20 And he rolled up the scroll
and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 And he began to say to them,
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 And all spoke well of him and marveled
at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.
And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me
this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’
What we have heard you did at Capernaum,
do here in your hometown as well.”
24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you,
no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up
three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,
26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath,
in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 And there were many lepers in Israel
in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed,
but only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 When they heard these things,
all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town
and brought him to the brow of the hill
on which their town was built,
so that they could throw him down the cliff.
30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
______________________________
Elijah and Elisha,
two of the most famous prophets of the Old Testament,
were led by the Spirit to grant mercy and grace
in these instances to the Gentiles, not the Jews.
When the so very religious heard
what pleased their ears they marveled.
But now when they heard
that which was so unpleasing to their ears, they were enraged.
They didn’t want God to give to the Gentiles
what they, His people, the Jews, “deserved.”
What an outrage! How could He? This must not be!
The so very “godly” were ready to do something very ungodly.
They were ready to throw Him over the cliff.
And that is just what they tried to do.
No one could put a hand on Him unless His Father let them.
TAKING GOD’S WORD TO HEART
How is it that those who perceived themselves as so righteous
would want to harm or destroy One who truly was righteous?
Hypocrisy.
The sin of the Pharisees.
Hypocrisy.
The sin of the church today.
Aren’t we a part of the church?
Is there hypocrisy in your heart?
Are you blind to it like the Pharisees?
The problem with spiritual blindness is that
you cannot see that you are blind.
Take a moment and pray these two verses
from Psalm 139.
Boldly, sincerely, ask the Lord to search your heart.
Really search your heart.
Are you blind to anything?
Is there any repressed sin? Anger? Bitterness? Jealousy?
Is there any hypocrisy in your life?
How would those who live with you describe you?
How would those who work with you or for you describe you?
How would Jesus describe you?
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Lord, please show me the truth of what lies within.
MEDITATE or MEMORIZE
Write out the following passage from Luke 4 and recite it 3 times.
Take it with you throughout the day.
20 And he rolled up the scroll
and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 And he began to say to them,
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
PRAYER
Lord, please show me the truth of what lies within.
Give me the grace to listen, accept, confess, and repent.
I want to live for your Name and for your glory.
I love you and do not want to sin against you.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
In His hands for His glory,
Laurie
by Angie Thomas
I hope you all are experiencing God’s love in deep and real ways. I have been mulling over what Laurie said during our time together, that love and obedience are inseparable. This really struck me. I will be honest, I don’t really like the word “obey.” I never liked it as a child and there is a part of my rebellious flesh that still shirks at the word. Obedience requires humility and submission, two things that I am not naturally inclined toward. But 1 John 5:1-3 is pretty clear, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” Not burdensome….hmmm. A rather perplexing statement. I don’t know about you all, but most of the time when God (or my mother for so many years:) has asked me to obey, it often feels burdensome. Sometimes I have been willing, but many times I have resentfully done what has been asked. Here is what I believe the Lord has been impressing upon me. The difference between the 2 scenarios is this: sometimes the Gospel is so clear to me. I can see Christ’s undeserved death for me and how it communicates God’s love for me, and I am willing to do anything He asks. In those instances the beauty and power of the Gospel overflow into my actions. Other times however, I have lost sight of the Gospel and I no longer see as clearly the imperative to obey. Instead of the Gospel I see my circumstances, which perhaps at the moment do not feel so loving, and I want to run the other way instead of following Him in obedience. That is why the Gospel must be so central in all of our lives.
In order to follow Him in radical obedience, we must understand, more and more every day His radical love for us seen clearly in the Gospel. Romans 5:8-9 says, “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Jesus’ love for us was and is radical. We were smelly, stinky, dirty rotten scoundrels and Christ died for us. And not just died, He was crushed, broken, tortured for us. Unbelievable. Amazing. That kind of sacrificial love is the only thing that will compel us out of gratitude to a truly radical, leave it all out there, guts and glory type of obedience. So here is the simple equation that is helping me:
JESUS’ RADICAL LOVE = MY RADICAL OBEDIENCE.
This is what I am praying for us all, girls, that we would understand more and more His radical love and the Gospel and be empowered by His grace and the Holy Spirit to radical obedience.
by Angie Thomas
As I was looking over the study I was overwhelmed with the Lord’s unconditional love for us. We are so blessed girls, blessed beyond what we could ask or imagine. Psalm 32:1 says, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” We hear these words and they just pass over our hearts and ears. We have been given the most incredible gift, a pardon for our heinous sins. But we don’t see our sin that way. We feel entitled to our fear and worry. Our circumstances seem to demand our anxiety or we pass it off as part of our personality. We excuse our control as being “productive” and our laziness as “needing a break.” And our pride, sadly most of the time we don’t even see it. And unbelief, we just call that being “realistic.” May we cry out to our Father and confess all of these sins that we commit day in and day out that break His heart but never break ours.
Our hearts are so calloused. I know this is graphic, but it is the image the Lord laid on my heart as I was typing this. Consider a prostitute whose body has been used and abused. She becomes hardened to everything that is wrong about what she is doing. Deep down her heart is breaking and she despises the sin cycles she is caught in but she seems to see no other way out. She is caught in the lies that life could ever be any different.
Similarly, we have prostituted our hearts to the lies of the culture and the enemy. We see our sin as just one little white lie, one little romp through our minds with worry and fear, one little rationalization after another. There is pleasure in the moment for sure, but afterward we are left discouraged, broken, and hurting. We wonder if life could ever be any different.
There is a reason God dedicated the entire book of Hosea to depicting this analogy of Israel caught prostituting themselves to their sins and idols. This was God’s charge to Israel, “For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink” (Hosea 2:5). But Hosea shows us the Father heart of God who continues to run after her even though she keeps running back to her sin. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. …And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord” (Hosea 2:14, 19-20).
Girls, we are the prostitute. May was see our sin as God does and run to the righteousness, love, mercy, and faithfulness He has provided for us. May our hearts be broken before Him. Psalm 51:17 gives us this powerful promise: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Real redemption is waiting.