He promised His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to give them supernatural memory of what they had experienced: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit . . . will . . . bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).
The disciples heard Christ’s marvelous teachings. They heard Him command the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the dead to be raised. Yet when the Gospel writers recorded these events, their words were not the product of a gifted human memory. Their recollections came from a divine Helper who made sure they compiled a trustworthy record of Christ’s life.
Trust the Bible with confidence. It was written with guidance from the “divine camera,” the Holy Spirit.


The stories in the Word of God
Are there for us to see
How God has worked in people’s lives
Throughout all history. —Sper


The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to teach the people of God.



My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 19th, 2011

Self-Awareness

Come to Me . . . —Matthew 11:28

God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.
Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me . . . .” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

I Know How This Is Going To End - #6420


Friday, August 19, 2011

I remember the night I was asked to speak at an adult couples thing at our church. And they did this auction sort of deal; in fact it was sort of a "Let's Make a Deal" game. I think some people call it a White Elephant Auction or something. It's the kind of game where you go to your garage and you get something you really want to throw away, and then you wrap it up in real pretty paper and you bring it to the auction. And what happens is this: One person goes up and has to pick one of those packages, and they open it and then they have it. From that point on everyone can either take an unwrapped package and take their chances on that, or they can trade for something that's already been unwrapped that looks interesting.

Well, there was really only one valuable thing there that night. It was like this beautiful hand-carved lamp stand. And I'll tell you, man, these were adults, but they were acting like ten-year-olds going crazy like, "Where's that lamp stand?" Ladies had it under their skirts; men took it to the Men's Room with them. I mean, it was nuts! Everybody was going bananas except for one guy, and he sat there the whole time kind of just smiling wisely. And I thought, "Hey, wake up man. Get with the program! What's the deal here?" You know who he was? He was the guy who opened the first package, and he was the only one who remembered the rules of the game, which are that the person who opens the first one, since he didn't get to make a trade, he's going to make the last trade of the game. So, this guy's sitting there while everyone else is going crazy saying to himself, "I know how this is going to end!" You know what? That could be you.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "I Know How This Is Going to End."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 30:5, and today is especially for someone who's got a heavy burden on their heart. Maybe there's a major disappointment recently, or a painful loss, or a deep hurt. This is for you. Psalm 30:5 - "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."

God doesn't deny the pain or the tears in this verse. They're real, but compared to the joy coming, they're brief. He's seen your tears. The Bible says He stores them up in a bottle; He's so involved in your grief. And He's also scheduled the morning celebration. Now, I know it feels like it's always going to be like this, but rejoicing will come in the morning. This is temporary. This, too, shall pass.

Lord Wellington won for Great Britain at the famous Battle of Waterloo. He defeated Napoleon, and he passed the word up the British coast by semaphore--by flags. And finally the word got to the Tower of London, where they posted the message up on the tower. Here's what it said, "Wellington defeated..." And then a fog settled in, and for an hour no one could see anything else. They couldn't see the rest of the message, and I mean people were so depressed. "Wellington has lost!" And then the fog cleared, and they saw the rest of the message, "Wellington defeated the enemy."


You know, right now your feelings are sending you only half the news, and it feels like a defeat. It seems over, like it did for Mary and Martha when Lazarus died and Jesus didn't do anything about it. Little did they know He was going to do something far greater than they ever dreamed. That which seems to have won right now will be defeated unless you despair and you walk away from the God who will finish this battle victoriously.

Right now it's night time and there still are tears, and you need to dig deep into His strength until the rest of the message comes clear. You can stay peaceful, you can stay poised while everybody else is going crazy, because you know that ultimately joy is coming, victory is coming. You can sit back and smile in the middle of the chaos and say, "I know how this is going to end!"