The 260 Journey

Day 50

Today's Reading: Luke 6

I know there is a lot of folklore that goes with the masterpiece of the Lord’s Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. Whether this is true or not, I love this story I read recently about the painting.

When Leonardo Da Vinci was working on this famous Last Supper painting, he became angry with one of his assistants, berating the man without mercy. After banishing his assistant from his studio, he went back to work. As an act of revenge, he used the person’s face who had offended him for the face of Judas.

He continued his work until he tried to paint the face of Jesus, and he couldn’t do it. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to paint Christ’s. So he stopped painting, went to his assistant and asked his forgiveness. Only when the man forgave him and they reconciled was Da Vinci able to return to the table of the Last Supper and paint Jesus.

When Leonardo showed mercy and pardon to his assistant, Jesus became a lot clearer. This is where we land in today’s reading. Jesus becomes clearer to us and the world around us based on how we respond to people who hurt us or take advantage of us. In fact, when we read this chapter, we recognize that it’s about Christian retaliation.

Listen to Jesus’ words from Luke’s Sermon on the Mount:

I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. (Luke 6:27-31)

Here is the Christian retaliation: Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Notice I didn’t say to post about it on social media. We are to pray, not post.

If a person hits you on one side, offer the other side. If they steal, give them something else they didn’t ask for. Give to everyone who asks of you and don’t demand back.

This seems unnatural to do—and it is. It’s supernatural. This is where the face of Jesus shows up clearer for you, on you, and for others.

A number of years ago, Dr. David H. Fink, a psychiatrist for the veterans’ administration, wrote a book titled, Release from Nervous Tension. In his book, he outlined his research into the causes of mental and emotional disturbances in people’s lives.

From more than ten thousand case studies, he discovered a common trait among all his patients who suffered from severe tension. They were habitual fault-finders, constant critics of people and things around them. Those who were free from tension and anxiety were the least critical. His conclusions were that the habit of fault-finding is a prelude or mark of the nervous, or the mentally unbalanced. Those who wish to retain good emotional and mental health should learn to free themselves from a negative and critical attitude.

Thank you, Dr. Fink, but Jesus already mapped this out for us two thousand years earlier in His Sermon on the Mount. Instead of Jesus coming from a case-study standpoint, He came from the Creator standpoint. He already knew what was best for the people He created. So Jesus said, “Here’s how you respond to the craziness of people’s actions and reactions . . . instead of being critical and negative, do the supernatural.”

And here is the result: when we do that, we get what we give and we will get more of it.

If we show love, we will get a lot more back.

If we show mercy, we will get it overflowing back.

If we show pardon, we will be forgiven many times over.

Jesus was telling us to let someone off the hook today. You may “have them” and have a screenshot of a text they sent, for example. You have a smoking gun. But how about showing mercy and pardoning them? Your goal every day is not to convict and find evidence on how bad people are to you. Instead, Jesus wants your goal to be to pardon when you have the evidence to convict.

Here are the rest of Jesus’ words to those who retaliate this way:

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. (Luke 6:35)

Did you catch that? Your reward will be great when you retaliate God’s way. What kind of reward was Jesus referring to? He tells us in verse 38:

Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.

I have heard this verse in regards to money. If this is how you’ve interpreted this verse, I hate to break this to you, but there are no dollar signs around this verse. Instead read the prior ten verses to see what verse 38 means:

• It has to do with what you give to people who hurt you
• It’s a new level of relating to people
• It’s Christian retaliation

Over the years, leaders have preached that the “give” in verse 38 is money, but not according to Jesus. There are enough verses on money in the Bible that we don’t need to make square pieces fit into round holes. Jesus is not talking about giving money but giving pardon and mercy to people.

In New Testament times, men wore their outer garment in such a way as to have a pocket on the front, which was used for holding wheat that had been purchased. They would buy a pocket full of wheat and pour it into the pocket and press and shake it down so as much as possible would fit in. If the purchaser received so much wheat that even after doing all that pressing and shaking it still overflowed outside of his garment, he was considered to be especially blessed.

