ON FEARING THE LORD
To live an upright life is the fear of the Lord! Though our shortcomings are great, God’s grace is greater yet. The children of God are called to live a life of surrender to the will of God as revealed in the Word of God. When we fall short we simply and reverently acknowledge our sin, thank God for His forgiveness (secured by Christ on Calvary’s cross), turn from that particular sin, then get on with our life, our walk with God.
WHEN WE FORGET
Everybody (even tremendous men of God like John) occasionally fails and falls short. But, rather than react with disgust and crushing condemnation, Jesus responds with compassionate, timely, real answers. The only folks who will not receive this kind of mercy are the kind of people Luke writes about as the narrative continues: the Pharisees and “experts” in the law who refused John’s message that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah (Luke 7:30).
NO MOTEL 6
Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless — cheerfully.
PAPPY BOYINGTON
In his classic book The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman makes this observation: “What is more revealing about the disciples is that at first they don’t impress us as being key men. None of them occupied prominent places in the Synagogue, nor did any of them belong to the Levitical priesthood. For the most part, they were common laboring men, probably having no professional training beyond the rudiments of knowledge necessary for their vocation. Perhaps a few of them came from families of some considerable means, such as the sons of Zebedee, but none of them could have been considered wealthy. They had no academic degrees in the arts and philosophies of their day."