Reference: (Luke 12, verses 51 and 52) “Do you think that I came to give peace upon the earth?No, I tell you, but division. For henceforth in one house five will be divided, three against two, and two against three.”
What was Jesus really trying to explain to us here in these passages of Luke?Simply that upon his return, his sheer presence will create turmoil and conflict between the believers and the non-believers. The divisions that will arise may even occur amongst families. Our loyalty to Jesus will surely be put to the test.Some of us may be facing these kinds of conflict already. Whether it is a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, that have turned their back away from God, we must remain steadfast in our loyalty to God,even if it means a separation from close loved ones.
We have to pray for the ones that have gone astray but never compromise our loyalty to Jesus, because if we do, we will jeopardize our hopes to reside with Eternal Life by his side.
Reference: (Luke 12: 15)Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, ones life does not consist of possessions.”
When is the last time you sat down to inventory the priorities of your endeavors?Are we spending too much of our time and energy to our jobs and careers, in order to support too many of the material pleasures in this world? Are we trading quality family time for the new BMW out in the garage, or the trip to the Virgin Islands? Have we lost themeaningful intimacy with our spouse or the children? Yes, work is important but we can become slaves to our greed and high appetite for worldly pleasures.
The richest people of this world are the people who lust for Eternal Life with Jesus Christ, and then pass this spiritual love on, as an inheritance to their family. Teaching your family the love of Jesus is a fargreater legacy to bequeath to your family, rather than a huge sum of money.
(Reference –Matthew 4: 1-11) So Jesus’ earthly ministry continues and he is led into the dessert where he bumps into guess who, Satan. Well, one of the purposes of this trial by temptation offered by Satan was for us to see that Jesus was the son of God and could resist temptation, evil, and sin. It was also God’s plan to demonstrate by example that Jesus, also in human flesh, can resist the temptations of the Devil, as we should all. After fasting for forty days Jesus had to be super hungry but refused Satan’s scheme to discredit Jesus’ ministry by suggesting Jesus turn the stones to bread. Now that has to be a very darn hard thing to do when you’re that hungry and if you have the power to quell your hunger instantly like Jesus could of. But Jesus would not give in! We do know that Satan knows Scripture very well. The Devil knows it better than we do as a matter of fact and he even attempted to Slant and Spin the Scripture to Jesus in his endeavor to have Jesus cave. And we should all remember that Satan continues this ploy on us today!Read more… »
