Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 8 before reading the devotional below.

We’ve been talking about how Jesus was a rule-breaker who was willing to offend those who thought they knew God well (see yesterday’s post). As we journey on into chapter 8, we continue to see the confrontational nature of Jesus. His authoritative claims force us all to confront ourselves and our beliefs. What do we do with Jesus? Everyone must answer this question at some point in life.

In verses 4-15, Jesus tells and then explains a parable in which seeds are scattered on four types of soil. If you’ve been around church for any length of time, you’ve heard this one in a variety of forms. What strikes me most is that it emphasizes this confrontation with Jesus: you will either never believe, believe enthusiastically but never grow, believe but love all your other stuff more, or believe and grow. That’s it. Everyone will be in one of those categories. Jesus’ life, unquestionably historic even by those who do not follow him, confronts us still today.

The rest of the chapter is more mind-bending supernatural stuff. Story after story of healings and exorcisms and weather control. We like to talk about Jesus calming the “storms of life,” but that is a lame, watered-down retelling. He literally changed the weather. He threw a legion of demons into a bunch of pigs who then jumped off a cliff. These are not cute children’s Bible stories. These are confrontations with the supernatural. And this is the space in our minds where faith can exist.

Here’s your freedom for today: faith is not about you feeling better. Sometimes we feel like we don’t have enough faith if we struggle with depression or anxiety or other emotional issues. But faith is the position you take with the supernatural confrontation of Jesus. Are you willing to wrap your mind around who he is and what he did while on earth? Are you willing to wrestle with tough questions about the supernatural realm? Don’t weaken the definition of faith by making it about your feelings. Wrestle with the genuine spiritual questions Jesus forces us to answer.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 7 before reading the devotional below.

Jesus was socially inappropriate. Politically incorrect. Rule breaker in sometimes horrifying ways. This chapter is full of cultural faux pas as Jesus offers healing and kindness to a solider of the regime oppressing the Jewish people, disrupts a funeral procession, publicly calls out the religious elites, praises a well-known prostitute after she won’t stop kissing his feet, and asserts the power to forgive sins (which only God could claim to do). It’s like he’s looking for ways to offend people. And I think he was.

Contrast that with today’s churches. Many churches are making their services flashier, their flyers cooler, and their sermons snazzier to appeal to the masses and give them more of what they want. Now, let’s not swing in the other direction (which many Christians have been known to do) and take Jesus’ ministry as a license to be obnoxious people. Don’t needlessly offend people, and when you do offend people make sure it’s the right people.

Those who were most offended by Jesus were those who thought they were closest to God. He was calling out the ones who would consider themselves to be the most devout. He was offering hope to people who thought they were counted out of society. There was no way they could ever claim to be religious, that’s for sure. Here’s your freedom for today: offend people with your kindness to those who least expect it. Show mercy to those who don’t deserve it. Offend people’s religious propriety by moving with the Spirit and displaying the heart of God for all to see. You just might get to see some people’s lives changed.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 6 before reading the devotional below.

I’m the worst when it comes to rules. Not because I break them — quite the opposite actually. From a very young age I learned that when I followed the rules those around me were happy. When I saw others break the rules, the adults were not pleased and the consequences (both natural and imposed) were not something I wanted to experience. I began to trust in rules. And the more I tried to follow the rules, the more I realized that people also had preferences. Not rules exactly, just ways they liked things. And so I added that to my list of “rules” — things I did to please other people and get the positive reactions I liked. Pretty soon I became a lot of people’s favorite (you know I’m still your favorite, Mom…). I knew exactly who liked what things in which ways and my behavior always adjusted to make sure I met everyone’s standards. Then I added to that all the Bible rules that seemed to be there and I felt like I was doing pretty well keeping everyone including God happy.

And as much as I wish my children would bend to my preferences (which my sister assures me would turn them into creepy robot children), I have come to realize a few things about rules. For example, you will eventually reach places in life in which the people around you have conflicting preferences and you cannot make everyone happy at the same time. Another problem with rule-obsession is that you lose your sense of self. My heart’s desire was so strongly tied to rules and making others happy, I never asked myself what I needed or wanted. I had no understanding of grace, nor did I know how to receive it from God. Salvation is one thing. Grace in the midst of breaking rules is another.

Luke 6 brings us back to some of our earlier themes about rules versus life in the Spirit. Jesus breaks some rules and makes some people mad. Then he gives a sermon about all the ways that you can follow all the rules and be so far from the heart of God you have missed the whole point.

I still miss the point a lot. I still feel better when I can follow an exactly prescribed path and not have to do much thinking for myself. I still want to make everyone happy and it is very hard for me when that does not work. But God has begun to help teach me about his grace. I never wanted to need grace, honestly. If you follow all the rules you never need it. And Jesus came with that exact message: “If you think you don’t need grace, then you don’t need me. But if you know you need some grace, I’m handing it out freely.” Here’s your freedom for today: let your heart be moved by the grace of God. If you know you need it, take it today. And if you don’t want it, check in with your heart. Chances are you are protecting something that you are better off without.

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 5 before reading the devotional below. 

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” This jaded statement is sadly accurate in our world full of bait-and-switch trickery and high pressure sales tactics. “But wait! There’s more! Only 17 easy payments of $29.95! Plus a FREE gift worth $8,000,000 — yours for only $50 more!” And by the time your brand new electric toothbrush with mood-detecting bristles shows up in the mailbox, you start to wonder what you were thinking.

Now rewind to a very distant era with no electricity and very few resources, all of which take tremendous physical effort to obtain. You’re a fisherman, which means you smell awful and probably swear a lot. You work at night, and sometimes you get zero profit from your efforts. You’re exhausted and frustrated, cleaning out your nets before calling it quits for the day. Along comes this guy who is new to the scene. He seems different enough and rumors have circulated enough that you immediately call him “Master.” He tells you to go back out there and try to catch some more fish. You do it, but not without complaining first and threatening an “I told you so” that will surely come after he sees there are no fish to be caught. Turns out his instructions give you a week’s worth of fish in five minutes, and he just has a little smirk on his face as your boat starts sinking from fish overload.

What would you do next? Say thank you? Be amazed? In Luke 5:8, Peter basically freaks out and pushes Jesus away. He literally tells Jesus to leave. Why? Because Peter is confronted by his own sin. He knows he doesn’t deserve what Jesus just gave him. It’s too good to be true.

I have talked to so many people who have the exact same reaction to Jesus. “He forgives me? No way, with what I’ve done that can’t be true. Maybe for other people, but not me.” Others react this way when God starts to pour good gifts into their lives. “Thanks God… but what do you want? What am I going to have to give up now that you gave me this? When is the other shoe going to drop?”

Here’s your freedom for today: God loves being extremely generous. He likes watching you struggle to manage the piles of good gifts he’s pouring into your life. Sometimes you can’t keep up with the load of blessing he’s dumping on you. You have two choices: push Jesus away or follow him. Literally walk away from everything that feels secure and safe to chase after some guy who nearly sank your boat. Live life with curiosity as you chase after Jesus — what’s he going to do next??

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 4 before reading the devotional below. 

I typed the word “temptation” into BibleGateway.com once. Try it. Not sure about you, but I was really surprised to see that temptation is something the Bible says we will all face. Maybe that’s not such a shocking thought to you, but growing up as a Christian somewhere along the way I internalized the idea that being tempted is basically already well on your way to sinning. You failed because you even had the tempting thought cross your mind. But that’s not what the Bible says.

When you read all the verses about temptation in a row, you realize that Satan is always at work in doing the tempting. It is an action on his part. If Jesus was tempted, yet didn’t sin, then obviously being tempted is not a sin. In our passage today, Jesus resisted Satan’s efforts and used Scripture to defeat him. But I don’t think it would be called a “temptation” if there wasn’t some emotional part of Jesus that kind of wanted it. Satan offered Jesus things he could actually have. His tricks told the truth — you can turn this stone into bread if you want to, you can have this earthly kingdom that belongs to me, you can jump off this cliff and have angels come save you immediately! All of these were totally options for Jesus. And wouldn’t that have been easier.

Here’s where Satan has figured out a way to gamble on you and double his money: tempt you and then blame you for being tempted. You feel guilty without even falling for his temptation! And he laughs all the way to the bank. Here’s your freedom for today: temptation happens to all of us. It’s not your fault, and you didn’t do anything wrong. If you were tempted but you didn’t give in, don’t let Satan fool you into feeling guilty anyway. Instead, notice what you did to follow God’s path in the midst of a lure in a different direction. Jesus is celebrating that victory, why shouldn’t you?