Archive for month: August, 2020

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 4:38-44.  Let’s go!

Luke 4:38-39 (NIV) 
38  Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her.
39  So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. 

On verses 38-39:  Jesus visits the home of Simon where he finds Simon’s mother-in-law sick with a high fever.  Simon’s family asks Jesus to help her, so Jesus bends over, rebukes the fever, and the fever goes away.  Simon’s mother-in-law recovers so much that she “got up at once” (v39) and begins serving the guests in the home (v39).
What can we learn from this?

Jesus has authority to rebuke sickness and heal diseases.
In this case what mobilized Jesus to exercise his authority to heal was that Simon’s family “asked Jesus to help her” (v38).  Jesus is able to heal, but do we ask Him to heal?  James 4:2 says, “…You do not have because you do not ask God.”  Here at THRIVE we have witnessed people being healed of sicknesses and injuries not because we ourselves have the power to heal but because God is our healer and we are not afraid to ask Him. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 4:25-37.  Let’s go!

Luke 4:25-30 (NIV) 
25  I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.
26  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.
27  And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed–only Naaman the Syrian.”
28  All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
29  They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.
30  But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

On verses 25-30:  Previously in verse 24, in response to the rejection he felt from his own hometown, Jesus says, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown”.  Jesus then gives two examples of that from the Old Testament.  First, Jesus cites the Jewish prophet Elijah and how, at a time when the ancient Middle East was enduring a famine, Elijah was not sent to help anyone in Israel but instead was sent to help a Gentile (i.e. non-Jewish) widow in the region of Sidon (v26, see also 1 Kings 17:7-24).   Second, Jesus cites the prophet Elisha, Elijah’s successor, and how even though there were many people suffering from skin diseases in Israel, God used Elisha only to heal a Gentile from Syria called Naaman (v27, see also 2 Kings 5).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 4:14-24.  Let’s go!
 
Luke 4:14 (NIV) 
14  Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
 
On verse 14:  Jesus had spent 40 days in the desert, praying, fasting, drawing near to God and also resisting temptation.  He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, ready to start his public ministry.
 
What can we learn from this?  Go out of your way to draw near to God.  Then you can go back into the world where you are called to work, study or serve in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Protect your alone time with God.  Each day get fueled up in His Word and in His presence so that you’re ready to tackle the day.

Luke 4:15 (NIV) 
15  He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
 
On verse 15:  Jesus was an amazing preacher of God’s Word.  He’s the lamb of God who takes away our sins.  He’s also the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) when it comes to preaching God’s Word.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 4:1-13.  Let’s go!

Luke 4:1-13 (NIV) 
1  Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert,
2  where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3  The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4  Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.'”……

On verses 1-13:  After having been baptized in the Jordan River, Jesus is led into the desert where he is tempted by the devil for 40 days.  Notice that each time Jesus is tempted by the devil, Jesus fights back by quoting Scripture.  In response to the devil’s first temptation Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in the Old Testament.  In response to the devil’s second temptation Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13.  In response to the devil’s third temptation Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16.  What is Jesus doing?  In response to each specific temptation he faces, Jesus recites a verse from Scripture that helps him to do the right thing in that situation.  In all likelihood Jesus is reciting these verses from memory, since the only place you could read a copy of Scripture back in Jesus’ time was in the synagogue.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Ezekiel 35:10-15.  Let’s go!
 
Ezekiel 35:10-12 (NIV) 
10  “‘Because you have said, “These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,” even though I the LORD was there, 
11  therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will treat you in accordance with the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred of them and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 
12  Then you will know that I the LORD have heard all the contemptible things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, “They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.”

On verses 10-12:  The “two nations and countries” being referred to in verse 10 are the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel.  The Edomites boasted that they would one day take possession of Judah and Israel (v10), especially given that Judah and Israel were in a weakened state (v12b –“They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour”). 
Apparently the Edomites spoke these boastful words out of anger, envy and hatred toward the Israelites (v11).  Thus God promises to treat the Edomites with the same anger, envy and hatred with which the Edomites treated the Israelites (v11b-11).