Back to the 4th chapter of Luke… I’m often struck by how quick and anxious people who say they don’t even believe in God are to criticize Christians when they feel they see believers failing to “love your enemies,” or “turn the other cheek,” or care for the poor and needy—as if this was all the Messiah was about. But when stating why He was sent here to interact with mankind in Luke 4:43, God the Son said that it was to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God.” No doubt, someone will want to point out that in Luke 12:33 Yeshua said to “sell your possessions and give to the needy.” But again, this was a small part of an extended exhortation to seek God’s kingdom above all—or as recorded in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” Consequently, I can only conclude that liberal churches who join in the movement to classify or categorize God’s righteous expectations as “hate speech” are getting their priorities all wrong, and I have no doubt that Yeshua would have a thing or two to say to religious leaders who want to reject the word of God in the interest of “loving” those who oppose Judeo-Christian values and beliefs. Christ expressed His views more clearly in the seventh chapter of Mark when He said, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men,” and “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your traditions.” (Mark 7:8-9) In Luke 4:33 the people of Galilee were astonished at the Messiah’s teaching because His word possessed such authority. In other words, Jesus felt no need to cite the opinions or arguments of famous or respected rabbis (religious leaders) to back up His assertions—and why should He? After all, Yeshua was and is God in the flesh! So if I must choose between being called names by others (be they religious or otherwise) or abiding by what I find written in Scripture, the choice for me is an unqualified, unmitigated, absolute no-brainer.
No offense just wondering, are you trying to convince yourself or others with all this stuff? There's a third choice you know. You could choose to be rational.
It’s interesting…I’ve listened to some people dismiss the Bible because the stories in it are just “too fantastical.” But then, I’ve heard others reject Scripture because they've personally never seen a miracle. So which is it? I believe it’s Pastor Mark Driscoll who’s said on various occasions: “If miracles happened all the time, they wouldn’t be miracles—they’d be Tuesday.” Like Jesus said to the people of Nazareth in the fourth chapter of Luke, 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. And yet, Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. Yet none of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian. So the idea people have that the Bible portrays miracles as happening on a regular basis is a misconception. Yes, Yeshua healed a lot of people, but according to John 3:34, Jesus was given the Spirit of God without measure. (“For God does not give Him the Spirit in limited degree.”) The Messiah was unique in this regard. And even then, there were times when even He was unable to perform great miracles. As stated in Mark 6:5-6, He could do no mighty work in His hometown, except that He laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them, and He marveled because of their unbelief. Moreover, when He first laid His hands on the blind man in Bethsaida, the man’s healing was only partial. Jesus had to lay His hands on the man’s eyes a second time before the guy could see clearly. So what was up with that? Even when Jesus did perform miracles, the circumstances were often unique. In Luke 5:17, “the power of the Lord was with Him to heal.” And in Luke 6:19, “power came out of Him and healed them all.” So miracles are great when they happen, but anyone who expects to see them all the time under normal circumstances is almost sure to be disappointed.
The Sixth Chapter of Luke: For some reason my thoughts keep returning to people who say they don’t believe in God, yet want to counsel Christians on how to live according to the Bible. A favorite practice among many such individuals, from what I’ve seen, is to cite the beatitudes to point out to believers how they fall short of God’s guidelines. But in doing so, they make the mistake of thinking that the topics of the Messiah’s teachings in verses 20 through 22 of the sixth chapter of Luke are economic, physical and sociological. Yeshua wasn’t saying that people are blessed when they are monetarily poor, physically hungry and emotionally sad. He was saying that they are blessed if spiritually poor, hungry, and sad—the reason being that this will drive them closer to God, which, quite ironically, is the very thing many nonbelievers criticize Christians for doing. They are the kind of people Jesus was referring to in verse 22 who hate, exclude, and revile Christians; and who call them evil on account of their adherence to Scripture. (I need to see if I can remember that “the golden rule” is found in Luke 6:31. I also don’t want to forget that the parable referred to in my subheadings from Luke 6 is the one about the blind leading the blind, which is followed by Christ’s question asking: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”) Again, this last question brings to my mind how many atheists will take Christians to task for failing to love their enemies, do good to those that hate them, bless those that curse them, and pray for those who abuse them, when they themselves are guilty of two much more serious offenses in the form of denying the very existence of God and of denigrating God’s Word. It’s again kind of ironic when one considers that often these same atheists are the very people who are doing all the hating, cursing, and abusing of Christians mentioned in Luke 6:27-28.
%% Good points; they sound the same.LOL. Dont really know why Zach got the 9 month /+ ''silent treatment''; but he was temple worker or priest, so to whom much is given- much is required.
