Thursday, July 19, 2007

Luke 7 Today w/ Journalin' too

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God Bless You Today, Lena B


Luke 7
Faith of the Roman Officer

1When Jesus had finished saying all this, he went back to Capernaum. 2Now the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. 3When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish leaders to ask him to come and heal his slave. 4So they earnestly begged Jesus to come with them and help the man. "If anyone deserves your help, it is he," they said, 5"for he loves the Jews and even built a synagogue for us."
6So Jesus went with them. But just before they arrived at the house, the officer sent some friends to say, "Lord, don't trouble yourself by coming to my home, for I am not worthy of such an honor. 7I am not even worthy to come and meet you. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 8I know because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, 'Go,' and they go, or 'Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, 'Do this or that,' they do it."
9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd, he said, "I tell you, I haven't seen faith like this in all the land of Israel!" 10And when the officer's friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed.
Jesus Raises a Widow's Son
11Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, with a great crowd following him. 12A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The boy who had died was the only son of a widow, and many mourners from the village were with her. 13When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. "Don't cry!" he said. 14Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. "Young man," he said, "get up." 15Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk to those around him! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, "A mighty prophet has risen among us," and "We have seen the hand of God at work today." 17The report of what Jesus had done that day spread all over Judea and even out across its borders.
Jesus and John the Baptist
18The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing. So John called for two of his disciples, 19and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, "Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?"
20John's two disciples found Jesus and said to him, "John the Baptist sent us to ask, 'Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?'"
21At that very time, he cured many people of their various diseases, and he cast out evil spirits and restored sight to the blind. 22Then he told John's disciples, "Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. 23And tell him, 'God blesses those who are not offended by me. F32 '"
24After they left, Jesus talked to the crowd about John. "Who is this man in the wilderness that you went out to see? Did you find him weak as a reed, moved by every breath of wind? 25Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people who wear beautiful clothes and live in luxury are found in palaces, not in the wilderness. 26Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. 27John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,
'Look, I am sending my messenger before you,
and he will prepare your way before you.' F33
28I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the most insignificant person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!"
29When they heard this, all the people, including the unjust tax collectors, agreed that God's plan was right, F34 for they had been baptized by John. 30But the Pharisees and experts in religious law had rejected God's plan for them, for they had refused John's baptism.
31"How shall I describe this generation?" Jesus asked. "With what will I compare them? 32They are like a group of children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, 'We played wedding songs, and you weren't happy, so we played funeral songs, but you weren't sad.' 33For John the Baptist didn't drink wine and he often fasted, and you say, 'He's demon possessed.' 34And I, the Son of Man, feast and drink, and you say, 'He's a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of the worst sort of sinners!' 35But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it. F35 "
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman
36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for a meal, so Jesus accepted the invitation and sat down to eat. 37A certain immoral woman heard he was there and brought a beautiful jar F36 filled with expensive perfume. 38Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
39When the Pharisee who was the host saw what was happening and who the woman was, he said to himself, "This proves that Jesus is no prophet. If God had really sent him, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She's a sinner!"
40Then Jesus spoke up and answered his thoughts. "Simon," he said to the Pharisee, "I have something to say to you." "All right, Teacher," Simon replied, "go ahead."
41Then Jesus told him this story: "A man loaned money to two people—five hundred pieces of silver F37 to one and fifty pieces to the other. 42But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?"
43Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt." "That's right," Jesus said. 44Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn't offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You didn't give me a kiss of greeting, but she has kissed my feet again and again from the time I first came in. 46You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." 48Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven."
49The men at the table said among themselves, "Who does this man think he is, going around forgiving sins?"
50And Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
FOOTNOTES:
F32: Or who don't fall away because of me.
F33: Mal 3:1.
F34: Or praised God.
F35: Or But wisdom is justified by all her children.
F36: Greek an alabaster jar.
F37: Greek 500 denarii. A denarius was the equivalent of a full day's wage.
Lena’s Journalin’
The LORD, Creator of the entire universe is God, God is orderly. He ordered all of creation, and to this day it operates under the principles set up by His words.
To understand authority and position is to know the ways of the Universe that God set in order.
There is relational and positional authority
Relational authority is found in families or in even the honoring of friends. Positional authority is found in governments of all kinds, whether church, on the job, or in communities.
Knowing and operating in order and authority and honoring God by willingly recognizing and honoring what He Himself sets up sits well with Him. The person who recognizes authority and submits himself positionally inside of its order, has a sense of the Father. When we respect and operate in either relational or positional authority, we are truly engaged in kingdom order.
Seeing the supernatural power of God unleashed in our natural world is many times merely a matter of setting things back in the order designed by God. Kind of like a back thrown out of alignment, to relieve the pain happens when the spine gets adjusted rightly. It may initially hurt to make the adjustment, but once back in line the pain is relieved long term, as long as the alignment is maintained. (think about that- staying in right order being the answer to life’s pain relief) The pain was actually an alarm or alret system set up by God to tell us we’re out of relational or positional alignments.
