December 25, 2018
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Reading along with us in Luke for five days? Here’s today’s reading:
Luke 5 (ESV)
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him....Continue Reading
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Luke 5:16 (ESV)
But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
I am always amazed that Jesus, who is very God in human flesh, set the model of prayer for me. I must confess that it is not always a priority in my life in that I do not have a systematic scheduled time for prayer. In this season of nicely wrapped PRESENTS my gift to God should be my PRESENCE.
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone. May the joy and peace of our always present Savior fill us.
This popped up in my timeline on Facebook and thought I would share here.
Lord God,
Thank you for the gift of Your Son, Jesus.
For he shed his royal raiment,
and clothed himself in vestments of humility.
All that we, your children,
may be clothed has he now is;
in righteousness and royalty.
This Lord, is a gift that keeps giving,
a pearl beyond price,
an inheritance beyond this soil.
Daniel Lee,
Christmas, 2015
4And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
The greatest ability is availability to Do what He asks❤️
What great faith Matthew had! As a tax collector, he was an agent of the Roman government, despised by the Israelites. He had no friends. Yet, he immediately left his post, literally leaving everything, to follow Jesus!
27After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
This chapter shows that Jesus has power over the word (teaching), nature (the fish), people (the disciples who followed), disease (leprosy and paralysis) and sin (granting forgiveness). Of course it makes sense that those who follow Him would rejoice while this powerful, wise, righteous and kind bridegroom is with them. And yet an initial indication here that He would not be with them forever and would be forcefully removed. It also makes sense that as God is doing something new and different through Christ, it won’t necessarily be ablel to harmonize with what is old or what people are used to and familiar with. Those who follow Him will need to be prepared to set preconceived notions aside and put on the new wineskin that will be able to accommodate the new power and truth that Jesus brings.
And yet in all of this, Jesus is also dependent on His Father. It is telling and amazing that He would slip away often to take time to pray. Boy, if He needed to and wanted to do that, how much more necessary is it for us to follow suit.