Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 5:27-39.  Let’s go!

Luke 6:1-2 (NIV) 
1  One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.
2  Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

On verses 1-2:  People living in Israel were allowed to walk through a fellow Israelite’s grain field and pick kernels with their hand to eat, just as Jesus’ disciples were doing here.  This was specifically allowed in Deuteronomy 23:24-25 as a way for Jewish landowners to show grace and mercy to the poor.  However, because Jesus’ disciples were doing this on a Sabbath day, the Pharisees were offended, for the Pharisees taught that picking heads of grain and eating it on a Sabbath day was “work” which violated God’s command that His people rest and not work on a Sabbath day.  The Pharisees had misapplied God’s command to rest on the Sabbath day to an absurd, ridiculous and unhelpful extreme.  As a result, laws that were meant to encourage grace, mercy and rest for people were replaced with a strict kind of legalism that just placed more burdens on everyone.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 5:27-39.  There are so many lessons we can learn from today’s passage.  Let’s go!

Luke 5:27-28 (NIV) 
27  After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 
28  and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 

On verses 27-28:  Back in Jesus’ time, tax collectors were despised in Israel.  That is because tax collectors had a reputation for being crooked and money hungry, known for charging Jews more taxes than they actually owed to the Roman government and pocketing the difference.   Jewish tax collectors were seen as traitors, since they were working for the Roman emperor while profiting at the expense of their fellow Jews.  Levi was one such Jewish tax collector.  Notice, however, that Levi’s occupation, background and reputation did not keep Jesus from inviting Levi to follow him.  It also did not keep Levi from leaving everything to follow Jesus.  Levi (also called Matthew) would become one of Jesus’ first disciples and apostles, and would go on to author the gospel of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 5:12-26.  Let’s go!

Luke 5:12-14 (NIV) 
12  While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 
13  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. 
14  Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
 
On verses 12-14:  This to me is one of the most beautiful scenes in the Bible.  Here you have a man covered with a skin disease which not only affected him physically but socially as well.  According to the Jewish laws, a person with leprosy was not allowed to live among the people but had to live alone outside the city.  They had to cover their face, leave their hair undone, and walk around with torn clothes yelling “Unclean! Unclean!”

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Luke 5:1-11.  Let’s go!

Luke 5:1-2 (NIV) 
1  One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 
2  he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.
 
On verses 1-2:  I like this observation by Pastor Jon Courson: he notes that back in Jesus’ day fishermen would regularly wash their nets and stretch them at the end of each work day.  That way the net would not stink or rot and would remain useful for the long-term.  Likewise, if we want to be effective nets that God can use to bring people to Him, we need to be regularly washed with the water of God’s Word and stretched by His Holy Spirit often. 

Luke 5:3-11 (NIV)  
 3  He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 
4  When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 
5  Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” 

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.