We were ordered by God to be healthy and well in mind and spirit, relationally whole, etc. Our submissiveness to authority and position many a time brings the adjustment needed to see the manifestation of God.
Rebellion brought tragedy to the order of the earth set up by God. Obedience sets it right. Reversing the curse.
The tragedy is human kind has been lied to by their enemy, who tell them they’d know God or feel His true love if he’d just let us go ahead and stay out of order and have blessings anyway. The enemy does not want us to embrace responsible living, which willingly gets back in line and sets thing right. He tell us through voices in our culture and peer pressure that God loves us like we are and we don’t need to come under authority or rule, he wants us to think it’s ok to go on as though they we could be set right without doing anything obediently. He sets it up as some kind of test of God’s love towards us and then causes the person who listens to this lieu to end up angry at God or hating Him altogether. This lie is set up as a detriment to our society coming to Christ and giving all up to His will in loving service as kingdom of God on earth citizens.
God does not operate this way, neither does He honor or bless disobedience unchanged. We’ve thought that the word supernatural means, I stay as I’ve been, and get blessed anyway. Not so, the miracle is that I move and change and get in order, then the blessings just flow. I have unkinked the hose of blessing by my movement into Divine Order.
This human officer told Jesus that what he says his servants do. Why would that happen with a mere man, and Jesus or God have a struggle with men doing what They say?
Jesus marveled that people would just do what a man says! That a man would understand if one obeys what God says, what they need would just frankly happen!
Speak the word only and my servant will be healed!
How much do we believe that a word from God spoken over us will do the “trick”?
We are living with what we do believe.
How about words like, “children obey your (spiritual and natural) parents in the Lord”?
How about, “Love God with all you are and have, and love others just the same as you’d like to be loved by others”?
Obedience to words such as these is a powerful way to release healing and the supernatural power of God in the earth!It IS THE way.
How about: “don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together? Stay away form every appearance of evil? Love your neighbor and do good to him? Be kind, patient, humble, slow to anger….?”
All the words of God are full of the offers for supernatural release of God’s power into the earth. When we obey them, it is like plugging a cord into a socket of a wall. Voila - POWER! Humans make a connection to God through our response of obedience, because of our faith, in His words.
Prove God in this, obey and watch. It says all were amazed, when they returned to the house, the slave was completely healed. It is time for amazement to fill our homes as we each choose God’s ways to obey.
Compassion is NOT at all the same as sympathy. Compassion leads one with the answers to make a change, or help a person make decisions that will make the change.
Sympathy, on the other hand, will pet us where we are at, saying oh how sad that you are in this spot, I wish I could help you not be in pain in this state. (That “says”, I so wish you could have your cake and eat it too.)
There is a big fleshly reason based lie out there – It speaks to the human mind and says I’d know that God really loved me because I’d be able to stay as I am and still be blessed without being required to be responsible and make major repentant changes. If God chooses me as special it would be proven to me, because He’d intervene and make my situation better.
That is not the truth of God’s word, for He has already given us all we need to make decisions and changes that will make our situations better! He gave us His word and wisdom to do it, and is waiting for us to engage, plug in, and obey it wholeheartedly, setting in motion a whole world of supernatural order and power!
Compassion does not allow us to believe in lies, it tells truth, embraces truth, even to one’s own “hurt”(“hurt” meaning the pain of the need of responsibility and change.)
Compassion moves flesh out of the way in order to implement the needed change. Sometimes it is critical enough to not seem very caring, yet that too is lie for it cares much more than one could ever know. It cares eternally, where it truly matters. Feelings pass away in moments, life is for eternity. Jesus said to the lady who lost her son, “Don’t cry!” To some that was an uncaring position, yet He cared enough to shut down the emotions and make the change!
Can I ask a very strong probably controversial question?
Do you mostly choose sympathy or compassion? What about for your own life first? Staying the same and wanting that blessing and a fleshly feeling of love or having a willingness to be responsible to God and change, even if radical is the word for you?
That wasn’t even the strong question yet. Here it is:
Are you someone’s redeemer, savior, and true friend? Is someone counting on your own obedience to God, so that your anointing would increase and flow out onto their lives? Does the earth groan over your life awaiting the manifestation of the engaged plugged in sons of obedience and blessing?
Do you know what humility really means? I believe God at His word, and so I do it.
Pride might excuse its self from obedient actions. It sort of says, “I’m exempt and have some kind of liberty to do it that way I think is good.” That’s false humility.
Sample, if God says I can do what He has told me to do, like to preach boldly to captives, and my response after I hear it is- I say to the Lord, “Oh You don’t mean me”; then I’m operating in pride.
Some might think I’m humble, because I’m shy, but humble and shy are not the same, shyness is pride, because it won’t do what God has said to do, It hides instead and excuses itself, exalting itself above the command of God. It says I’m ok to not obey Him, because I can stay as I am, instead of trusting Him to cover my backside and just not look at my own shortcomings and overcome, because I know Him who loves me and gave His own life for me.
Humility says, If He says I can do it, then here I am Lord, to do Your will anyway You want me to.
Shy or not shy doesn’t play into a spirit led walk. I submit to change and become who you want me to be. (Yes, God loves us in who we are, the question is how much do we love Him back? Enough to change?)
I love the woman with the alabaster box. She is a woman of faith. She risked her own reputation, which was not good to begin with, she risked being rejected in who she was, and presented herself before God anyway. She gave everything before she even knew He’d do that for her. She recognized her life was not in order and she set out for change, just in case it could possibly happen for, and to, her.
It can happen to anf or us too, IF we choose it Today.