Excuses

My focal passage this week is Luke 13 to 16. I hope you will read it along with me.

As I read through this morning, one phrase of one verse really stopped me. I was reading this morning out of the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and the first part of Luke 14:18 just stopped me as I read it:

But without exception they all began to make excuses. . .

Without exception. The attempt to "get out" of the invitation of the Lord was not a statistical anomaly, not a fluke, not a one-in-a-million response. Rather than the exception to the rule, this was the rule - Lord, I've got something I'd rather do. . .

Without exception. It speaks to the brokenness and rebellion within the human heart. It speaks to how wrapped up we are in our own desires that we would be blind to the as-yet-untasted blessings that God has planned for us.

The Apostle Paul will echo this sentiment in Romans 3:23:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

C.S. Lewis will strike at the same vein in his sermon The Weight of Glory:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. 

Without exception.

We make excuses. Certainly none of us want to paint ourselves in a bad light - the light of rebellion, or ignorance, or sin. We have our reasons for wanting what we want. We consider them good reasons. We just never consider that when placed beside the wisdom of God, our good reasons pale in comparison to his best.

I pray that this week would not be a week of excuses, but a week of saying "yes" to the promises an the commands of Christ Jesus. I hope you will join me in praying for just such an attitude and response.

Harvesters

Our focal passage this week is Luke 9 to 12, and it was in Luke 10 that a verse jumped out and grabbed hold of me this morning. Luke 10:2

And [Jesus] was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

This verse jumped out at me immediately because I was already thinking along similar lines. . . I was thinking about how much good could be done in our world today if people of influence and means would do it. I was thinking of the advances that could be made in education in impoverished areas of the world, particularly if education was paired with industry or job opportunities for the newly educated. I was thinking of the importance of just laws justly enforced. I was thinking about how businesses might bless more people if "the common good" was an equal goal with profit. And I was thinking most of all how all these kinds of "good" and many more were possible for people of good will.

But Jesus is speaking about more than doing good in the world here. He is speaking about that essential foundation out of which eternal and abundant life grows: allegiance to a faithful God. Apart from a heartfelt loyalty to God, there is no foundation upon which to build lasting good. Apart from the faithfulness of God, there is no soil to plant seeds of hope for the future. Apart from a God who creates and loves human beings, there are no inalienable human rights to respect and nurture.

And Jesus know this. But he also knows that people in the world are hungry for just such a hope-filled relationship with just such a faithful God. The fields are white unto harvest! But the laborers are few - men and women who will do the relational work necessary to communicate the hope, the faithfulness, and the goodness of God to those who are hungry for it.

So we are commanded to pray. Pray that the Lord will send out harvesters. Pray that the Lord will raise them up, equip them, empower them, encourage them, and send them out! If you've ever wanted to know what Jesus might pray, here is one answer. He would pray for harvesters in the fields of God.

Will you join Jesus in praying for harvesters this week?
Will you be such a harvester?

A Fishy Testimony

We are in the books of Luke and Acts through April, and this week, I'm reading slowly through Luke 5 to 8.

I was immediately struck this morning with the confession of Peter at the beginning of Luke 5. It is really a rather remarkable story, and it demonstrates that we may have a life-changing encounter with Jesus anywhere - even in a boat filled with wet, flopping fish!

Jesus used Peter's boat for a pulpit that morning - gaining some distance from the crowd that was pressing around him on the beach. Peter got to "sit on the platform" with the preacher since it was his boat and he was doing the rowing.

After the sermon, though, Jesus went to meddlin' as we say. He had some job advice for the career fisherman - Let's go fishing! Peter had fished all night without success. He was tired, and this was out of the ordinary. Imagine, a carpenter telling a fisherman how to fish! But Peter, out of respect for Jesus, does what he says.

And the results are staggering! Immediately the net was filled with such huge quantity of fish that the nets were breaking and the boat would not hold all the catch! Desperately, they signaled their partners on the shore to bring the other boat, and they loaded both boats with fish.

When the last bit of net was drawn in, and the last fish that could fit in the boat was aboard, Peter turned and looked at Jesus. And he saw Jesus with new eyes. No longer was he just a carpenter or even just a popular teacher. He saw the power of God at work in Jesus, and he knew that he was a man unworthy of God's blessing. Here was greatness in his boat!

And he fell on his knees in the midst of those wet, flopping fish, and he called Jesus "Lord."

And his Lord, who had already shown him grace, now gave a further grace - he gave him a place and a purpose in the eternal Kingdom of God! "From now on, you will be catching men."

What has caused you to see Jesus with "new eyes?"

And have you received the further grace of a place and a purpose in the eternal Kingdom?

Live out your identity in Christ this week! You are His!