Luke 12:22…

What do you have to worry about?

I imagine just about everything.

Worry is a peculiar malady of the human condition, but if you stop to think about it, it needn’t be. One thing we already know before Jesus tells us is worry produces nothing.

Except all kinds of health problems. It has become inarguable worry has a deleterious effect on our physical bodies. The list of medical issues brought on by hypertension and stress are seemingly endless.

And just thinking about the list of the physical disease and even death caused by worry causes me to begin to worry about it.

The very word ‘disease,’ if broken into syllables tells it all: dis – ease; or simply put, a lack of ease. How interesting that worry, (or a lack of ease about a particular situation,) would be so closely related to sickness - but it should be that way because we now know a lack of ease can cause sickness.

God has created man in His image with the capacity to think about the future. In part, this thinking about the future is where worry comes from. We wonder about our future welfare in this physical world.

If we are thinking correctly, this can be an amazing tool employed to tell us we are off track. A warning sign, if you will. An alarm to tell us the wrong door is being opened. Stop and think – what were you worried about at this time last year? You probably can’t remember - but even if you can remember - what happened to the worry you harbored then?

Life in Christ is to be a life free from worry, because worry produces nothing, and it also causes harm. If you have been walking with Christ long at all then you have noticed God’s spoken and written desire that nothing in this world would cause us harm. It is the reason for the Law. The Law protects us from harming ourselves. It is a manifestation of how much God loves us. When we worry, it is an instant reminder we have left dependency upon God and exchanged it for depending upon ourselves.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 12:1…

After speaking forcefully and truthfully to those who were demonstrably against Him while pretending to be for God, Jesus turns to His followers and begins to speak lovingly and truthfully to those who are for Him.

The loving truth is there will be a cost associated with following and gathering with Jesus, and He tells them God sees and God knows the extent to which they follow.

Remembering this teaching began with Jesus informing all who were listening and paying attention there was no neutral ground when it comes to being a child of God, and telliing everyone you are either for Him or against Him – He now warns His followers you cannot fake this.

The Pharisees were prime examples, and this is why He had scolded them so severely. The way Jesus spoke to the Pharisees would have been extremely shocking to those gathered to hear Him speak. Jesus has just accused the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers of being complete fakes. In essence, they were followers of Satan, not God, and any who chose to follow them were actually in danger of the judgment they were to receive. The days of pretending to follow God by religious external practice while your heart is wicked are over. (In reality they always have been.)

But can you speak like this to the powerful religious leaders and get away with it?

Ummm…No. And this will be the cost of being a genuine follower of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus is going to be killed by the fake followers of God as a demonstration of what it means to NOT be a hypocrite, and to not be one who fears those who can kill the mortal body but cannot touch the soul.

Obviously there is great fear induced by this kind of teaching, and explains why these eternal reminders are so important to us. If we value this life above the next, we may be inclined to recant under the pressure of the hypocrites who seek to punish those who are genuine children of God.

How comforting it is to know we are never alone in this pressure of punishment by external forces. Jesus reminds us God sees our plight, and God knows all we go through to follow Jesus. His eye is even on the sparrow. He knows the numbers of hairs on our head. He certainly watches over those who genuinely love Jesus no matter what.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 11:33…

Light has fantastic and phenomenal properties. It is impossible to imagine life without light.

As far as life is concerned, light has always been present because light preceded life, and light enables life both to exist and to thrive.

Since light has so many wonderful and necessary properties for life, we ascribe a literary quality to light.

We imagine ‘wisdom’ as a form of light, and we say wisdom ‘illuminates’ the ‘darkness’ - as if the absence of light equals the absence of wisdom.

For this reason, no one would take light and hide it or bury it or do anything to conceal it once it has been lit. Light is so special it is always given the lead position in our lives, because without it we cannot ‘see.’

Since our perception of light is a function of our sense of sight, Jesus warns us about the quality of the ‘light’ we choose to ‘see’ by. Of course this is the true function of light – it enables us to see.

But what if the things we choose to ‘see’ are not worthy of our God-given sight?

Jesus explains this would be ‘darkness,’ not in the literal sense, but figuratively. But this figurative sense of darkness has every bit as much potential to cause us real harm as literal darkness does – only more, since this (spiritual) darkness we invite has eternal ramifications.

Those who imagine no God are in this condition. By their own advanced educational ‘wisdom’ they imagine themselves not only to be ‘enlightened’ but also to be those capable and even insistent upon ‘enlightening’ others.

This is why Jesus says, “take heed the light you see is not darkness.” No one with any intelligence would take God’s true and pure light and replace it with an incandescent bulb. It is pure unadulterated ignorance which replaces God’s design with man’s ideas.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 11:24…

Jesus has announced His intent to bring to an end the spirit that would divide anyone from God. He has shared the strength required to do so, and demonstrated that He alone has that strength. The only way to drive the strongman from his palace is for a stronger than he to come.

Jesus has come to defeat Satan at every point, and He reveals the ease of the strength of God to do so. It is finger work for God.

In fact, it is only by our denial of the power of God in the Person of the Holy Spirit of God that we allow – and by default empower – Satan to accomplish his goal to divide us from God. Jesus opposes Satan at every turn and He has the power to defeat him.

Sometimes by what we regard as ‘clean living’ we deny the power of God. We may think the power of God is unnecessary in our lives.

The classic example is the person who after a long struggle with a particular destructive behavior finally summons up the will power, or employs some sort of support group, in an effort to succeed against that particular behavior – and is successful. By all outward appearance victory over bad and destructive behavior has taken place. Perhaps the person walking in this degree of victory may even become an example to many and write a self-help manual about gaining victory over the physical impediment by employing some sort of physical method.

Jesus pulls back the curtain to the spiritual realm and lets us know our enemy is spiritual not physical. All the physical methods and all the will power in the world cannot and will not defeat Satan.

It is also revealed Satan does not respond to or respect neutrality when it comes to the things of God. We must be FOR God in order to access the power of God necessary to drive Satanic influence out of our lives once and for all.

Getting ourselves all ‘cleaned up’ by human effort just makes the place that much nicer for the demon spirit to inhabit once again, and explains the never ending cycle in the world of temporary victories followed by even greater falls.

-Pastor Bill