Tag Archives: healthy

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – A MIRROR IN OUR MOUTHS!

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A MIRROR IN OUR MOUTHS!

“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, or good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

Why are you so polite with me, always saying ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘That’s right, sir,’ but never doing a thing I tell you. These words I speak are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.'” Luke 6:43-47.

There is huge wisdom in Jesus’ simple stories and illustrations. All the sages and wise teachers on earth with all their intricate philosophical ideas have not taught us about real life as accurately as He has – and He drew His wisdom from the natural world which everyone can see if we would only look and learn.

Here is a very basic law which would shock us if we took to heart what it is telling us. In nature it’s the root that produces the fruit, not the other way around. ‘Of course, we know that,’ we respond, but do we realise the implications?

Jesus has just given us a simple prescription for defeating our enemies by turning them into friends. ‘Be generous and gracious,’ He said. ‘Be gentle and humble. Don’t treat people the way they treat you. Start a new chapter by turning the tables on them. Be as kind to them as you can and you’ll put an end to the enmity right there because it will have nothing to feed on.’

Why did He have to say things like this? Isn’t it just because we do treat people the way they treat us, just like everyone else in the world does? If someone insults us, we take it a step further. If someone hurts or offends us, we engage in character assassination by telling everyone around us what he or she said or did. We try to defend ourselves by stabbing our enemy in the back. We make ourselves look good by making the other person look bad.

The real issue of which we are blissfully aware is that our words and actions say more about us than they do about the person who wronged us. That is exactly what Jesus was pointing out. Our words and deeds are like a surgeon’s knife. They cut us open right to the heart and show everyone around us just what we are like! Our words and actions are the fruit of what is inside – the root.

James was Jesus’ brother. He grew up with Him. He must have listened to His wisdom many times and been angered and frustrated by what He said because, after all, He was only his brother, and no-one takes a brother seriously. But after he came to faith in Him, he took to heart his brother’s teaching and reproduced it in his letter.

“With our tongues we bless God our Father, and with the same tongues we curse the very men and women He made in His image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it…?” James 3:9-11.

Why is this? Jesus gives us the simple answer: “You never do a thing I tell you.” His words are simple and make a lot of sense. They are not incomprehensible theological treatises or complicated philosophical ideas. They are the simple observations of nature, and they work in nature so why not in our lives? Because we ignore them and do it our way.

We would be horrified if we thought people could see into our hearts but we don’t realise that we have a mirror in our mouths and what we say is constantly giving us away!

So why not take Jesus seriously, turn the tables on our “enemies”, act like we love them and experience the change that God supernaturally produces when we choose to do the right thing?

Will you?

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – A TENDER MOMENT

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A TENDER MOMENT

“‘And you, my child, ‘Prophet of the Highest’,                                                                                will go ahead of the Master to prepare His ways,                                                                      Present the offer of salvation to His people,                                                                                    the forgiveness of their sins,                                                                                                                  Through the heartfelt mercies of our God.                                                                                         God’s Sunrise will break upon us,                                                                                                         Shining in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death,                                                     then showing us the way, one foot at a time,                                                                                    Down the path of peace.’

“The child grew up healthy and spirited. He lived out in the desert until the day he made his prophetic debut in Israel,” Luke 1:76-80.

What a privilege we have to eavesdrop on Zachariah’s tender moment with his baby son! Many a father has cradled his new-born child in his arms, nuzzled its downy cheek and whispered words of expectation and hope into its ears. For Zachariah, this was a moment he never thought would happen. There was no digital camera to capture it for him, but Luke’s pen did the job equally well.

Instead of words of uncertainty and scepticism, Zachariah uttered the words that were birthed in the heart of God and spoken by the angel into his reluctant ears. All his doubts were swept away by this flesh-and-blood baby boy he held in his arms. If God could go against physical nature to make it happen, he had no doubt that God could overcome every other obstacle to fulfil His dream for this child.

There are two profound principles in the prophetic utterance of the old priest. Firstly, it was imperative that he release through his oneness with God, the will of God to be fulfilled in the life of his son. In the beginning God appointed mankind to manage the earth for and with Him. How would this be done?

This is an aspect of prayer that many believers do not understand. God revealed to Amos that He does nothing without telling His servants the prophets. Why? Was it just to keep them informed, or was there something more to it? We find the clue in David’s response to God’s word to him through the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 7:18-29). David affirmed and released God’s promise to be fulfilled by these words, “Do as you promised…”

Perhaps many of God’s promises to us remain unfulfilled because we have not released them into our lives through our declaration of faith in what He had said. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NIV).

There is a second important principle in Zachariah’s words. He was not only affirming God’s word, he was also affirming his son. At the beginning of John’s life, before he had done anything good or bad, Zachariah gave him his fatherly blessing, releasing him into the potential for which he was created. No child can ever become everything he was made to be without the father’s blessing.

Our world is full of broken and unfulfilled lives because fathers have never said these simple words, “You are my son; you are my daughter, and I love you.” It was in the strength of these words, spoken at His baptism, that Jesus went out and conquered the world. He could say with utmost confidence, “My Father…” because His Father had audibly affirmed the relationship that gave Him His identity and released the power to become who He was, the Son of God.

It’s now wonder John grew up “healthy and spirited”!

I don’t think any of these thoughts crossed Zachariah’s mind as he pondered the nature of the child in Elizabeth’s womb. But, nevertheless, he must have considered the possibility that, since the angel had prophesied the birth of a baby to two people too old to have a child, the child would become and do all that Gabriel had said.

When Zachariah’s thinking became one with the mind of the Father, he was ready to receive and father the prophet in whom was invested the honour of fulfilling God’s plan. The early years of this child were crucial to his mission. He had to have a father who clearly understood his role in the raising of this boy. Unless Zachariah fully embraced the angel’s prophetic words, who would sow the seeds of John’s future into his life and destiny?

It was Zachariah’s role to prepare him for his future task. In this prophetic utterance of an overwhelmed dad, Zachariah expressed his confidence in the prophetic word and fully embraced his fatherly responsibility to raise his son into the role of which the angel had spoken.