Jesus was saying that when you show mercy, pardon, love, and generosity to those who deserve the opposite, you are about to get a whole bunch of mercy, pardon, love, and generosity coming your way.

Retaliate the right way—the Jesus way—and you’ll find the rewards are amazing.

I could have saved Dr. Fink the time and government money he spent in studying those ten thousand cases and just had him study the Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6.

Day 49

Today's Reading: Luke 5

I have a prayer I pray that a pastor friend from Alabama taught me. It goes like this: “Lord, the answer is yes even before You ask.”

I want to be able to say yes to the Lord at all times. I want you to be able to do that too, so let me talk to you about fishing and your yes, Lord agreement.

I don’t really fish. I have been fishing but I am by no means a fisherman nor do I enjoy it.

You always hear of people telling their fish story where the fish seems to get bigger and bigger the more they tell it. In actuality they caught Nemo, but over time they hooked Jaws.

Today’s reading shows us a great fish story. This one is Peter’s:

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken. (Luke 5:1-9)

Don’t miss those first few words, because they are significant.

Jesus saw two boats (verse 2).

He got into one boat (verse 3).

He saw two, He got into one. This leaves me with the question, had I been there, would it have been my boat He got into?

Why is that important? It’s important because that’s the boat the miracle came from. That’s the boat that had the big fish story attached to it. That’s the boat that caught so many fish that the net broke.

But something else happened. Verse 7 says when the fishermen saw that the net was breaking, “they signaled to their partners in the other boat.” That’s boat number 2 of the story—the boat that wasn’t chosen. Peter received the miracle; the other boat received the overflow.

The other boat didn’t have Jesus preach from it.

The other boat didn’t have Jesus challenge them to go out deeper.

The other boat didn’t hear fishing commands from a carpenter.

The other boat got to participate with the fish.

The other boat did not get a fish story but they got to tell another man’s fish story.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized . . .

I want God to choose me.

I want God to pick my boat.

I want God to pick my family.

I’m tired of telling other people’s fish stories. I’m tired of getting to experience other people’s obedience.

It’s time for me to go out deeper.

It’s time for me to hear from God for myself.

It’s time for me to let the carpenter tell the experienced man, “You don’t know everything, do what I say.”

It’s time for me to get my own fish story.

Tired of secondhand fish stories? There are always two boats ready! It’s time for you to say, “Yes, Lord! Use my boat, Jesus!”

Day 48

Today's Reading: Luke 4

In today’s reading we actually get to read one of the most amazing chapters of a different book—Psalm 91. Psalm 91 starts off with these familiar words:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” (Verses 1-2)

And then Psalm 91 ends with these powerful words from God:

He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation. (Verses 15-16)

It is an entire psalm of God’s protection on His children. Sandwiched in between these verses is specific protection from God’s angels, His army:

He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. (Verses 11-12)

We find this psalm quoted in Luke 4, but what makes this crazy is the one who quotes it. Ready for this? Satan, the devil himself quotes the Bible—to Jesus, God Himself.

As we read today, Jesus is in the wilderness with the devil and He is fighting against the three temptations Satan throws at Him by quoting Scripture. Three times Jesus says, “It is written” to the devil. For the second temptation, Satan takes Jesus to the top of the temple and tempts Jesus to jump off the pinnacle and then complicates the temptation by quoting Psalm 91:

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (Verses 9-11, NIV)

A crazy temptation gets muddied when the devil quotes the Bible, which makes it seem justified. Satan says, “It is written” just as Jesus said it. The devil knows the Bible and that the devil quotes and uses and manipulates it is a very scary thought.

People don’t realize that nothing is off limits for Satan. His attacks are not always to tempt us with obvious things, like porn, alcohol, or drugs. He can use the Bible to try to get people to do things in the name of God, without God being anywhere near it.

Just because you have a Bible verse to back up your thoughts and actions may not mean that verse came from God. Could the devil have spoken a Verse to you?

He did to Jesus. Listen closely. How do you think cults get started. With just one verse that Satan manipulates and tempts people to believe. Where do cults get their beginning? With a Satanic interpretation of a Bible verse. Satan’s interpretation of Psalm 91 was that God wanted Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple to show that God wouldn’t let Him fall, that His angels would catch Him. Nothing could be more of an abuse to a passage of Scripture than what Satan told Jesus.

