Family matters

Matthew 12:46-50 / Mark 3:31-35 / Luke 8:19-21…

Jesus was going about His spiritual business full tilt, and His family thought He was out of sorts (Mark 3:21). They couldn’t reach Him for the crowd, but called to Him, hoping to get Him out of the place He was in and back home, it seems.

Jesus indicated that His disciples are His family, and so it is with us. It wasn’t that Jesus was being disrespectful or snide, but that He was pointing us to the truth about who can claim Him (Matthew 7:21-23).

Not all people are the children of God. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were of their father, the devil (John 8:44). You are not a child of God just by being born in America, or having godly parents, or going to church, or taking Communion, or being this or that religion. No, you must be adopted into the family of God (Galatians 4:4-7).

Jesus wasn’t against family, He was affirming the fact that while we are all born into the kingdom of men, we must be born again into the kingdom of God (Galatians 3:26). We belong to one kingdom or the other, and we are all called children of darkness before we are called to be children of light (Ephesians 2:2-3, 5:6-8 / Colossians 3:6 / 1 Thessalonians 5:5 / 1 John 3:10).

Will Jesus claim you when the most important family reunion in history happens (Matthew 25:31-46 / Revelation 19:6-9)?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Blessed to bless

Luke 8:1-3…

Women didn’t get much respect in the days of Jesus, but Jesus was changing that tune with His truth. He had just shown us how a lowly woman knew how to worship better than a ministry man. Humility trumps hypocrisy every time.

Now we see that the ladies lead the way in applying the truth once again. Jesus is being followed around by a bunch of grateful women who had become the prime benefactors of His ministry. Those that have been touched by grace become gracious. Those who have been given the greatest gift become great givers.

Think about it. He allowed them to minister unto Him. He could have made money from nothing; He created the universe that way. He knew where all the loose change was lying around (Matthew 17:27). He could have fed everyone by turning scraps into supper as He did with the crowds at times (Matthew 14:19-21, 15:32-38). But He wanted them to be further blessed by becoming a blessing.

Do you look to bless God? Then bless His people (Galatians 6:10 / 1 Timothy 6:17-19), His work (2 Corinthians 8:3-4, 9:10) and bless those in need (Ephesians 4:28 / 1 John 3:17).

How many say they love God, but turn away and don’t follow Him?

How many follow, but only so as to get something, never looking to give something?

Invite the blessing of God by investing your blessings on others.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

How hypocrisy happens

Luke 7:36-50…

The scope of your forgiveness determines the size of your love. What exactly are you looking at when you are in the presence of God? The man was thinking about what a great sinner this woman was. The woman was thinking about what a great savior Jesus was. We shouldn’t look down on others, but up to Him. No matter how much higher or lower you might be compared to someone else, compared to Jesus we are all at the bottom floor.

She had the attitudes of worship; humility, reverence, and service. She took the actions of worship; adoration and sacrifice. We can be like her or we can be like the man, where we stop worshipping God and we start exalting self. Any looking down on anyone else immediately places us in the position of being self-righteous.

We cannot measure how far we are removed from someone else’s sin, because the minute we do that, we remove our eyes from Jesus and lose all sense of the true measure. Are you measuring the meager distance between you and some other person? Do you not see the great chasm between you and Christ? Do you forget how far down He had to reach to get you? Perhaps you fail to see Him in His exaltation because of your hypocritical eye.

When you see the depths of your depravity compared to the heights of His holiness, it is then you can see the measure of His love. This will only increase as we enter eternity. We will have been perfected, but we will continue to revel in the revelation of His perfections. If we believe it, there will be a difference in how we live now (1 John 3:2-3), but also how we look at others.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©