In Matthew 9:23-25 it says: “And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, He said, ‘Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.” Mark 5:39-42 says: “And when He had entered, He said to them, ‘Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. But He put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with Him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand He said to her, ‘Talitha cumi,’ which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.” Luke 8:50-56 says the same thing, but not in the same order. Recall that in Mark 6:5-6 it was suggested that Yeshua could do no mighty work in His hometown because of their unbelief. All this leads me to conclude that when God wants to do a great thing, the last thing He needs is for some individual or group of individuals to start murmuring about how they don’t think it’s really going to happen. So the angel Gabriel told Zechariah, “…you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” Recall James 1:5-8… If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Belief that requires no doubting is no belief at all. It is but blind superstition. Doubt is the beginning not the end of wisdom, it's what makes one think. The less one thinks, the more one believes. Malignant faith demands no doubts. 11th Commandment: Doubt so ye might see.
I estimate 5% of the red letters came out the mouth of Jesus. Fencing this in is whats called "context", or what I might call con text. As such, I consider the message of Jesus to be arrested and jailed. As various parties take turn offering tortured interpretions of what little has been left, as well as the 95% made up to begin with, the message is mangled beyond recognition, as if it had been badly beaten up, bloodied, and left for dead. Some think that the god of this world would not leave his premeir product (mankind) without a guidebook, though Jesus is not known to have put pen to paper. While I believe in the concept of guidance, I am not convinced it must come from a book. Just to get to a book, guidance must come from not-a-book. Reason. Whatever WAS the message, it can be arrested and jailed when you can be convinced that copy writers can be confined to a small snapshot out of time, when reason suggests a guided pen can reach paper just about anytime, anywhere, by just about anybody ready for guidance. Luke does not even make claim to direct guidance, but rather, admits to the role of second hand storytelling, much like a historian. It could be Luke was not ready for direct guidance, just as most of Jesus' students were not ready, even after years (?) of association. There is little difference between misunderstanding, and a mind with a closed door to guidance. Suddenly, we are to believe all his students were ready for direct guidance after he was gone ("Pentecost"), when reason suggests that when a mind has closed its doors to guidance, the door will not be kicked down by anyone/anything associated with Jesus, demanding to dine. Yet we are to believe the door will be kicked down, ready or not, as per the story of the conversion of Saul to Paul. It's hard to imagine a door more closed, or more violently opened against its will, as when Saul was galloping his way to Damascus to imprison more students and their message. Let us ignore Buddah''s apparent readiness, sitting still for forty days, and invest our entire faith in the manifest unreadiness of Saul, as well as the unreadiness of at least twelve prior students. Really? Let us admit guidance could come anytime, anywhere, to the ready or unready, but invest our full faith in only centuries old guidance committed to paper. Really? expiated's position is untenably unreasonable, and his mind, methods and messages must remain locked with, and within the con-text of Jesus' own words and meanings. Luke is playing "telephone" with a student who may not have understood (due to a closed door), along with Mark. And we are still not sure which of the other two were witnesses to Jesus' teaching, and if they were, whether they understood, when their own testimony suggests they did not understand for months and/or years. Hardly a full quorum of twelve. So why this narrow emphasis, except to postpone readiness? Of the 5% red letters I consider to be authentic: "Come to me, you who are weary and heavily laden". Basically, you who are ready, because you are tired of what you need to be tired of, in order to be ready. I don't believe expiated is tired enough to be ready. Not yet tired of carrying heavy books demanding even heavier faith upon his shoulders...and others. Not tired of cognitive dissonance, as it weighs upon ones mind. Not tired of the god of this world and it's stories (official narratives). Nor do I believe any authentic source of guidance will come and bust the closed doors open, taking sight away, rather than giving sight (see story of Saul). It's hard to tell a flock of sheep gone astray, just how far they have gone. In a worst case scenario, the sheep will abide by wolves that make themselves look like sheep so-to-speak. Basically, followers that do not follow the leader, in a direction opposite the leader, later to be devoured. The generation of mal-intent wolves have long past away, leaving a book, and ignorance itself, to rule the night. The damage has been done, and there is no going back to greener pastures through the valleys of this book. The message has been lost in translation, so-to-speak. Rather, you must make yourself ready to listen, by being honest about how weary you must be, or what is making you weary. Direct guidance can still come anytime anywhere to the ready, as symbolized by a tiredness of hunger and poverty. Would you recognize the sound of the knock, if it ever came knocking? If there is a party going on, people loud and drunk on ancient theological wine, then you might not even hear the knock. If there are booming, echoing voices coming from pulpits, you might not hear the knock. You could discuss the concept of expiation for 2000 years, but unless you open the door, nobody is going to bust the door down to tell you what it really means, or how it is achieved. It could take multiple incarnations (born again and again) to become weary enough to care. The mind of man is as if it were in a prison, unable to think outside the bars. The bars are his liturgical traditions: stories, official narratives, and sophomoronic (wise sounding foolishness) statements committed to parchment. If you really understood, you would not feel the need for writing, either to carry any or to add more to the world's current collection. Given the possibility books have a place for beginners, why this collection of books, and why Luke? You're not tired of the explanations given?