He tried to get Jesus to do something based upon an isolated Scripture that wasn’t interpreted in light of the whole Bible.

Did you get that? It is not that the Bible is in contradiction, it is that our interpretations contradict the Bible. And the misinterpretation comes when we define a verse without understanding its context, when we define a verse isolated from the entire Bible’s intent.

Some years ago I was sitting with a young man in a Detroit diner who was convinced that Billy Graham and I were both going to hell if we were not baptized with a certain formula that his group said we had to be baptized with. For him salvation was built on a baptism formula instead of on the blood shed at Calvary. His religious group took a Bible passage and instead of adding all the other verses together, they jumped off into thin air. The very thing Jesus did not do.

Remember the issue in the wilderness temptation: It isn’t the Bible that contradicts itself, but our wrong interpretations that contradict the Bible.

Bible interpretation must be done with a number of things in view:

• Historical context
• Original languages
• Context
• Rest of the Bible (seeing the whole not just the one passage)

There are people who will take passages and find themselves jumping into thin air and will find no angels to catch their fall.

So here is what Jesus does in this scene: He interprets the Word with the Word. Many times we interpret the Word with books. The Bible interprets the Bible.

So what does all this mean to you and me?

First, nothing is off-limits to Satan. He will use holy things and pervert them. The Bible is not out of bounds; Satan is no respecter of persons. Think about it, he quoted God’s Word to Jesus, not to some new convert. He will pervert passages and preachers and churches. Nothing is safe when the devil is around.

Second, we must live by the whole Bible not a verse. People have done crazy things based on one verse and have failed to enrich themselves and
others.

Satan can use an “out of context” Bible verse to get us to do something out of God’s will. Out of context is out of God’s will. Be prepared and be alert to the devil’s schemes.

Day 47

Today's Reading: Luke 3

Today I want to take you to a water baptism class. I believe that water baptism displays the difference between the casual Christian and a serious follower of Jesus, because it is clear in the Bible that it is a next step after being born again. As Max Lucado says, “Baptism separates the tire kickers from the car buyers.”

Water Baptism does not mark an arrival but a beginning. Let me tell you four things that are important about water baptism:

1. It’s Scriptural

Water baptism was Jesus’ idea not the church’s. In Matthew 28:19-20, we read that Jesus connected water baptism to discipleship. Water baptism is done when a person is born again. You never read of an unbaptized believer anywhere in the Bible. Water baptism is done after second birth, not the first birth. There is not one single verse in the Bible that says you become a Christian when your body touches the water.

2. Historically, It’s Public

You are going public with your faith. When you get water baptized, you get advertised. It is a public declaration to show everyone whom you are following. You will see places in Scripture that say, “There was much water.”

They would do this outside in a lake or a river. Wherever it took place, it was for everyone to see what had happened to that person. The same is true for you. The city, your family, your coworkers, heaven, and hell now know you have taken the second step of discipleship with your walk with Jesus.

3. It’s Symbolic

When we get married, we say, “With this ring, I thee wed.” Though we make that statement, we know that putting the ring on the finger is not what makes us married. The same is true with water baptism. There is no magic water. It’s not the water that does anything; it is our step of obedience that is the big deal. To make it anything more than a symbol is dangerous, it’s like worshiping our wedding bands.

To cling to a symbol is what many try to do, though. And they miss what God is trying to show us. What is the symbol? It is a symbol of death, burial, and resurrection.

4. Practically, It’s a Next Obedience Step

Can we go to heaven dry and unbaptized? Of course we can. Anyone who says differently forgot a story about a thief on the cross who did not have the time or the tank to be baptized (see Luke 23:39-43).

You express love by obedience. Love is not just a feeling. Love is a controlling passion to do something for the one we love. The apostle John told us, “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you” (John 14:15, MSG).

What makes Luke 3 crazy is how different John the Baptist’s baptismal class is:

[John] began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9)

I don’t know if I would start my water baptism class with calling the people “snakes.” My class would start off with something like this, “I am so glad you are here.”

