Luke 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)

Max Lucado Daily: Jesus the Lord

“When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.” Luke 5:6 NRSV

Peter’s arm is yanked into the water. It’s all he can do to hang on until the other guys can help. Within moments the four fishermen and the carpenter are up to their knees in flopping silver.

Peter lifts his eyes off the catch and onto the face of Christ. In that moment, for the first time, he sees Jesus. Not the Jesus the Fish Finder . . . Not Jesus the Rabbi. Peter sees Jesus the Lord.

Luke 15:11-32
New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Lost Son

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 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.’”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Genesis 1:26-31

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

The Goodness Of Work

September 5, 2011 — by Randy Kilgore

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” —Genesis 1:26

Some Christians grow up believing work is bad—that it’s a curse brought about by Adam and Eve’s sin. Left uncorrected, this mistaken belief can cause people to feel that what they do in their jobs every day isn’t important to God—or at the very least, isn’t as important as the work of missionaries and pastors. This is not true, as Genesis 1:26-31 teaches us.
First, we learn that God Himself works, as evidenced by the labor involved in creation and by the fact that He rested on the seventh day. Then we discover that we were made in His image (v.26) and that we were granted dominion over creation. This implies that we are to work to tend creation. Clearly, the tending of God’s creation is work—noble work, for God looked upon His labors and declared them “very good” (v.31).
It mustn’t escape our notice either that work was declared good before sin entered the picture. In other words, work didn’t result from the fall and therefore is not a curse. We see this idea again in Genesis 2, when God “took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (v.15).
Let’s approach each day’s labor—whether at a job or doing another activity to help our family—with an awareness of the dignity and nobility God granted it in creation.


Our daily work is used by God
To help us care for daily needs;
And work that’s done as to the Lord
Gives witness to our words and deeds. —D. De Haan


God, give me work till my life shall end—
and life till my work is done.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 5th, 2011

Watching With Jesus

Stay here and watch with Me —Matthew 26:38

Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.
The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all . . . forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit . . .” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Seeing What Your Opponent Sees - #6431

Monday, September 5, 2011

Monday was not a favorite day for our local high school football players during the season. See, that was the day they watched the film of last Saturday's game. Oh, now, it's nice to see what you did right, but of course, coaches don't spend much time on that. Most of the coach's attention is focused on what you did wrong or what you could improve on. And so, on Monday you may get yelled at, critiqued, pushed to improve.

I happened to know our head coach pretty well, and I knew that he spent many, many late hours reviewing those films so he'd be ready by Monday. Why? Well, is it because he liked to yell at 16-year-old guys? No. You see, he was looking for weaknesses that an opponent can use to hurt you, to beat you. And you know, that's not a bad idea.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Seeing What Your Opponent Sees."

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 4:1-4. Basically, you should know as we enter this passage that someone has been watching your films of how you've been playing your game. And they have been sizing up what could bring you down. That opponent is identified for us in Luke 4.

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordon and was led by the Spirit in the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. The devil said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.' Jesus answered, 'It is written, man does not live by bread alone.'"

Now, this passage really exposes for us the two areas that the devil tries to exploit. First, he'll exploit an area where God has been specifically speaking to you. Yeah. He will, because well look, just before this incident, Jesus was baptized, a voice came from heaven saying, "You are My Son." So what does the devil say? "If you are God's Son..."

Think of areas where God has been speaking to you over the last few months; things He's really affirmed to you, challenged you with, changed you with. Well, the devil's going to try to discourage you in that area, before you're too strong to be stopped.

Secondly, he'll try to attack us in an area where we have a weakness. And where would Jesus be weak after 40 days of not eating? Of course, He's going to be tempted to leave God's will to get some food, and the devil tries that temptation on Him. He appeals to his appetite. Now, maybe you have an appetite that keeps showing up in the films as a weak spot of yours; an appetite for attention that you'll almost do anything to get, or for acceptance, or an appetite for power, to be in control, a sexual appetite, an appetite for money, for the spotlight maybe, or to get even.

See, the devil will go after a sin in that area, a sin score. And it's all downhill from there. It's important for you to look at the films and see what your opponent is seeing. Be honest about your vulnerable areas. Imagine the devil having a map of you with red pins in that map wherever he can get you. Now, where would those would be for you?

Now, the point here is not to focus on the enemy. He doesn't need any more credit. It's to make your weak spots the centerpiece of your growing relationship with Christ; daily bringing specifically those areas of weakness under His lordship for that day.


Find the scriptures that deal with that weakness as Jesus did, and be ready to quote the Word of God. Treat your weak areas with generous applications of the memorized Word of God.

And when your weak spots drive you to depend on Jesus as you never have before, well then you can say with Paul, "When I am weak, then I am strong."