Luke 7 -- Jesus Whispers A Secret

Jesus had quite a task at hand – teaching the world to see with the eyes of Adam and Eve, for once again God was walking among mankind.  But sin had impacted their soul-vision to the point that they could neither see him nor the truth of life as God designed it.  Even John the Baptist had questions!

Max Lucado addressed one of the stories in this chapter in his book Six Hours One Friday – the story of the widow who, after losing her husband, had also lost her only son.  Jesus was entering the town as the funeral procession neared the city gate – the woman’s son carried on a funeral cot.  “When the Lord saw her, He felt very sorry for her and said, ‘Don’t cry.’ “  In my Bible’s sidebar this morning, I read what Max wrote:

“Jesus turned his attention to the dead boy.  ‘Young man,’ His voice was calm, ‘come back to life again.’ … Jesus must have smiled as the two embraced … Jesus gave the woman much more than her son.  He gave her a secret – a whisper that was overheard by us.  ‘That,’ He said, pointing at the funeral cot, ‘that is fantasy.  THIS,’ He grinned, putting an arm around the boy, ‘THIS is reality.’”

Only God could show us that truth – that He is Lord over even death; that this world is not our home; that He desires us to live with Him forever; that He loves us more than we even love ourselves. 

Father, thank You for opening my eyes the way You did her eyes.  Thank You for showing me that all this isn’t just history.  You amaze me every day with new revelations about Yourself and about my relationship with You and with others.  Keep doing it, Father.  I want to know You more.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 6 -- Jesus Says To Look Inside

Continually in this chapter, Jesus looks to the condition of the heart as opposed to the person’s conditions in this world.

He chastised the Pharisees for caring more about their rules than about human suffering.  They’d rather a person starve or remain physically handicapped another day than that their Sabbath rule was broken!

Jesus spoke the beatitudes to the crowd, not speaking of physical poverty, but of spiritual hunger.  He warned them that the world wouldn’t like their allegiance to Him, and when they faced the world’s anger, it should inspire joy because they’d know they were being obedient to Him.

He wanted them to have charity in their hearts – giving to those who couldn’t  give back rather than exchanging giving with those who could.

He wanted them to examine their own lives, removing sin they found, rather than judging others for minor things.

He summed it up by saying, “Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts.  But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they store in their hearts.  People speak the things that are in their hearts.”

Father, I don’t want to harbor any evil in my heart.  Help me to examine what I say and do to make certain that my words and actions give evidence of Your love in my heart and not anything else.  Show me anything that I am missing, just as Jesus warned His followers to remove the plank from their own eyes before trying to remove a piece of dust from their friend’s eye!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 5 -- Who You Gonna Listen To?

I noticed a few simple but notable things about Jesus as He began His public ministry:  “Many people were pressing all around Him to hear the word of God.”  They weren’t tuning in to a televangelist or watching him later on their DVR.  These people were choosing to take not just hours but days out of their lives, even traveling on foot a good distance from their homes to hear the word of God.  This wasn’t entertainment.  It was soul-hunger, and all they knew was that Jesus was feeding that hunger for probably the first time in their lives!

Simon Peter had been fishing all night.  The crowd around Jesus made it necessary that Jesus ask Peter for the use of his boat to gain enough distance from them so that He could more easily teach them.  Afterwards, in almost a rewarding way, Jesus told Peter to take the boat to a certain spot to catch fish.  Jesus’ words must have struck a chord with Peter, who was exhausted from fishing all night and cleaning his nets, for he expressed willingness to obey the command regardless.  When the nets became filled to the breaking point and they found that they now had two boats overloaded with fish, Peter realized Jesus was much more than just a teacher.  He said, “Get away from me, Lord.  I am a sinful man.”  He recognized divinity and the common belief was that no one could see God and live.  Jesus answered, “Don’t be afraid,” and gave him a new profession fishing for people instead.

Satan was trying to take Peter’s past, throw it in his face, and tell him he wasn’t good enough to be used by God.  Jesus corrected that lie.  Several other times in this chapter, Jesus took those the world considered unlovely and showed both them and the world their worth.  He’s still in the business of doing that.

Father, the guilt of past sins is part of the consequences of sin.  However, when You forgive us and remove those sins, it’s as if they’d never happened.  Satan wants us to think otherwise.  He tries to disqualify us from service, while You instead are ready to put us to work telling others what You’ve done in our lives.  Help us not to listen to the whispers of the devil.  Shout into our ears instead, telling us of Your love and forgiveness until we believe it wholeheartedly!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 3 & 4 -- Hometown Woes

After His baptism by John and having the Holy Spirit descend on Him like a dove, Jesus heard God His Father say, “You are My Son, whom I love, and I am very pleased with You!”  At that point, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted.  Where God had affirmed Him, Satan tried to sow doubt in His soul.  Despite 40 days without food, Jesus did not cave.  After all, He’d already spent eternity past with His Father, and He knew every strategy of the devil.

What really spoke to me this morning was Jesus speaking in His home church in Nazareth.  People in other towns were praising Him for His teachings, but things were different in Nazareth.  He began reading to them from Isaiah:

“The Lord has put His Spirit in me, because He appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again.  God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show His kindness.”

