”Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Luke 15:1-2 NIV
Jesus loves the lost and broken. He rejoices over the rebel who returns home. He “welcomes sinners.”
What comfort to know this is true! Because I have easily fit into each of those categories. I have been the lost sheep who intentionally wandered. I have been the lost coin that the angels of God rejoiced over when I finally repented and was found. I have been the prodigal who demanded my way and ended up eating “pig slop” instead of the spiritual food that God generously provides to those who dwell in Him as His child.
Indeed, Jesus “welcomes sinners!” And I am grateful. He welcomed me!
When I was in college, I went to Florida to visit my brother on my spring break. He was an officer in the Navy. During that visit I got the opportunity to dine in the officers mess on the ship he was assigned to, as his guest. The room, the special china for the officers, and the enlisted wait staff added to the whole experience. It felt like such an honor, especially for a small town Missouri girl.
In today’s reading, Jesus was invited to a prominent Pharisee’s home to eat. During that meal, one of the guests said, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” (Verse 15)
Jesus replied to this man with a parable regarding a feast. The guest who were invited were too busy to come. They had their own lives and agendas to pursue. So the master throwing the banquet sent out the invitation to those who would have never been invited to a banquet of honor – “the poor, the blind, and the lame.” (Verse 21). In fact, he wanted his banquet full so he sent his servants out with the invitation to the “roads and country lanes.”
Many do not realize how blessed they would be to attend the marriage supper of the Lamb. They spurn the invitation to the most important banquet they could ever attend. 33 years ago when I was invited by my brother to tour his ship and eat in the Officers Mess, I could have turned it down, but I would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime.
A banquet of much more significance is being prepared. Our attendance is of the upmost importance. Our host wants His table to be full. It is prepared for the disciples who follow Jesus. Will we leave our ways behind in order to respond and simply come?
“In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot help my disciples.”
Treasure- something very much valued. (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)
What do we value most? Jesus speaks of this often in this chapter. He talks about being “rich towards God” (verse 21), seeking His Kingdom first (verse 31), and having our treasure— what we value most— in heaven, God’s dwelling. What we value most, treasure, shows us where are hearts are.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34).
Our hearts are the most important thing about us. It is where we experience the love, relationship, and intimacy of God.
We cannot experience this if our treasure, what we value most, isn’t God. We cannot experience the life of God if our hearts are far from Him. It is important to ask God, “What do I value most? What is my treasure? God and His ways? Myself and my own ways?”
What we treasure is very important if we want to be close to God and to know Him.
Jesus came so we could know God in an intimate relationship with Him. He has given us all we need to have that relationship.
He taught us to pray.
”He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ’ ”“
Luke 11:2-4 NIV
He encourages us to ask our Father in heaven to give us the Holy Spirit to live within us and fill us to overflowing.
”If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”“
Luke 11:13 NIV
He tells us we are “blessed” – happy- when we hear the word of God and obey it. Verse 28. Because He knows our obedience to His Word will keep us free from the sin that separates us from Him.
God wants us to be close to Him. We can choose to be close to God in an intimate relationship that gives us freedom, joy, and peace. Jesus provided a way for us to experience this through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Or we can choose to live apart from Him — Never seeking Him in prayer or in His Word, no relationship with the Holy Spirit, following our own desires.
He loves us so and offers us His life for our own good! We get the choice to go His way or ours.
Busyness… This chapter gives accounts of the disciples going out proclaiming the Kingdom of God and healing the sick in all the towns and places Jesus was about to go. AND the account of Jesus spending time at Mary and Martha’s house. Martha was so busy cleaning and cooking as Mary sat at Jesus feet listening to Him.
In all the effort and work that went on in this chapter, two things were pointed out to be the MOST important:
1. Your names are written and Heaven.
2. Sitting at Jesus feet listening to what He says.
Those two things are still the most important for us.
To have our names written in Heaven is to belong to Jesus, to have our names written in the book of life. (Revelations 20:15).
To know Jesus is to be near to Him and listen to what He says — have an intimate relationship with Him. It is knowing Him, His word, and spending time in prayer.
