Luke 19 - Devotions

OMG so much stuff to study for exams

Today, the passage that stuck out to me the most is "The triumphal entry". The passage mentions how the Pharisees in the crowd were unable to tell and recognize that Jesus' arrival was no different than God coming to them. In the same way, I think a lot of people in the world fail to see and recognize God for who he is and what he has done. For example, if people just took the time to sit down adn reflect upon creation, they might be able to realize that there has to be a God! In addition, even Christians along with everyone else often take things for granted and always want more, unaware of the fact that what we currently have might be enough. We often forget how thankful we should be to have a roof over our heads, water to drink, food to eat and so much more. God's presence is also often forgotten, thus I think prayer and doing devotions like this really allows us to both stay in touch with God and it also allows us to remind ourselves that we serve a mightly and glorious God! AMEN!

Hey guys, law exam tommorow than I'm done!
I know you guys are studying hard and will survive it! Especially those gr12s- you can do it!

When reading this passage the thing that stuck in my head was the people saying Jesus was going to dine with a sinner. It angers me when people accuse others of wrong when we are all sinners. Anyways Zacchaeus counter attacks their statment with an act of generosity and justifies his past deeds of cheating. Not only does he compensate anyone of any wrong they have felt but Jesus sees the good in him. I find that instead of being the one who points out someone's sin we should point out their goodness- in that we would encourage more good to come from them which would result in a strong relationship with God.

later days

Verse 10.
I like how it says the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. Shouldn't it be the other way around? This shows that God's love is everlasting and is never dented. Although we should be the ones being depserate for him, he is also searching for lost hearts.
VErse 11 - 36 talks about the gifts God gave us, and how we should use it to lift God's glory. God didn't give us talents so that it could remain hidden. He didn't give our praise team amazing musciality so that it would NOT be acknowledged. No, he gave them these gifts so that they could use these gifts to bring God's kingdom forth. So use your gifts humbly to worship Jesus and to spurr into other to do the same.

i didnt get to much until the last part of the chapter. Where Jesus gets angry at the people who sell stuff at the temple. And it made me think why we go to church. Is it to make friends? to get a laugh? to learn to play an instrument? to get community hours? or to hit on girls? In the end its about worshiping the God that made us, saved us, and loves us. All to many times i see people saying "i dont like ________ church because its tooo clique. Or "all the guys go to hit on girls (or vice versa)". We should, as leaders and praise team leaders, make an effort to make a worshiping environment that reflects what we believe.

Thats what i got from the chapter.

Ciao

E-Sek OUT!

Yo~
From the parable of the ten servants, I learned that I should use the gifts God has given me and turn them into something more for God.
Also, I thought about Zacchaeus and his job, and how people hated him for it and called him a sinner.
There's a very thin line between doing your job as a part of a society, and doing your job as a part of God's society.
I believe it is impossible to satisfy the requirements for both of those things, however, one who gives up the former for the latter will be rewarded greatly nonetheless..

Hey guys ..how are u all doing?, hope everything is working out well for you guys...anyways heres my devo...

v7. All the people saw this and began to complain, "Jesus is staying with a sinner."

In thise verse, many people were wondering why Jesus would stay with a sinner. They might not know this, but Jesus would usually be with people, who are struggling, and poor. Jesus does this because he wants to help those kind of people. He has done already so many things for other people. Also this verse also reminded me from one of sam's sermon, that he metioned that we should hang out more with people who are sinners or poor oinstead of people who have a good life, because he wants us to help others who are struggling with theur sins, so we can pray for them, and this would lead to from breaking free from their sins. And thats why Jesus would want us to be with the poors and people who struggles. So Jesus goes to Zacchaues house and stays there. Zacchaues has been looking for Jesus because he wants to ask for forgivness. In verse 8 it says, Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "I will give half of my possessions to the poor, And if i have cheated anyone, i will pay back four times more." This shows that Zacchaues has faith in Jesus. He knows that if he asks for forgivness, the Lord shall forgive him. Because the Lord will always forgive you, we just have to pray to God and tell the truth. Telling truth will bring faith and trust. So after he asks for forgivness, in verse 9-10 Jesus says, "salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. The son of man came to find lost people and save them. And in this passage, the bible is telling us that Jesus went down there for a reason, he went there because he wanted to save Zacchaues life, and Jesus saved Zaahaues. In this passage it has to do with forgiveness. We all sin, once we are born as sinners. No ones is made perfect except God. So thats why Jesus was sent down to earth to sacrfice himself on the cross for our sins. This would be a good time where we would ask for forgivness from the sins we have done. Gos says to ask for forgiveness because Jesus Christ shall heal you. He will bring you peace to you minds, which will lead to happiness. Another thing i thought of is, that we should also forgive others. Jesus says that if you do not forgive other, then the Lord will not forgive us. He has commanded us to forgive other because the Lord has always forgiven us. If we forgive others then the Lord will forgive you. If you forgive other it is showing that you love that person and you really care about him.

v44. They will destroy you and all your people, and not one stone will be left on another. All this will happen because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you.

In this verse i think God is telling us that we should always thing about God. When we do not have God, life can be very hard. In this passage it is saying that if we do not have God in are side, then the only thing you have with you is sin. Satan will come and try to control in many ways. And we dont want that. So in this verse god is telling us that we should always think about God, and always have him in your side. God will be there for you, he will protect you from the evil.

My key message for todays passage, Forgive others, and also ask forgiveness. Having God in your side will bring you happiness.