He then closed the book and sat down.  Everyone watched expectantly, waiting for His next words.  He said, “While you heard these words just now, they were coming true.”

They’d probably heard those same words lots of times, and likely thought to themselves, “That will never happen.  Blind people can’t be healed!  Why did Isaiah even write that?”

Knowing their hearts, Jesus reminded them of two Old Testament stories where God purposefully skipped over the Jews to bless Gentiles instead.  This infuriated them to the point that they tried to throw Him over a cliff – Church people who were blinded to the truth that their Savior and Messiah had just announced Himself to them!  And they missed it!

Father, help me not to miss what You say to me.  Keep my heart open to things You want to change in my life and people You want me to reach out to.  Help me to remain excited about the fact that You choose to work in and through me as part of Your plan.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 2 -- Marvelling and Treasuring

I was noticing the things that Mary treasured in her heart.  She’d been obedient when told of her role in bringing Jesus into the world.  Now that He’d been incarnated, she marveled at the stories told by the shepherds:  angels had appeared, not to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, but to those who, because of their work, were likely never ritually clean!  And because they’d obeyed, they’d been given the first glimpse of the Savior of the world, while the High Priest, the other priests, and the Levites had slept through it!

Later, in simply doing what was required by the Law by presenting Jesus in the Temple and offering the required sacrifice to buy back a firstborn male child, both parents marveled at the comments of Simeon and Anna, who both independently confirmed their heavenly messages that Jesus was the Savior.  Simeon declared that he could not die in peace because he had seen God’s salvation in the body of the baby Jesus!  That’s all he wanted out of the remainder of his life – to see Jesus!  And how it should be our only desire, too!  Yet too many times we become so caught up in the world that we miss the Savior!

Father, I want to keep treasuring what You’ve shown me about Jesus in my heart.  Don’t let me ever think of Him as ordinary.  Help me to have the single-mindedness of Anna regarding Your kingdom and not the dry religion of all the rest who missed the Savior.  And help me to show others what You’ve shown me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 1 -- Words From An Angel To Us

The angel was telling Zechariah about what his not-yet-even-conceived son John would do:  “He will make peace between parents and their children and will bring those who are not obeying God back to the right way of thinking, to make a people ready for the coming of the Lord.”

People who are sinning and disobeying God are not thinking right, the angel said.  That comes straight from God.  Yet over and over, humans try to say that it’s not sin – it’s personal choice.  Unfortunately for them, God doesn’t agree.  We can’t just decide for ourselves what’s right for us and what’s not, because it’s not all relative.  God sets the standards because He knows what’s best for us.  We don’t.  We only think we do.

Fast forward nine months, and Zechariah gets to finally speak again after his son, John the Baptist, is born.  He said, “Let us praise the Lord … because He has come to help His people and has given them freedom.  He has given us a powerful Savior … He said He would do this … He promised He would save us … He said He would give mercy … and that He would remember His holy promise.  God promised Abraham, our father, that He would save us from the power of our enemies [including the worst enemy of all – Satan] so we could serve Him without fear, being holy and good before God as long as we live.”

God doesn’t want to be seen as a punisher.  He desires to be an enabler if we will let Him – enabling us to live a life that honors Him through our obedience by bringing us back to a right way of thinking.  Doing so gives us freedom, for we won’t be having to look over our shoulders worrying about whether our sins will be found out.  He’s a God who loves us even more than we love ourselves.

Father, thank You for correcting our wrong-headed thinking.  The world tries to tell us freedom comes from being able to do anything we could imagine or desire.  But You tell us the truth.  Thanks for correcting my thinking.  Please don’t stop.  I need Your wise counsel for the rest of my life!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jonah 2-4 Where And What He Prayed

So what happened during the time Jonah was inside the fish?  He prayed, and he remembered.

“When I was in danger, I called to the Lord, and He answered.”  Jonah had been on a ship, in danger of sinking, and God’s answer was “Get into the fish.”

Jonah couldn’t see that.  Instead, looking through his circumstances, he said, “I was driven out of Your presence … I thought I was locked in this prison (the sea) forever, but You saved me … Lord my God.”

Jonah had thought God was casting him out, when God was taking him to his salvation.

“When my life had almost gone, I remembered the Lord.  I prayed to You, and You heard my prayers in Your Holy Temple.”

Jonah had been so stuck on himself and his desires that he’d forgotten about God and what God was trying to do through him.  But God had never taken His eyes off of Jonah.

“I will praise and thank You while I give sacrifices to You, and I will keep my promises to You.  Salvation comes from the Lord!”

The most important thing about that last prayer was where Jonah was when he prayed it.  He has not petitioned God for anything this whole time.  He has only been praying prayers of thanksgiving to God.  The next verse gives us the answer of where Jonah was when he was praying this:  “Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and the fish threw up Jonah onto the dry land.”

Inside the belly of the large fish, moving through the middle of the sea, even at great depths, Jonah was spending all his time thanking God for his salvation!  This went on, not just for an hour or two, but for three days!  My commentary also said that the miracle wasn’t that the fish swallowed him, but that he wasn’t digested!

Father, when I can’t seem to see You from the middle of my circumstances, remind me that Jonah trusted, praised, and thanked You for his three-day underwater ride in much less than ideal conditions.  Help me to recognize the help You’re sending me when I need it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford