Tag Archives: parables

Try a little integrity (Luke 20:9-17) December 26, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Deuteronomy 29-31

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 20:9-17
Jesus: A man planted a vineyard. He rented it to tenants and went for a long trip to another country. At the harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants so he could be paid his share of the vineyard’s fruit, but the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. The man sent another servant, and they beat him and treated him disgracefully and sent him away empty-handed too. He sent a third servant who was injured and thrown out. Then the vineyard owner said, “Now what am I going to do? I’ll send my much-loved son. They should treat him with respect.”
But when the tenants recognized the owner’s son, they said, “Here’s our chance to actually own this vineyard! Let’s kill the owner’s heir so we can claim this place as our own!” So they threw him out of the vineyard and murdered him. What do you think the owner will do to these scoundrels?
I’ll tell you what he’ll do; he’ll come and wipe those tenants out, and he’ll give the vineyard to others.
Crowd: No! God forbid that this should happen!
Jesus: Why then do the Hebrew Scriptures contain these words:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone
that holds together the entire foundation?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

When I read these words today, my immediate thoughts took me back a few years to the many riots around the world in which hundreds of people took to the streets in protest of what they felt were injustices by governments, organizations, or individuals and just destroyed neighborhoods. You probably remember the pictures on the news. Cars turned over and burning. Windows in stores smashed. Looters carrying televisions and stereos out of those stores at will. Police standing in lines with shields to protect themselves from rocks and bricks tossed by the rioters.

The violence within the protests was incredible in many of those events. I even remember it happening on occasion when sports teams won pennants or Super Bowls or championships. How crazy do people have to get to thick it’s okay to destroy someone else’s property? When is that ever okay? When is it ever okay to just take what someone else has worked for and paid for? When is it ever okay to steal?

Just last week in my community we had a report in our neighborhood website to be on the lookout for a fairly non-descript white pickup roaming around the area. I live in a gated community, but like I’ve seen many do from time to time, the truck apparently tailgated a resident through the gate to gain entrance. Then the driver scoped out the area and just started loading up the outside Christmas decorations into his truck until his truck was full and left.

Somehow the tenants in the field in Jesus story and the looters and rioters and the many thieves we deal with today have twisted their minds into thinking everything belongs to everyone and so it’s okay to just take what they want. So what if what they take is something precious to the person who owns it? So what if they destroy property to get it? So what if they injure or kill in the process of getting the items they covet? They want it and they will have it regardless the cost.

I like the way my late father-in-law raised his kids. Many times they would go to the store with him when they were growing up. He would sometimes wait until he was out of the store or in his car before he checked to see if he got the right change. Of course, back in those days, the cash registers didn’t tell you how much change you were getting, you figured it out. You had to actually do addition and subtraction. But if he got even two cents too much change, he would go back to the cashier and return the money with the explanation to his girls that he would rather spend the extra time to give the money back than spend eternity in hell. He was not going to steal from the store.

His integrity in the small things bled over into the big things of life also. He was an incredible man of integrity and he passed that trait on to his children. Honesty is probably the most important characteristic each of them looked for in a spouse as they were beginning to date. I suppose I met the test with my wife of 40 years.

We don’t see that kind of integrity much anymore. Our political leaders certainly don’t show it and demonstrated by their recent campaigning. Our bosses often don’t show it in the way they operate their businesses with the bottom line being the most important thing about the business. Even close friends often lose that spot because they just fail to be honest with us in some of the important issues of life. But honesty and integrity are critical to God. It’s one of those commandments He told us not to break, remember? Stealing. Lying. Murder. Coveting. Adultery. They all rank right up there and they all start with the thought, “I want what I want and I don’t care about anyone else.” Don’t be like those tenants. Try a little integrity.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Be generous, helpful, and kind (Luke 16:1-13) December 9, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Revelation 7-11

