A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: AN INSULT TO THE SELF RIGHTEOUS

Luke 3:7-9

   He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
   Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.  And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
   Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.  Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (ESV)

Luke 3:7-9

   The above passages record a time in the ministry of John the Baptist.  Part of John's ministry was a baptism unto repentance.
   The Gospel of Matthew (c.f. Matthew 3:7-10) records that some of those who were coming out to see the ministry John were members of the religious leaders of Israel, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  John knew that these men did not come out because they knew that they were in need of repentance in their lives.  These leaders believed that they had a privileged relationship with God because of their biological ties to the patriarch Abraham.  They also thought that they were right with God because of their own keeping of the Law of God.  Telling them that they were in need of repentance, and that they were alienated from God, and were actually children of His wrath, was an insult to them.
   Most of those around us, who do not know Christ as Savior, see themselves as "good" people.  Telling a lost person that they are sinners with wicked hearts, and are in need of repentance, and a turning to the finished work of Jesus Christ for their salvation, is a great insult to them.  But, they need to be told this.

SELAH

   Again, as I pointed out in Monday's post http://michael-hotard.blogspot.com/2011/01/journey-through-gospel-of-luke-prepare.html , a person needs to be confronted by the Law before they can ever see their need for a savior.  They must hear the bad news before they hear the Good News.



   

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER: SCIENTIST, BOTANIST, INVENTOR, CHRISTIAN

   It was on a Tuesday, on the fifth day of the month of January, in the year of our Lord 1943, that George Washington Carver went to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He was born a slave, but gain his freedom not long after when slavery was abolished in the United States. He became a Christian at the age of ten.
   Carver would go on to be a scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor.  He was mostly known for his discovery of  at least three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweat potatoes.
   In his lifetime, he would meet with three U.S. Presidents:  Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt.  He would become good friends Henry Ford. 
   In 1896, he was invited by Booker T. Washington to be the head of the Agriculture Department at the then five-year-old Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, later known as Tuskegee University.  As an educator, and out of his concerns for his students' character developed a list of eight cardinal virtues for his students to emulate and strive toward:

Be clean both inside and out.

Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.

Lose, if need be, without squealing.

Win without bragging.

Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.

Be too brave to lie.

Be too generous to cheat.

Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

SELAH

Ecclesiastes 9:10

   Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. (ESV)

Ecclesiastes 9:10

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

Alexis de Tocqueville

DAILY MUSINGS

"A life lived without any passion is an oxymoron."

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD

Luke 3:1-6

   In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Itureaea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias of Abilene,
   during the priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness.
   And he went into all the region around the Jordon, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
   As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
   "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
   Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,
   and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

Luke 3:1-6

   John the Baptist is a unique person in all of history.  He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the time he was in his mother's womb.  God would use John to prepare his chosen people, Israel, for the imminent coming of their Messiah.

   The message of John's ministry was the call to repentance.  The people of Israel had come to have a wrong view of God and of themselves as it pertains to their relationship with that God.

   No doubt John used the Law of God to confront the wayward children of Israel with the fact that their sins had alienated them from their God.  On this past Friday, I made this quote:

"The road to Mount Calvary must first pass through Mount Sinai.  Any road that bypasses Mount Sinai to get to Mount Calvary will have its end in the Valley of Hinnom."

   Before a person can be presented to good news of the Gospel (Mount Calvary), they must be confronted with the Law of God (Mount Sinai), that shows that he/she is a sinner who has broken the Law of God, and is deserving of the wrath of God.  The biggest problem of a person who does know Christ (or is known by 

him [c.f. Matthew 7:23]) is not a bad marriage, rebellious children, or even a bad economy.  That person is a sinner who is at this present moment has the wrath of God resting over him/her. (c.f. John 3:36)  The person who attempts to come to God without the knowledge that he/she is a sinner who needs to be reconciled with God through the finished work of Christ (Mount Calvary) will in the end find his/herself in Hell (the Valley of Hinnom).  Jesus is not to be seen as a kind of life coach, one who can make our lives better, or even as a moral example on how to live for God.  He must be seen as our Lord and Savior from the wrath of God.

SELAH

   When we, who are believers in Christ, are witnessing to a person, we can not take for granted that the person knows that he/she is a sinner who is deserving the wrath of God.  Actually, most lost people around us believe that on the whole they are good people.  Make sure that person is confronted with the Law of God.  God uses His Law as a mirror to show a person how that person truly stands before the perfectly holy character of God.  The picture is never pretty. (c.f. Romans 3:10-18)

   Below is a video from The Way of the Master Ministries on how this can be done.



HAPPY 119TH BIRTHDAY, J.R.R. TOLKIEN

   He was born on a Sunday on the third day of the month of January, in Bloemfontein in Orange State (now Free State Province, part of South Africa), under the name of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, in the year of our Lord 1892.

   Tolkien would later go on to serve in the British Army in World War I, and in that conflict serve as a singles officer at the battle of the Somme.

   Between 1925 to 1945, Tolkien would serve as Rawlinson and Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, and from 1945 to 1959 would serve as Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the same university.

   He became a member of an informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings, and it was there that he developed a close friendship with C.S. Lewis.

   One day during a walk together, Lewis confided to Tolkien that one of the major problems that he had with accepting the truth claims of Christianity was that there were too many similarities between the accounts that were written in the Bible and of those written in the ancient myths and legends of other cultures.  Tolkien explain to Lewis that the reason for this was that Christianity was "the one true myth."  By saying this, he meant that the accounts that were found in the Bible were the true record of things that happened, and the other stories were just variations of that one account.  C.S. Lewis would later come to put his trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

   Today, J.R.R. Tolkien, is mostly known as the author of  The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.  All three of the Lord of the Rings trilogy have been made into major motion pictures. As of this date, plans are underway to film a major motion picture based on The Hobbit.

SELAH

   God used J.R.R. Tolkien as one of His instruments in leading C.S. Lewis to faith in Jesus Christ.  God would later use the writings of C.S. Lewis as one of His instruments in leading many throughout the world to Christ, and for the edification of His saints.

   When we bring the Gospel to the lost around us, and God uses that seed to bring a person to Christ as their Lord and savior, we have no idea how far God will use that person to bring others to salvation and into His kingdom.

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: A SINGULARITY OF MISSION

Luke 2:41-49

   Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feat of the Passover.

   And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.

   And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.  His parents did not know it,

   but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances,

   and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.

   After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

   And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

   And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.  And his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so?  Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress."

   And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"

Luke 2:41-49

   From the moment He entered the womb of Mary, and throughout His thirty-three and a half years of living amongst us as one of us Jesus at every moment of that time had a certain hill just outside of the city of Jerusalem on His mind.  That hill was known as "The Hill of the Skull," Mount Calvary.  He came to die so that men may be saved.

   The Christian hymn writer, Charles Wesley spent his whole Christian life simply amazed by this one fact, and he captured this thought in one of his hymns.

And Can It Be that I Should Gain

And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2.
'Tis mystery all: th' Immortal dies!
Who can explore his strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
to sound the depths of love divine.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
let angel minds inquire no more.
'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
let angel minds inquire no more.
3.
He left his Father's throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
4.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
5.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in him, is mine;
alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach th' eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th' eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.

SELAH

   We who have put our trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ for sinners, should at every moment should be amazed by the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity left His throne of glory to live a life of righteousness amongst sinful men, and die on a cruel cross for their sins.