We can accomplish much in this life that will only burn up and be gone. May we choose what will be eternal — Jesus Himself.
Crowds were following Jesus everywhere. They wanted to experience His healing touch and to hear His words.
When Jesus and His disciples were in private, Jesus asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” The disciples said, “John, Elijah, the prophets of long ago come back to life.” Jesus asked “But what about you?”
What we think about who Jesus is, is important. If He is “God’s Messiah,” the King of Kings, then He deserves the place of King within our hearts. As Lord and King, Jesus tells us how we are to follow Him.
”Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24 NIV
We must abandon our ways, take up Jesus’s way and follow Him! Jesus’s way is the cross. The cross requires total surrender of ourself (death of our independent ways) so Jesus can live in us.
The crowds, who followed Jesus, could only experience Him from a distance. It was the ones who were His disciples that got to experience His intimacy and friendship.
This is true of us today. We can know about Jesus from a distance, or we can know Him intimately. But we must come to Him on His terms— the cross. His disciples will take up their cross and follow Him.
“(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)“
Luke 7:29-30 NIV
God has a purpose, an intention, a design with an end in mind. How sad it is to miss that purpose!
The religious leaders, who rejected Jesus, rejected God’s purpose for themselves. They were wrapped up in their personal power and prestige. Instead of repenting, or turning from their prideful, selfish ways, they fought against the purpose God had for them. The rejected God…
However those who were the outcast and the sinners, were the ones who turned from their own ways. They “acknowledged that God’s way was right.”
We have the same choice in our lives today. God has set before us the choice to come to repent from following our own sinful ways, “acknowledge God’s way is right,” and to follow Him or to continue living however we want to live after ourselves, not God…
We were created to know God and to make Him known. That is our purpose. May His purpose be our highest aim!
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 NIV
I have been thinking a lot about the devil’s tactics to steal, kill, and destroy. It’s probably because I am teaching a Bible class about that very thing. The verse above has been on my heart and in my mind. Last night, I actually had a dream with regards to it.
In my dream there was an African lion, with a large mane. It was prowling about the parameter of my house. It was waiting for someone or something to wander from the safety of my home. The lion could not penetrate that safety. It waited, watching me and everyone who lived with me and our every move. Then Snowy, my Great Pyrenees went outside of the safe zone of my house. The lion attacked and she was torn to shreds. I was so heartbroken.
I retell this dream because this really is how our enemy, Satan, works. As we abide in the safe zone of God’s dwelling, which is Himself, we have nothing to fear.
“God is our refuge and strength…” Psalms 46:1 NIV
He is our only defense against Satan and his destruction.
The problems come when we wander from His safety. It is when we decide we don’t really want to dwell up close to God, which requires: total submission, total obedience, and total dependence on Him. We would rather have things our way. So we try to keep one foot inside of His protective zone and one foot outside of it. This is living like we did before we came to know Him. It is there the enemy prowls. He knows when we are vulnerable, and then he attacks, shredding us to pieces. His destruction in our lives has ripple effects reaching to our spouses, kids, family, friends, and beyond.
There is one other zone I would be remiss to not mention. It is where those who have not even come close to God at all dwell outside of safety. If you are there, you are in grave danger. You may not believe in the lion who prowls, but he believes in you and there is nothing he would like better than to destroy you! In fact, if you are honest, he has already begun to destroy your life.
So why all this talk about lions and dreams this morning? There is only one safe place. It is close to Jesus dwelling in Him. It is relationship with Him. As we abide in Him, we will hear the lion roar from a distance, but we are in the safe zone having nothing to fear.
Where do you live your life? Are you wandering far from the safety of Jesus? Are you exploring the edges of your safe zone by playing around with sin? Or are you snuggled up close to Jesus, as close as you can get? Are you daily desiring to be even closer obeying, submitting, and depending on him? That is the only safe place to be.
Momma friends- keep the main thing the main thing! Jesus first!