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

16:1-13
Jesus: Once there was a rich and powerful man who had an asset manager. One day, the man received word that his asset manager was squandering his assets.
The rich man brought in the asset manager and said, “You’ve been accused of wrongdoing. I want a full and accurate accounting of all your financial transactions because you are really close to being fired.”The manager said to himself, “Oh, no! Now what am I going to do? I’m going to lose my job here, and I’m too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg. I have an idea. This plan will mean that I have a lot of hospitable friends when I get fired.”
So the asset manager set up appointments with each person who owed his master money. He said to the first debtor, “How much do you owe my boss?” The debtor replied, “A hundred barrels of oil.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your bill by half. Just write 50 on this contract.” Then he said to the second debtor, “How much do you owe?” This fellow said, “A hundred bales of wheat.” The manager said, “I’m discounting your debt by 20 percent. Just write down 80 bales on this contract.”
When the manager’s boss realized what he had done, he congratulated him for at least being clever. That’s how it is: those attuned to this evil age are more clever in dealing with their affairs than the enlightened are in dealing with their affairs!
Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually money will be useless to you—but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination.
If you’re faithful in small-scale matters, you’ll be faithful with far bigger responsibilities. If you’re crooked in small responsibilities, you’ll be no different in bigger things. If you can’t even handle a small thing like money, who’s going to entrust you with spiritual riches that really matter? If you don’t manage well someone else’s assets that are entrusted to you, who’s going to give over to you important spiritual and personal relationships to manage?
Imagine you’re a servant and you have two masters giving you orders. What are you going to do when they have conflicting demands? You can’t serve both, so you’ll either hate the first and love the second, or you’ll faithfully serve the first and despise the second. One master is God and the other is money. You can’t serve them both.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Did you get that lesson about the purpose of money? We really blow it these days. We think the purpose of money is to get more stuff for us. We think it is to make us more comfortable or make us look more important or ensure our future. But Jesus didn’t mention any of those things when He talked about the purpose of money as He discussed this parable with those around Him, did He? “The purpose of money,” He said, “is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind.”

That is a far cry from what the world tells us to do with our money, isn’t it? Financial managers will tell us to hoard it away. Make sure you multiply it so you don’t run out. Don’t give too much of it away because then you won’t have it. The world says use it for your personal gain. That’s how you get ahead in this world.

Jesus’ advice and the world’s advice are rather contradictory to each other, aren’t they? But who should we listen to? If God made the world and He will be the final judge of our actions at the end of time, doesn’t it make sense to pay attention to His rules instead of the world’s rules? Doesn’t it make sense to take God’s advice since He’s the one we will face someday?

Even if you don’t believe there is a heaven and hell, being generous and kind doesn’t do any harm to you or anyone else. And if you are right, you have done good things for others all your life. You have been good and kind and generous and helped others along life’s path. But if you’re wrong and you fail to give to others, hoard everything you make, push aside others and fail to help others along life’s path, what will you say to God when you face Him at the judgment?

If you don’t believe, you still might not make it across the threshold into heaven, but I’m not God, thank goodness, and I don’t know how He will judge at the end of time. Perhaps ignorance of Him will be weighed against good things you have done or failure to do those good things. Perhaps generosity and kindness will have something to do with the intensity of punishment received. I have to tell you I don’t know how all that will work. The Bible doesn’t tell us. But one thing for sure, Jesus’ words about the use of money point us again and again to using it to help others not ourselves. Being generous and helpful and kind with the assets God entrusts to us. So we’d best get on with those duties, don’t you think.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Learn the lessons (Luke 11:5-8) November 1, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – 2 Chronicles 29-32

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 11:5-8
Jesus: Imagine that one of your friends comes over at midnight. He bangs on the door and shouts, “Friend, will you lend me three loaves of bread? A friend of mine just showed up unexpectedly from a journey, and I don’t have anything to feed him.” Would you shout out from your bed, “I’m already in bed, and so are the kids. I already locked the door. I can’t be bothered”? You know this as well as I do: even if you didn’t care that this fellow was your friend, if he keeps knocking long enough, you’ll get up and give him whatever he needs simply because of his brash persistence!

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Well, today the scenario might end a little different. Today, we would call the police and tell them about someone trying to break and enter and have them arrested, friend or not. If they bothered us at midnight we wouldn’t care who they were, we’d just call the cops and that would be it, right? Or maybe we would wait just a little while until they were loud enough to be heard by one of the other neighbors and then invoke the “castle law” and pull out a 12-gauge and end the conversation.

We’re not nearly as hospitable in this country as the middle easterners were in Jesus day. No one wanted to get up in the middle of the night and have their sleep disturbed, but their rules of hospitality led them to get up and help sometimes even when they didn’t feel like it. A lot of people then would have put off the neighbor until morning, asking them to make do until they the city woke up. Then they would be happen to not only provide the bread, but would probably invite them over for a whole meal.

That’s the way of these hospitable people. Their society was much more friendly than ours. Actually, it still is. We hear a lot about ISIS and the radical side of the Muslims that want to kill us, but the typical middle easterner is much more hospitable than the typical American. There, expect to be invited into their home for tea often. It’s just their way. Here, if you’re invite for coffee or tea at all, it will be at Starbucks or some local coffee shop, not in their home. We just don’t make people feel welcome. We say we do, but we don’t.

So what does all of that have to do with Jesus’ words today? Two things. First, we should recognize sometimes we don’t understand His words the same way those He spoke to originally did. They lived that middle eastern hospitality every day. They would have taken the story a little more to heart than we do because sometimes travelers did get stuck on the road later than expected and just dropped in unexpectedly, but their rules of hospitality said you took them in and fed them. The neighbor had to get some bread from somewhere and hoped his friend would provide it. We don’t understand it as well as they did, but we can put ourselves in their culture and understand the parable better.

One of the lessons learned from this and many other stories Jesus tells reminds us we can experience His lessons better when we know more about the culture of those to whom Jesus spoke. It isn’t hard to find out what it was like for the people in first century Judea, but you do need to study a little. Isn’t it worth a little study to get more out of God’s word? I certainly think so.

Second, the simple message of the parable is two fold. The man could never have gotten the three loaves of bread in the middle of the night unless he went next door and asked in the first place. So first, we need to ask God for what we need. He knows what we need, but we need to ask so that we know it is God who provides. It helps us remember that God is the one who gives us what we need day by day. Second, we need to be persistent in our asking when we are asking for something. Sometimes we figure out the thing we are asking for is not in our best interest when we keep on asking and God doesn’t answer the way we want Him to. Sometimes God needs us to mature our thinking about an issue and delays an answer so that we can be better prepared when the answer comes. Sometimes God is working on solutions behind the scenes and wants to work His miracles through other means that what we might think is the most obvious way to answer our prayer. In all these instances, He asks us to be persistent in our asking.

So now, go out and do some study about the culture of Jesus day. Read His parables again and learn the lessons even better than you did before. You’ll be glad you did.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Just help! (Luke 10:30-37) October 29, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Acts 11-12

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 10:30-37
Jesus: This fellow was traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho when some robbers mugged him. They took his clothes, beat him to a pulp, and left him naked and bleeding and in critical condition. By chance, a priest was going down that same road, and when he saw the wounded man, he crossed over to the other side and passed by. Then a Levite who was on his way to assist in the temple also came and saw the victim lying there, and he too kept his distance. Then a despised Samaritan journeyed by. When he saw the fellow, he felt compassion for him. The Samaritan went over to him, stopped the bleeding, applied some first aid, and put the poor fellow on his donkey. He brought the man to an inn and cared for him through the night.
The next day, the Samaritan took out some money—two days’ wages to be exact—and paid the innkeeper, saying, “Please take care of this fellow, and if this isn’t enough, I’ll repay you next time I pass through.”
Which of these three proved himself a neighbor to the man who had been mugged by the robbers?
Scholar: The one who showed mercy to him.
Jesus: Well then, go and behave like that Samaritan.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We don’t have to hear the story of the good Samaritan to know there are a lot of people like the priest and Levite in our world today. Think about all the stories you hear today about people being beaten, raped, or killed in the streets of our cities. And what do people do? They used to close their doors and windows and pretend nothing was going on. Police would canvas the neighborhood to see if anyone heard or saw anything and the answers were pretty much alike.

“No, officer. I had the TV on pretty loud, I guess. I didn’t hear anything. Did something happen out there? This is usually a pretty quiet neighborhood. I can’t believe someone would get hurt around here.”

“No, officer. I guess I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. You could drop and bomb next to me and I wouldn’t wake up. Sorry I can’t help you.”

That’s what we used to do when someone needed help. What do we do now? Pull out our cell phone and take video. Maybe we can get it on the news or send it to our friends and make it go viral. But help the person?

“No way am I getting involved in that. I might have to go to court or something. That might tie up my time for hours. I can’t do that. Besides, it might just be a family squabble. I’ll just take my video and maybe get rich on it or at least have something to text my friends about on Facebook when I get to work today. That will make the day go a little faster since I’m sure I’ll get to answer a lot of Facebook comments instead of dealing with all that office paperwork anyway.”

Yeah, we’ve become the priest and the Levite. We ignore people in trouble that need our help. We don’t even help the people on the corner that ask for assistance. They are their because they want to be, not because they have to be, right? It’s their own fault. Why don’t they just get a job instead of panhandling. Besides if I try to help them, they’ll just go spend anything I give them on booze so I’m really helping by not helping, right?

Yep, we have some great arguments with ourselves to keep from doing the right thing for people. I’m not saying we should give money to every homeless person on the street. I believe it is better to teach a person to fish than to give them a fish and that gets hard when we live in a society that loves to focus on giving material things instead of getting our hands dirty really helping people solve the real issues in their lives.

Is it hard? Absolutely. Does it take time and effort? More than you can imagine. Just look at what the Samaritan did. It would have taken him 30 seconds to pass by the bruised and broken man. The Bible doesn’t tell us how long he spent with the man, but I’ve tended to some folks who were broken up pretty badly and helped get them ready for transport to a hospital for better care. Just to get them ready to transport so they don’t receive further injuries while moving means you have to assess the injuries and see what must be fixed immediately to keep them from dying. You have to make sure they have a clear airway. You have to stop the bleeding. You must gently stabilize broken bones. You must find a way to move them since they can’t move under their own power. And that movement has to be such that they don’t sustain more injuries. The Samaritan did all those things knowing the bandits who did this might still be in the area. Then took the man to an inn, cared for him through the night, and paid the bill for the innkeeper to care for him until he was well enough to leave.

Was the Samaritan just looking for something to do? I don’t think so. I expect there were people at the end of his journey worried that night when he didn’t show up. I expect he lost some business that day because he helped someone in need.

Was it worth it? Ask Jesus?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Heaven is a net (Matthew 13:47-51) March 31, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 25-26

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:47-51
Jesus: Or think of it this way: the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, a net that caught a world of flickering fish. When the net was full, the fishermen hauled it to shore. They separated the good fish from the bad, placing the good fish in a bucket and throwing out the inedible fish. That is what the end of time will be like. The heavenly messengers will separate the good from the bad, the righteous from the wicked, the repentant from the prideful, the faithful from the hard-hearted. The bad, the wicked, the prideful, and the hard-hearted will be thrown into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
Do you understand?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

I’ve never been fishing with nets. I’ve watched a few documentaries about fishing, though. And it seems no matter how good the technology today that helps fishermen find those swarms of fish for their catch, they invariably get nets full of all kinds of fish. If they trawl for tuna, they get a lot of other fish besides tuna. If they are fishing for salmon, there’s a lot more than salmon in their nets. You see, nets are pretty indiscriminate about what gets caught. It just scoops up anything too big to get through the holes between the threads.

It seems to me, when I watch those documentaries, they haul everything out of the sea, pull a release and all the fish come tumbling out on the deck. Then most of the fish go down in the hold of the ship. The fisherman take only enough time to sort out a few of the fish while on deck. Most of them just follow the rest into the huge holding tank in the bottom of the ship.

Of course, today’s fishing boats, unlike those in Jesus’ day, are almost factories on the ocean, doing a lot of the processing while at sea. Part of the crew will start filter the fish as they move through something of a water conveyor into a processing room where the fish are gutted and either preserved for selling, or cut up and used for bait for the next cast. Before the nets are thrown again, the bait goes overboard to attract the fish for the next haul.

In Jesus’ day and still in some parts of the world today, men wade out knee or waste deep and cast their nets into the sea, pull in whatever their nets capture and haul all of the catch onto shore. Once on shore, everything is hauled up away from the water and the fishermen sort out their catch. Of course, by the time all this is done, the fish have been out of the water too long to survive, so they are either sold as edible fish in the markets or thrown away. Go to those more primitive fishing villages and you’ll always find the smell of rotting fish along the shore where those fishermen cast their nets and sort their catch.

And so Jesus uses this familiar scene as He talks to those around Him about heaven. Judgment day will come. God will call and end to time and send His messengers to scoop up everyone who ever lived. No one will escape that harvest of souls. Everyone will be present for that final reckoning. All of us will give an account for the lives we lived. And His messengers will sort the good from the bad, the righteous from the wicked, the repentant from the prideful, the faithful from the hard-hearted.

