As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:27-28 (ESV)

What was that woman saying? “I wish I had been lucky enough to have a Son like You! Your mom won the lottery of life.” Her cry mirrors what is so often inside me, the wish that better things had happened to me, the wish that something over which I had no control had dropped or would drop into my lap to make my life better. 

How many times have I wished I would get a big inheritance? How many times have I wished someone had educated me in certain issues when I was young? How many times have I wished I had been friends with someone who paved a path for me?

But what is Jesus’ response? “No, actually, blessing doesn’t come by something happening to you over which you have no control. Blessing comes by listening to God and doing what He says.” Of course, this is an ellipsis. That is, Jesus was not saying His mother was not blessed. The angel who announced the conception and birth of Jesus said to Mary, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28, ESV). Mary was blessed. Jesus’ point was not that Mary was not blessed at all but that there is a greater blessing reserved for those who hear His word and keep it.

Let’s quit wasting our time sitting on our backsides wishing for some blessing from the outside to fall into our laps. Instead, let’s start pursuing the blessing that God has promised us all if we will just open up His book, get into His Word and get His Word into us.

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Was anyone else struck by the irony of Jesus’ question in Luke 12:14, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” For some reason my first response when I read this verse today was, “Well, God did.” I’m sure there is a lesson in this ironic question. I’m just not sure what it is yet. Maybe you can fill me in.

What did you get out of today’s reading? Feel free to comment and let the world wide community know.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.–Luke 9:23

A brief thought struck me at this verse. We take up our cross daily. We don’t take it up weekly, monthly, yearly. We don’t even take it up for our whole lives. 

I so often live in the future, thinking I have to be sinless and pure for the rest of my life. When I start thinking that way, I begin to despair. I just don’t think I can do this for the rest of my life. I don’t think I can do this for a decade. I don’t think I can do this for a week. Sometimes I don’t even think I can do this tomorrow. But I don’t have to. All I have to do is pick up my cross today. Just one day at a time. By God’s grace, I can do this today.

Perhaps this is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34, ESV).

Don’t worry about next year, next month or next week. Just take up your cross today. You can do that.

Have a happy 4th of July.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

I can’t help but notice the number of healings within today’s reading.

• 5:12-13–Jesus healed a leper
• 5:15–Jesus healed great crowds
• 5:17-26–Jesus healed a paralytic
• 6:6-10–Jesus healed a man with a withered hand
• 6:17-19–Jesus healed all in the crowd

I even glanced ahead and noticed in Luke 7 Jesus heals the centurion’s servant, raises the widow’s son and declares to John the Baptist’s disciples that “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them” (Luke 7:22, ESV).

Jesus is the great physician. However, He is not the great physician because He healed all these illnesses. Rather, the real doctoring done by Jesus is seen in Luke 5:20-25.

And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Rise and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–he said to the man who was paralyzed–”I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. (ESV)

Jesus didn’t heal illnesses because His job as the great physician meant emptying out hospitals. Jesus healed because healing the physical illnesses demonstrated He was and is from God and He could and can do what no other physician can do. He can heal our sin sickness. Sadly, the miracle ministries of the day preying on the poor and deluded entirely miss this point. I can hardly imagine Jesus taking up a collection as a seed of faith before healing anyone. But even more than that, I can hardly imagine Jesus healing anyone if it weren’t as a proof that He could heal their souls. 

That is why Jesus is the Great Physician, not because for a few years in time He healed the bodies of some followers. He is the Great Physician because He has the authority to heal our sins. 

In Luke 5:8, Peter cried out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (ESV). It didn’t occur to him that One who was so holy and powerful was actually coming to embrace someone so sinful. He thought Jesus should clear away lest his own sin defile Jesus’ holiness. However, the exact opposite is true. Jesus is so holy and powerful our sin can’t defile Him. Rather, His holiness cleanses us. Thus Jesus, when questioned, responded, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32, ESV). 

I might be the chief of sinners thinking Jesus should depart. But if I will believe and repent, Jesus will draw ever nearer embracing me with His holiness and delivering me from this body of death (cf. Romans 7:24-25). Praise God for that!

Keep the faith today and keep reading.

ELC

I’m so excited about being able to take this trek through the New Testament with you. I hope you find it beneficial, not because you are hearing from me what I got out of it, but because it lifts you up to keep reading God’s Word.

I had a surprising, yet comforting, thought today as I read Luke 3:8–“Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (ESV)

My mind immediately jumped to Galatians 3:29–”And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (ESV).

Sometimes I struggle thinking that I can not possibly be a part of God’s family. I know too much about me and I know God knows it all also. However, it just struck me as comforting that if God could raise up offspring to Abraham from a rock, He can also make me an offspring of Abraham. He can make me an heir according to promise by the power of Christ’s blood and grace. He can do the same for you.

I was also impressed in this reading with how important what we are doing on this blog really is. Three times in Luke 4:1-13, Jesus said, “It is written.” Each was a response to Satan’s temptation. If anyone that ever lived in the world had the ability to respond to Satan with “I think…” or “I know…” or “I say…” or “I feel…” it was Jesus, God the Son in the flesh. However, that is not how He responded to Satan’s snares. Instead, He responded, “It is written.” 

If God in the flesh overcame Satan by His knowledge of God’s Word, how much more do I need to be in God’s Word constantly to overcome Satan. As Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (ESV). 

That always gets me back to the armor of God in Ephesians 6:12-18. Have you ever noticed how many pieces of the armor are actually tied to God’s Word?

• Belt of truth–God’s word is truth-John 17:17
• Breastplate of righteousness–Scripture trains us in righteousness-II Timothy 3:16
• Feet shod with gospel of peace–The Word of truth is the gospel-Colossians 1:5
• Shield of faith–Faith comes by hearing the word of God-Romans 10:17
• Helmet of salvation–The Word builds us up and saves us-Acts 20:32
• Sword of the Spirit–Well, duh, the text we’re looking at says that is the Word of God

Keep the faith today and keep reading!