Luke SIX!!!

Here we are, into the sixth chapter of Luke!

As we've seen already, Jesus is into his ministry now, full speed, and it was exciting getting into this chapter, as I really enjoy reading what Jesus says. Here, he even gets more into full-gear, as he chooses his apostles and starts teaching at a pretty high level, teaching thousands of people at once. Look how far he came in a matter of a few years. He was one who was a kid, talking back to the priests, now he was teaching in front of thousands. In present day's comparison, that's like teaching in a stadium. And in the latter half of the chapter, Jesus said SO many wise things. Here are some that caught my attention.

I'm going to only briefly mention the beginning of the chapter, as the Pharisees were just trying to pick a fight. It seems like his disciples sort of picked off the grains as they were walking along, and the Pharisees made a big deal, saying that they were "harvesting". And another observation I have is that these Pharisees have NO LIVES! They were probably just strolling in the middle of nowhere, en route to their next town that Jesus was going to preach in. And look! The Pharisees were following them everywhere.

Jesus also chose his main disciples in this chapter as well. I was curious as to what the difference between a disciple and an apostle was, so I looked it up, and it said that an apostle is a "chief disciple". So you have to remember that Jesus had more disciples than just the 12, but he also chose his main ones! Reading this, I wanted to be one of those guys as well. I want to be that go-to guy of Jesus, not just the one that is like every other Christian, but someone that leaves a name, a mark, wherever he goes.

I'm going to skip the beatitudes because we talked about that enough in our discipleship classes.

Loving our enemies and treating others with respect! Jesus teaches us to treat our enemies with even MORE love, respect, and kindness. And those three are the three things that we DON'T think towards our enemies when we face them. Kind of intriguing, isn't it? But look what he goes on to say in verses 32-4: "If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good for you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return." It's so true! Reading these verses made me realize that in SO many aspects, I'm no better than a "sinner". In this, a "sinner" is someone that has not accepted Jesus Christ and hasn't got his sins forgiven. Sometimes I feel like I have no differences from the guy sitting next to me on the subway. Or from my classmates. etc. etc. etc.

Let's be DIFFERENT guys. Be the light that shines among the dark! We need to PRACTISE all these things that we learn, and put them into action. Remember that we're not just reading for fun. We are GROWING together. Jesus said, "So why do you keep calling Me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say?" Read verses 46-49 to see what Jesus says about a person who listens to him and practises his words.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention this verse: "What you say flows from what is in your heart." Relating to our praise team motto, "Always Worship", let's remember that we want to worship at all times and we want that to come as a natural reaction of our hearts.


Roh

ps. Read Luke 7 before practice tomorrow!

Ya.. we won't be good at being Christians at first.. but if we keep practicing eventually we'll be good =]