How will His messengers know the difference? God stands in judgment and sees our hearts. As He gives directions, His messengers carry them out. There are no mistakes because God knows everything and sees everything. He knows those who harbor sin in their hearts and those whose sins have been covered by the blood of His Son’s sacrifice because they have come to Him in repentance. He knows our intent, or motive, or thoughts. He knows everything about us. There will be no errors in His sorting process.

The results from that sorting process should be a little scary for those whose hearts are not right with God. Jesus says they will be cast into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Doesn’t sound like a pleasant place to me. Many discount Jesus’ descriptions of hell and assume there is no hell. But Jesus talks a lot more about hell than He does about heaven. Why would He do that if it wasn’t real? I doubt if He’s just trying to scare us. That doesn’t sound like God. I think He continually tries to warn us. He doesn’t want us to go there, but He still gives us the choice.

Why would anyone choose to go there? But they do. Because when you don’t choose heaven, you choose hell. There is no other place. Jesus only talks about two places. You have your choice, but there are only two to pick from. Pick the right one.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Watch truth unfold (Matthew 13:1-23), November 22, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Matthew 13:1-23

Set – Matthew 12-13

Go! – Matthew 11-13

Matthew 13:1-23
1 That same day, Jesus left the house and went to sit by the sea. 2 Large crowds gathered around Him, and He got into a boat on the sea and sat there. The crowd stood on the shore waiting for His teaching.
3 And so Jesus began to teach. On this day, He spoke in parables. Here is His first parable:
Jesus: Once there was a sower who scattered seeds. 4 One day he walked in a field scattering seeds as he went. Some seeds fell beside a road, and a flock of birds came and ate all those seeds. 5 So the sower scattered seeds in a field, one with shallow soil and strewn with rocks. But the seeds grew quickly amid all the rocks, 6 without rooting themselves in the shallow soil. Their roots got tangled up in all the stones. The sun scorched these seeds, and they died. 7 And so the sower scattered seeds near a path, this one covered with thorny vines. The seeds fared no better there—the thorns choked them, and they died. 8 And so finally the sower scattered his seeds in a patch of good earth. At home in the good earth, the seeds grew and grew. Eventually the seeds bore fruit, and the fruit grew ripe and was harvested. The harvest was immense—30, 60, 100 times what was sown.
9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Disciples: 10 Why do You speak to the people in parables?
Jesus: 11 The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been given to you, but it has not been given to them. 12 Those who have something will be given more—and they will have abundance. Those who have nothing will lose what they have—they will be destitute. 13 I teach in parables so the people may look but not see, listen but not hear or understand. 14 They are fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy:
You will listen, but you will not understand;
you will look, but you will not see.
15 The people’s hearts have turned to flab;
their ears are clogged;
their eyes are shut.
They will try to see, but they will not see;
they will try to hear, but they will not hear;
they will try to understand, but they will not comprehend.
If they, with their blindness and deafness, so choose, then I will heal them.
16-17 Many holy prophets and righteous men and women and people of prayer and doers of good have wanted to see but did not see, and have wanted to hear but did not hear. Your eyes and ears are blessed.
18 This is what the parable of the sower means. 19 It is about the kingdom of heaven. When someone hears the story of the Kingdom and cannot understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away whatever goodness and holiness had been sown in the heart. This is like the seeds sown beside the road. 20-21 You know people who hear the word of God and receive it joyfully—but then, somehow, the word fails to take root in their hearts. It is temporary. As soon as there is trouble for those people, they trip: those people are the seeds strewn on the rocky soil. 22 And you know people who hear the word, but it is choked inside them because they constantly worry and prefer the wealth and pleasures of the world: they prefer drunken dinner parties to prayer, power to piety, and riches to righteousness. Those people are like the seeds sown among thorns. 23 The people who hear the word and receive it and grow in it—those are like the seeds sown on good soil. They produce a bumper crop, 30 or 60 or 100 times what was sown.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Do I hide knowledge from you? Why would I tell My disciples about Isaiah’s prophecy that “though seeing, they will not see; though hearing, they will hear; though understanding, they will not comprehend”? Do you think I hide knowledge from you?

No. But Satan often pulls a veil over your eyes so that the truth seems camoflagued. The lies you’ve heard for so long cause you not to see the truth right in front of you. It’s like looking for the hidden face in a picture. It’s not really hidden at all and once you see it, you can’t help be see it every time you look at the picture. In fact, it’s the first thing you see when you look at the picture.

