Luke 18:40-41

So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”

Personal Challenge

For those of us who follow Christ, we so often speak about how much we trust Him. Do we really? Are we willing to go to Him humbly and let him know clearly what we desire from Him? Sometimes it feels easier to beat around the bush rather than tell him what we need. Maybe it is because we are afraid that He will say, “No!” Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Psalms 16:3 (15:3)

To the saints on His earth,
In them He magnified all His will.

Personal Challenge

The psalmist ends us that He uses His followers, His saints, to reveal Him to the people of earth. The personal challenge is to look at ourselves and our behaviors and assess if we are living in godly and righteous way. When we find that we are not, we can run to Him, ask for His forgiveness, and return to His way. Glory be to God!

Luke 18:27

But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

Encouraging Words

Life can be difficult at times. The beauty of being a follower of Christ is that we know that we follow the God of all creation. He holds all creation in the palm of His hand and that He cares for us more than we can ever understand. With Him, all things are possible. We also know that He will lead us down the right path, which sometimes means that things don’t work out the way that we want. That doesn’t mean that God failed, it means that He knows what is best for us. Glory be to God!

Psalm 15 (14)

O Lord, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle?
Who shall live in Your holy mountain?
He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness,
And speaks truth in his heart,
Who does not deceive with his tongue,
Neither does evil to his neighbor;
And does not find fault with those nearest him.
He disdains those who do evil in his presence,
But he holds in honor those who fear the Lord;
He swears an oath to his neighbor and does not set it aside.
He does not lend his money at interest,
And he does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be shaken.

Personal Challenge

Jesus gave us, His followers, two commands to follow if we are to be able to proclaim that we are His followers. Love God and love our neighbor. The disciples asked as the question, “Who is my neighbor?”, and to this day that question still gets asked. The answer is that everyone in this world is my neighbor. The next question is how do I treat them. This Psalm gives some great examples of how we do this. Glory be to God!

Luke 18:15-17

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

Encouraging Words

We live in a world and a culture that prides itself on how much knowledge that we can access and gain. But knowledge without wisdom is worthless. Jesus does never proclaims that those with great knowledge will receive the kingdom. To the contrary, the acquisition of knowledge leads us away from Him unless He is giving it to us for His purpose. He wants us to come to Him like little children, guiltless, loving, open, and able to learn from Him. Are we still approaching Him with childlike minds and hearts? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Psalms 13:5-6 (12:6)

But I hope in Your mercy;
My heart shall greatly rejoice in Your salvation;
I will sing to the Lord, who shows kindness to me;
I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High.

Encouraging Words

When Adam and Eve rejected God’s warning to not eat of one tree in the garden, they introduced sin into the world. The consequences of that sin has been death for all creation and the propensity to sin. As followers of Christ, we put our hope in God and His great mercy. We rejoice in the truth that Jesus became human, lived a sinless life, was crucified a quiltless man, and resurrected from death in order to provide to us salvation from death. This why why we sing to Him in joy. Glory be to God!

Luke 18:13

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

Personal Challenge

The parable of the pharisee and the tax collector reminds us that we are all sinners and in need of God;\’s great gift of mercy. This is why those of us who practice the Orthodox way of Christianity so often pray the Jesus Prayer, which is: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!”. We need God’s mercy at all times in our lives. Glory be to God!

Psalms 11:7 (10:7)

The righteous Lord loves righteousness;
His face beholds the upright.

Encouraging Words

So, what is this righteousness that the Lord loves. The New American Oxford Dictionary defines it as: the quality of being morally right or justifiable. This is our goal as followers of Jesus Christ. We are to develop a quality in our lives that morally follows His teachings and His characteristics and to be justified in Him. This is God’s desire for us. Lord have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Luke 17:20-21

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Personal Challenge

Throughout the history of mankind, we have been looking for the kingdom of God. It is wired within us to know that when we were expelled out of the Garden of Eden that we lost our connection to God’s precious kingdom. In this passage, Jesus rearranges our thoughts, and expectations, to teach us that this kingdom is here and now. His kingdom now dwells within us, His followers, and that we are to be bringing that kingdom to the lost around us. Glory be to God!