AMEN...................................

HAVE A GOOD DAY GUYS, AND GL ON EXAMS....MAY GOD BE WITH YOU

What up peoples!
It is Wednesday, marking the mid point of the school/work week! I hope that you are all doing well! here is my devos for today!

What I read: Luke 19
What I learned: this chapter is chocked full of stories, many of which still have to do with the same theme of the poor, the weak, the widow, and the fatherless. But I find something interesting here. I find Luke showing those who are the poor, the weak, the widow, and the fatherless... pretty much everybody who is considered an ‘outcast’ to not take advantage of that position. If you look at the character of Zacchaeus, he was considered a ‘sinner’ as a tax collector, but instead of just accepting God’s grace, he takes it to a new level and gives whatever he needs to give, and whoever he has stolen from he states he will repay four times the amount. So in this case we see how the outcast has chosen to do something even though he was considered an outcast. We also see in the following parable, for those who do nothing with their spirituality that nothing is to come about them, and in this case everything will be taken away. To the ‘outcast’ it is as if Luke is making mention to do something about your case, not to just do nothing. When you are given something as great as the relationship with Christ, to not just let it linger, but to do something about it. In previous examples of this story, one person is given 10 talents, another 5 and another 1. It is the person who has one talent that does nothing with it at all. It is as if the people who are considered the one talent is the poor, the sick, and the widow, yet Christ says to continue to worship. just because you are in a situation, does not mean that you have to stop worshipping! That means that you should worship all that much more!
What I am going to do: well I am going to continue to remember to worship in whatever state I may be in, whether I am poor or rich (I hardly doubt that I will ever be rich.. but who knows right?) that I should always keep my eyes on Christ.

I also read...
Job 22
What I learned: the theory of retribution which I had mentioned yesterday is taken to a new level in this passage. Eliphaz makes this reasoning to Job: “Since all things have their origin in God, man’s giving back what God has given him does not enhance God in any way. God is indifferent to man’s goodness, because goodness is expected of him. It is when man becomes wicked that God thinks... what?” I find this quite interesting that Eliphaz would make comment like this to Job because nobody can be fully good, and of course God wants people to be good, but I would think that all people are both good and bad, and of course God sees all. His rational in which he says God is good therefore he would not notice what is good seems rather off, I would think... because God is good, he would see what good things we do, and because we are messed up, God would help us through.
What I am going to do: well, first I’m not going to follow this type of theology, and second I got to learn that in whatever circumstances I am going through and whatever I do, that I got to continue to remember to bring all the glory back to God and to remember that He is watching whatever I do, both good and bad.

Luke 19

v45-46, When i read that verse I realized how mad Jesus was becase the temple where people came to worship
The high leaders were selling animals to sell. If the high priest were to do that then how do u expect the others to learn
about Jesus. Imagine The pastor of milal is selling drugs inside the church and getting money for that what do you expect
from us..
Roh always reminds us that we have to set the example so the others will follow.
I pray that we will lead the others to Jesus

-Steven Hong

Luke 19
Attended my first burial service today…reminded me of how lucky we are to be serving a God so good that promises life after death…for people of this world, a casket marks the end, but for children of God, it’s only the promise of an amazing new beginning..

v.26 “…to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.”
I think in light of everything that happened this morning, this hit me even harder. This may sound silly, but to me it spoke of the urgency with which we should be using the talents and blessings God has given us. He’s made us all unique, and equipped each of us with very different skills and resources and talents that can allow us to each fulfill a different purpose and meaning in this world.
Here’s when we need to critically recognize all the things that God has blessed us with and think about how you can actively use them. I think some people get timid and mistake hiding their talents as being humble, but in fact, it’s like you’re cheating the world. We can’t be like the servant that takes the ten pounds and lets it sit idly, but be like the servants that take God’s gifts and spin them into hundreds.
For those of us on this forum, I think we all understand all this in some regard. Those on the praise team have recognized their God-given gift for music and leading others into worship, and so it’s fantastic that you find yourself on this team, because it means you did something with your gifts that benefits more than just yourself. For those on the leadership team, in the same line of thought, you’ve recognized your God given-gifts to lead and to be innovative and your abilities to spur the congregation on to grow, and you’ve done something about it.
I just want to challenge all of us to continue to do that with every other aspect of our lives. Make this a life lived as God first intended it to be. God makes no mistakes. If He’s given you a specific gift, let’s make sure we don’t keep it to ourselves, but use it for the expansion of His kingdom.
- H

Hey guys i know this is late i apologize!
But here goes!

LUKE 19:
The parable of the ten minas:
I really liked this parable because it reminded me of our duty as Christians to take the blessings taht God has given us and produce good fruit. This brings me back to when we were learning about the spiritual gifts: like discipleship, shepherding, teaching, TONGUES DUM DUM DUM. haha and all of those things that God gives to us, he gives them to us with the desire that we'l take them and use them to really glorify him, bring people to him and really build up his kingdom. And this is seen in the example of the three different servants. They were all given one mina, but they all produced different amounts of wealth with it. The last servant didn't do anything with his mina because he was scared - and so the master rebukes him. In fact he says 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. 27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me." I found it kind of strange to read this cause im so used to like.. the beatitudes where it says that those who do not have iwll receive and all that such. But in this case, Jesus means thatthose who have a lot in terms of spiritual blessings, wealth and faith will receive even more becuase what they do with what they have. Let this be a reminder to us to really do as much as we can with what God gives us!