Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Ecclesiastes 3-4
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 11:11-13
Jesus: Some of you are fathers, so ask yourselves this: if your son comes up to you and asks for a fish for dinner, will you give him a snake instead? If your boy wants an egg to eat, will you give him a scorpion? Look, all of you are flawed in so many ways, yet in spite of all your faults, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all who ask!
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
An autopsy on the young victim showed burns over 15 percent of his body. Lampley and her boyfriend were originally charged with first-degree murder in the tragedy. The prosecutors wanted Newell-Skinner to get 48 years for the tortures she inflicted on her little girl before the child passed away. They didn’t get their wish. John Hogg, the perfect name for one of eight busted for soliciting child prostitutes and enticement. Little Tobi was taken to the hospital with injuries her mom and significant other said were from a tumble down the stairs. The X-ray didn’t pick up the skull fracture, and the doctor okayed the child’s return even though a former babysitter had already reported signs of abuse. Weeks later, the girl was dead. After Fort Bend County Sheriff sat down with Jason Sheats –whose wife, Christy, killed their two daughters before a police officer fatally shot her–he made public what Jason believed may have led to the tragic event. “We asked Mr Sheats for a motive in his own words, and why would Christy kill their two daughters,” the sheriff said at a news conference. “He stated that he felt Christy wanted him to suffer. During this incident, Christy had ample time and opportunity to shoot and kill Mr. Sheats in the home, but she chose not to. Mr Sheats stated Christy knew how much he loved Taylor and Madison, and how much they loved him.” A concerned citizen showed police a shocking video in which a mother verbally and physically abused her toddler son. But no arrests were made and the child was left in the home until after the video went viral on Facebook and YouTube.
These headliners are too real today, aren’t they. We can’t imagine a world in which parents would do these things to their own children. But these are just a few of the dozens that hit the papers every day and those that hit the paper are just a small percentage of the cases that happen across the country every day. We know that in our heads but seldom let it sink into our hearts.
Unfortunately, with the divorce rate above 50% now, most of the children in our society live in broken homes. They know emotional and physical abuse. They know the brokenness in relationships but fail to see the love of our heavenly Father expressed in the genuine unconditional love of their earthly fathers because of the brokenness of their homes.
You see, over and over, God’s word uses marriage and the home as a metaphore for the love of God toward us. But we have so broken those covenants we make to each other that we no longer understand the covenant God makes to us. We assume that since we can slip in and out of relationships at will, that God will too. We assume that since our affections can grow hot and cold based on our current whim or mood, that God’s love can grow hot and cold toward us. But God’s love is perfect. He is the perfect Father.
Jesus uses this example of a father giving good gifts to his children because usually, even in the corrupted world we live in, most fathers are not like those in the news headlines. Most will not purposely harm their children. We don’t love the way God loves and we don’t love unconditionally the way God wants us to and the way He helps us love if we let Him, but most of us don’t purposely hurt our children. We do it because of the sin that we let reign in our hearts instead of letting God reign there.
That’s point Satan has used to blind us. We think everything is okay because we give gifts to our children and try to buy their love with material things, when what we need is to show genuine, unconditional love to them. God’s kind of love. Love that reaches beyond affection and into the realm of sacrificial giving of self for their good. It means giving up some of the things we want for the good of those we love. God did. He gave His best, His Son, for our good.
So Jesus reminds us that we can understand even in all the corruption we see in this world: Look, all of you are flawed in so many ways, yet in spite of all your faults, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all who ask! Have you asked Him?
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