When you to come to Me in faith, I can open your eyes to the truth. Sometimes your prejudices, your past, your own experiences get in the way of the truth. As Isaiah says, you can see the truth right in front of you, but not see it, like camoflague. But once you let My Spirit in you open your eyes, you can see it clearly. I give you new eyes. I transform your mind. I let you see the way I see. Truth opens up to you and you begin to understand as never before.

Exercise your faith in Me and see if truth doesn’t unfold in front of you.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Advantage – now! (Acts 4:1-20), October 29, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Mark 4:1-20

Set – Job 20; Mark 4

Go! – Job 20; Mark 3-4

Mark 4:1-20
1-2 Jesus went out again to teach by the Sea of Galilee. When the crowd became unmanageable, He climbed aboard a boat and sat down to teach the people listening on the shore by telling them parables. One of His teachings went like this:
Jesus: 3 Listen! A farmer went out and sowed his seed. 4 As he scattered it, one seed fell along the hardened path, and a bird flapped down and snapped it up. 5 One seed fell onto rocky places where the soil was thin, so it sprang up quickly. 6 But when the hot sun scorched the fragile stems and leaves, the seedling withered because its roots didn’t go deep in the soil. 7 One of the seeds fell among the weeds and thorns, which crowded the seedling out of producing a crop. 8 And the rest of the seeds fell in good, rich soil. When they sprouted, the plants grew and produced a crop 30, 60, even 100 times larger than expected for every seed that the farmer had sown.
9 All who have ears to hear, let them listen.
10 When they were alone, the twelve and others close to Him asked why He always taught in parables instead of explaining His teachings clearly.
Jesus: 11 God has let you in on the inside story regarding the workings of the Kingdom—the hidden meanings. But the crowds—I teach them in parables 12 as the prophet Isaiah predicted,
So that when they look, they see and yet do not understand.
When they hear, they listen and yet do not comprehend.
Otherwise, they might really turn and be forgiven.
13 Do you mean to say that you didn’t understand My parable of the sower? That was the key parable. If you don’t see what I was trying to teach there, how will you be able to understand any of the others?
14 The seed the farmer is sowing is the good news, God’s word. 15 Some people are the seed thrown onto the path, and the tempter snaps up the word before it can even take root. 16 Others are the seed thrown among the rocks. Those people hear the word and receive it immediately with joy and enthusiasm; 17 but without deep roots, doubt, trouble, or persecution instantly withers their faith. 18 Still others are the seed tossed among weeds and brambles. The word has reached them, 19 but the things of this life—the worries, the drive for more and more, the desire for other things—those things cluster around close and choke the life of God out of them until they cannot produce. 20 But those last seeds—those sown into good soil? Those people hear the word, accept it, meditate on it, act on it, and bear fruit—a crop 30, 60, or 100 times larger than the farmer dropped to earth.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

A lot of people will tell you that if they heard Me face to face they would believe, but they wouldn’t. You have a significant advantage over those who listened to Me on the hillsides of Judea. You have 2000 years of people who have interpreted My parables, lived the life I showed My apostles and disciples, and gave witness to the truth of the things I said.

The people of the land heard My words for the first time. My preaching was radical. I told them things that turned the religious thought of the day upsidedown. Many didn’t like the rules and regulations of the religious leaders of the day. They didn’t care for the mixed authorities of Jerusalem and Rome. Many weren’t sure which was worse, the dictates of the Temple or those of the Emperor. So, when I began to preach a message of love God and your neighbor and everything else would fall into place, it was a message they longed to hear. Yet it confused many and they didn’t understand what it meant.

Others thought I came to overthrow the bonds of the Roman oppression and final bring back the political freedom the nation longed for. Israel hadn’t enjoyed real political freedom since the Assyrians started collecting tribute. That was five centuries earlier. They were ready for freedom and longed to revolt against the tyrannical rule of the Romans.

The priests certainly were confused. They were happy with the arrangements they had with their priestly lineage and didn’t see someone from David’s line taking over their scholarly role of teaching others how they should live under the law of Moses. But there I was sharing with the people what the laws really meant. How hatred was the seed of murder. How lust sparked adultry. How carefully setting aside a tenth to give to the Temple didn’t mean anything to the Father when you let your father and mother starve.

I brought the reality and revelation of the law to the people and they didn’t know how to handle it. You benefit from the many letters my disciples wrote to the early churches, the commentaries and studies available today. You have no excuse for not listening to My instructions and following Me.