Remember your little ones are like a flower bed. You need to sow good seed into them and tend their little hearts as they grow. If you do, you will see good fruit. You cannot give them what you don’t already have. If you want your babies to know God you have to live that in front of them. You may have a great heritage passed down from your Parents or Grandma and Grandpa. But if we do not take that heritage of knowing God and make it our own it will mean nothing in our lives. Relationship with God is not something you inherit from someone. It is something you have on your own personally.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 NIV
This is what I wrote on Facebook 9 years ago, the day of my youngest sons baptism:
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 1 Peter 1:4
While holding my oldest son as an infant, I can remember as a young mother looking at the baby God had blessed me with, and praying with all urgency that God would mark his heart, that at a young age God would speak to him, and that he would serve God with all his heart for all his days. I have prayed this same prayer over each of my children at different times. I have walked into their rooms at night just to watch them sleeping and found myself kneeling besides their bed asking God to keep their hearts close to Him. That God would speak to them, and draw them to Himself and place a call on their lives. A prayer that at the time seemed kind of scary because God could call them all into missions and send them continents away from me, but whatever He wants for them is what I want for them. God has given me the privilege of praying with each of my kids to ask Jesus into their hearts, each of them at very young ages: 5 years, 4 years, 5 years, 4 years. At times I thought they seem so young, God if they don’t understand please continue to work in them and draw them close to you. Today marks a special event in the life of my youngest son. With a sense of urgency he has been asking over and over to be baptized. He told me the other night he heard the Holy Spirit tell him he needed to be baptized again. Years ago we allowed him to be baptized at the age of 5 because he asked and asked to be baptized then. When pondering if this was a good idea to let him be baptized so young, I continually heard the verse of Jesus saying, “Let the little children come to me.” over and over in my head. My husband and I decided to let him knowing that at an older age he may want to be baptized again. I am humbled on how faithful God has been to fulfill my deepest desire as a mom, that my children would have a real relationship with Jesus, not just one that is based on the relationship my husband and I have with God, one of their own. Wednesday night I made it late to church. My youngest had a flag football game. As soon as it was over, he looked at me and said, “Let’s go! How much of church do you think we missed?” He loves playing football, but he loves going to church more. He wasn’t too thrilled that the games were on Wednesday night, but it is what it is. As I walked into the room where the youth group was being held, my youngest daughter was thoroughly involved in worship, eyes closed, hands raised. My older daughter was singing and playing the piano in worship to God. Then my oldest son, 19 years old, paused his singing, and with an urgency about him talked about how worship was a special time that God had created us for. How God wants more of us. It struck me how he no longer talked like a kid, but as a man, a man of God. I thought about those times besides his bedside praying for God to mark his heart. I thought about my daughters and the conversations we have had lately about God and living for him. I thought about my baby boy, even though he is 10 years old, joking with me this week that he is going to be president some day, if not that then a preacher, maybe both. This morning my heart is full. God has allowed me to have the privilege to sow seeds into the hearts of my kids, and I am getting to see just a little of the fruit from it. There is nothing greater than seeing your kids walking in the truth no matter where God may lead them. They are His. May His gifting and calling on each of their lives be fulfilled. I am one blessed momma.
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NIV
This morning I am made keenly aware of the truth within these words. I have contemplated how often I have seen situations where the fruit of these choices are being displayed in my life and the lives of others. There is a blessing of life when we choose God’s Life. God offers us His spiritual prosperity, blessings, and enjoyment of Himself when we choose Him as our life. These blessings are poured out not only upon ourselves but on our children and their children and so on. BUT we must choose to pursue Life in a relationship with Him!
We have another choice which is death and curses. It is living our lives separated from the author and creator of life, God. This life is lived as we focus on ourselves- our wants, our desires, our ways- instead of God’s. It is a life with no relationship with God, apart from Him. When we choose that life, apart from Him, we live far from peace, joy, and love. We are in turmoil. Our emotions reflect that— anxiety, anger, bitterness, worry, etc. Our relationships with our family, coworkers, children, and spouses reflect that turmoil. When we choose our way instead of life we choose turmoil, and that turmoil will consume us and pour out on everyone we are around.
The question we need to ask ourselves is: What have I chosen for my life? God’s Life in relationship with Him or the death of choosing to not follow Him 💯, separated from Him?
Your Love 