After John called them snakes, he told them that an axe was resting on the root of their hearts waiting to chop it down if they have not repented and fruit has not come from their lives.

It’s incredible what happens next: the people ask, “What shall we do?”

They got it!

I remember Leonard Ravenhill once telling me that when God is moving with repentance, we don’t have to tell people what to do, because they will ask us what to do before we tell them.

That’s what the people did with John the Baptist. What’s interesting is that in verses 11-14, we see he gave direction to three different groups of people:

The first group were the multitudes. He told this group to learn to be givers, to share their blessings (verse 11).

The second group were the tax collectors. He told them not to be like everyone else; to be different and to act like believers in their jobs. He wanted them to use their jobs as an arena for them to show off God’s power in their lives, that they should be different—no matter how others act (verses 12-13).

The third group were the Roman soldiers. He told them to stop abusing their authority, build relationships, and be content with their wages (verse 14).

Then something amazing happened: the people got baptized that day—the multitudes, the tax collectors, and the soldiers. Not only did they get baptized, verse 21 tells us that Jesus also got baptized.

They got baptized with Jesus! What a powerful lesson for you today: you never know what will happen when you do what God wants you to do.

Day 46

Today’s Reading: Luke 2

One of my favorite quotes about moms comes from the old 1960s’ comedian Milton Berle: “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”

With all a mother has to do, it is no surprise when a child gets accidentally left behind in the rush and frenzy of trying to get someplace. Have you ever done that? My wife and I have . . . or should I say, I have. I think each of my children have called me while I was driving in my car to tell me I left them at church.

Have you ever lost a child in a store? In our family when I was growing up, we had a special whistle that my mom had. When we were lost we just listened for that whistle. Every mother has experienced losing a child at one time or another. Don’t be discouraged; even the best mother ever messed up. Ready for this? Mary, the mother of Jesus, lost Him.

That’s our study today as we dive into Luke 2.

It can be embarrassing to lose a child. But what if your child is Jesus—and you lost Him? Then it’s cataclysmic. Let’s read the story:

Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast; and as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him to be in the caravan, and went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:41-49)

I love Mary and think she is an amazing woman. This story tells me why Mary could not be sinless, though. You can’t be sinless and lose God.

Let’s get a couple of lessons from our story. Mary and Joseph made two big mistakes in this situation:

1. They supposed Him to be in the caravan;

2. They looked for Him among their relatives.

Let’s consider the first mistake: they assumed Jesus was there without checking. They “supposed Him to be in the caravan.” How many times have we supposed something? We suppose because we are in a church that Jesus is there; or we suppose because someone says they are saved that Jesus is there in their heart. We can’t suppose anything. The question is: “Is He there or is He not there?” How do I know if Jesus is with you? Because wherever Jesus is, change happens. Not change on your weekend when you come to church, but an everyday change!

How long has your journey gone on and you have not stopped even to ask yourself, Is Jesus with me? Or how long has it been until you realized that Jesus is not there with you? Thank God it took Mary and Joseph only a day to figure out that He wasn’t with them; many go on for years.

Their second mistake was that they assumed, If He is with the family, He is with me.

This is really dangerous. They looked for Him among their relatives, but they looked in the wrong place. We do that too. We look for Jesus in a church, a denomination, even on a day of the week. How often have we even thought, My mom is religious, so I am religious too. Your mom may have Jesus, but that doesn’t mean you do. The place you look for Jesus is in your own heart. God only comes where we invite Him into our lives. He is not there automatically. As John 1:12-13 (NIV) tells us: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

When it was all said and done, it took Mary and Joseph four days to finally find Jesus:

When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. (Luke 2:45-46)

As Tim Keller reminds us:

Every religious founder of every major religion says, “I’m a prophet who has come to show you the way to God.” But of all the major religions of the world, only Christianity has a founder who has the audacity to say “I am God, and I have come to find you.” Do you realize how different that is?

If Jesus is not with us, let’s find Him today. Or let’s get it straight that He is not lost, we are.