So now that your excuses are gone for wanting first-century experiences, how about getting into My word and learning about Me. Really let yourself go and let Me take control of your life. That’s what My word demands. Die to self and be born anew in Me. You won’t be sorry if you do. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What kind of seed are you? (Matthew 13:1-23), Apr 26, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Matthew 13:1-23
Set – 2 Samuel 1; Matthew 13
Go! – 2 Samuel 1; Psalms 140; Matthew 13

Matthew 13:1-23
1 That same day, Jesus left the house and went to sit by the sea. 2 Large crowds gathered around Him, and He got into a boat on the sea and sat there. The crowd stood on the shore waiting for His teaching.

3 And so Jesus began to teach. On this day, He spoke in parables. Here is His first parable:

Jesus: Once there was a sower who scattered seeds. 4 One day he walked in a field scattering seeds as he went. Some seeds fell beside a road, and a flock of birds came and ate all those seeds. 5 So the sower scattered seeds in a field, one with shallow soil and strewn with rocks. But the seeds grew quickly amid all the rocks, 6 without rooting themselves in the shallow soil. Their roots got tangled up in all the stones. The sun scorched these seeds, and they died. 7 And so the sower scattered seeds near a path, this one covered with thorny vines. The seeds fared no better there—the thorns choked them, and they died. 8 And so finally the sower scattered his seeds in a patch of good earth. At home in the good earth, the seeds grew and grew. Eventually the seeds bore fruit, and the fruit grew ripe and was harvested. The harvest was immense—30, 60, 100 times what was sown.

9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Disciples: 10 Why do You speak to the people in parables?

Jesus: 11 The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been given to you, but it has not been given to them. 12 Those who have something will be given more—and they will have abundance. Those who have nothing will lose what they have—they will be destitute. 13 I teach in parables so the people may look but not see, listen but not hear or understand. 14 They are fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy:

You will listen, but you will not understand;
you will look, but you will not see.
15 The people’s hearts have turned to flab;
their ears are clogged;
their eyes are shut.
They will try to see, but they will not see;
they will try to hear, but they will not hear;
they will try to understand, but they will not comprehend.
If they, with their blindness and deafness, so choose, then I will heal them.
16-17 Many holy prophets and righteous men and women and people of prayer and doers of good have wanted to see but did not see, and have wanted to hear but did not hear. Your eyes and ears are blessed.

18 This is what the parable of the sower means. 19 It is about the kingdom of heaven. When someone hears the story of the Kingdom and cannot understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away whatever goodness and holiness had been sown in the heart. This is like the seeds sown beside the road. 20-21 You know people who hear the word of God and receive it joyfully—but then, somehow, the word fails to take root in their hearts. It is temporary. As soon as there is trouble for those people, they trip: those people are the seeds strewn on the rocky soil. 22 And you know people who hear the word, but it is choked inside them because they constantly worry and prefer the wealth and pleasures of the world: they prefer drunken dinner parties to prayer, power to piety, and riches to righteousness. Those people are like the seeds sown among thorns. 23 The people who hear the word and receive it and grow in it—those are like the seeds sown on good soil. They produce a bumper crop, 30 or 60 or 100 times what was sown.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I’m sure you’ve met each of the types of people described in the parable. The question is which one are you? And the deeper question is can you change if you don’t like the answer to the first question. If you’re one of those who let the evil one snatch away any goodness that has been sown in your heart, there is still hope for you. I can change you if you let Me.

If you are one of those up and down Christians that fail to let My word take root in your heart and you trip and fall as soon as trouble comes, I can help you. If you take pleasure in the world’s riches instead of the riches I can give you through prayer, piety, and righteousness, I can help you. I won’t do all the work, but I can help you.

I want your commitment to follow Me. I want you to love Me more than you love the world. I want you to trust Me with yourself. I want you to follow the path that I lay out in front of you. I promise I will go with you on that journey and I promise you will not be disappointed. The harvest you reap will astound you.

How do you start on that journey? Recognize that you need My help. Ask Me to forgive your past and live in you. Then listen to My voice and do what I ask of you. Don’t worry about tomorrow, just obey My commands for the next few minutes. You can do that. Then when you’ve done that, pledge to commit the next few minutes. Then the next and the next. Live one moment at a time and you’ll make it through the journey with Me. I will never leave you or forsake you. Just follow Me and see what happens.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.