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Luke 17:15-16

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

Personal Challenge

As I read this account of the healed Samaritan, a race of people that were outcast and despised, I must look at my own heart and wonder if I have ever returned to God, and with a loud voice glorify Him and fall down at His feet giving thanks. I was blind and He gave me sight. I was deaf and He gave me hearing. I was dead and He gave me life. Do I show my thanks to Him the way this man did or do I take it for granted and act as if I am entitle to His love, grace, and healing power? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

1 Peter 3:7

Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Personal Challenge

Peter is guiding us here on what our role is as a husband. My wife is my partner and a joint heir in the grace of life that God is pouring out. We became one flesh when we married and my responsibility is to treat her with understanding, honor her above all else in this earthly realm, and to be a blessing in her life. If I desire a close relationship with God, where my prayers are not hindered, then I must be tending the garden of my marriage and nurturing my wife. Glory be to God and continue prayers that I will do this all the days of my life.

1 Timothy 4:12

Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Personal Challenge

One of the things that I love doing with my life is working with youth, specifically the high school and college age youth. Indeed, I believe it is a calling and a gift that God has blessed me with. I cannot count how many times I have been asked by other adults when I was going to grow up and stop hanging out with the “kids”. My answer is always, “Never!” Paul saw the need, and the great value, of investing in the youth of the church. He nurtured and taught Timothy knowing that the future of the church would fall into hands like his. What better way to pass on the wisdom and gifts that God has bestowed on us? What better way to be kept young and always embracing the new. May God be glorified through the youth of His Church.

Luke 19:45-46

Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’

Personal Challenge

Here I go again…another passage that I have read multiple times and now seeing a different meaning in it for the first time. Is not my heart the temple of God? We are taught that when we have received Christ and the Holy Spirit through baptism and chrismation that we are cleansed from our sins, redeemed, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. He now dwells within us as His living temple. But it is still possible for me to sin because I have the free will to choose what I want to do in my life. And over time, because of my sinful choices, this temple begins to be filled with the “money changers” and “thieves”. As I confess these sins they are forgiven, but if I am not careful with my choices what remains behind are habits, tendencies, and even additions. These are much more subtle and lie in wait for the next opportunity to seize a temptation and turn it into a sin. This is why I need my Jesus to continually upset the carts and tables in my heart and throw these thieves out. I cannot do this on my own. I need Him to be the Lord and High Priest of this temple. My job is to continually turn to Him, confessing my sins, repenting of my choices that are sinful, and be in submission to Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Psalm 92:15 (91:16 LXX)

So as to proclaim, “The Lord my God is upright,
And there is no wrongdoing in Him.”

Encouraging Words

The Psalmist proclaims the glory and majesty of our Father in heaven and all of His great and mighty works. He rejoices in the fact that our God is a loving and caring Father to His creation and that we can find our rest and peace in Him. I too, proclaim that He is good, upright, and completely devoid of any wrongdoing and choose to find my life, work, and rest in Him. Glory be to God!

James 4:17

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Personal Challenge

It is so easy for me to recognize those sins in my life where I know that I have done something that betrays the love of my God and violates my relationship with Him. The ones that I usually fail to recognize and, therefore, go unconfessed, are the ones related to the things that I should have done, but didn’t. James reminds us that knowing what to do, followed by not doing it, is a sin. Have I passed up an opportunity to be loving and caring to my neighbor…I have sinned. Have I failed to turn my head and heart away from temptation…I have sinned. Have I not given my all to my Lord and my neighbor…I have sinned. Thank God for His abundant grace, mercy, and love that He is willing to forgive me of both sins of commission and omission through the blood of Christ. Glory be to God!

James 2:14-16

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?

Personal Challenge

My salvation in Christ is dynamic and living. If there are no actions, no “good works”, associated with my faith, then how is it any different than the seed that fell on the rocky soil that dried up and died (Luke 8:4-8)? I have always read this passage as a commandment to do good deeds toward those who are destitute and in need of the basics of life, which it does apply to this. However, goes much farther than that. I am commanded to do good deeds to everyone, at all times. I am to speak to and think nice of, that person who just drives me crazy. I am to love that person that takes advantage of me and abuses that very love that I am giving to them. I am to love and care for my neighbor and put their needs before mine. Oh, how much help I need from the Holy Spirit toe even come close to starting this in my life. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Luke 7: 31-35

And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:

‘We played the flute for you,And you did not dance;We mourned to you,And you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Personal Challenge

So, why is it that we modern Christians think that we can behave the same way that the Pharisees and Sadducees did, and not be judged by Christ accordingly? The children in the day of Jesus used to play a game of opposites. One would call out an emotion or sing a song, and all the rest would act out the opposite behavior. Jesus accused the religious elite, the saved of that day, for doing the same thing by telling everyone to do one thing, but doing something entirely different themselves. He condemned them for doing this. So, how is it that we do this today? So many Christians, even priests and pastors, claim to be followers of Christ and expound on His gospel about loving our neighbor and then rail on those who need Jesus the most: the homosexual, the mother who has aborted a child, the immigrant, someone with a tattoo, someone who is of a different faith practice, etc., or worst of all someone who brings the love of Christ to these people. Heaven forbid that on Sundays we proclaim the love of God for all of mankind, and the rest of the week we use Facebook, or our blogs, or whatever other means we have at our disposal, to demean our neighbors…especially those who are already outcasts. Jesus hung out with prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, the outcast of society, those who were lost, and commanded us to do the same. As for me, I do not want to stand before my Lord someday and be held accountable for not loving my neighbor as He loved me and commanded me to do likewise. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Psalm 61:1-4 (60:2-5 LXX)

Hear my supplication, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I cried out to You
When my heart was discouraged;
You lifted me high on a rock.
You guided me, for You became my hope,
A tower of strength from the face of the enemy.
I will dwell in Your tabernacle unto the ages;
I will be covered with the shelter of Your wings.

Encouraging Words

I can come into the presence of my Lord and ask Him to hear my prayer and He does. He hears me calling even from the ends of the earth or the depths of my sin. When I am discouraged or alienated from Him He responds. He lifts me up, He guides me, He gives me hope, He surrounds me with a tower of strength, He brings me into the tabernacle so that I can dwell with Him, He covers me with His shelter. Glory be to God!