My Daily Pause

When the Sadducees challenged Jesus about the resurrection, (Luke 20:27-40) they had the same characteristics of those who teach false doctrine and those who don’t even believe in God.

Jesus teaching in the Temple, from the book Standard Bible Story Readers, Book Five (1928) Authors O. A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland

• They made up a ridiculous situation (even if it was possible)
• They were setting out to trap the believer
• They were using Scripture out of context
• They had no response when they received an informed answer

So much of what those that believe in error and nonbelievers think can be attributed to a pure lack of study. No matter what category of wrong people fall into, they are all guilty of not giving honest effort to trying to find the truth.

In the parallel account of this event, (Mathew 22:22-33) Matthew records Jesus calling it like it is:

You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. – Matthew 22:29

As a whole, the Jews got caught up in all the lore and procedure and forgot to study their Scriptures. No wonder they didn’t understand everything the Lord came to teach!

When we decide not to give God’s word enough study, we lose our opportunity to save some of these folks from the same fate. So many people that claim to not believe justify it behind ridiculous scenarios like the Sadducees did.

Most importantly … Let’s study more so we don’t fall into the same trap!

Daily Bible reading for September 28

Psalm 58
2 Samuel 17:24-18:33
Ezekiel 19
Luke 19:47-20:44

Flevit super illam (He wept over it) 1892 – Enrique Simonet (1866–1927)

From the time of Jesus’ triumphal entry (Luke 19:37) until his crucifixion, the Pharisees were able to turn the crowd against Jesus. In less than a week, nearly everyone was influenced and mobilized against him.

Turning the crowd’s attitude seems to be pretty easy:

• We have seen lots of laws passed in the last few years that that would have never been considered before.
• We see attitudes and actions being praised that would have ruined careers in previous generations.
• We are giving away rights and responsibilities that many before us died over.

The formula is straight-forward:

• Plant an idea.
• Talk about it.
• Live it.
• Repeat.

I believe we still have enough devoted Christians to do the same thing they did.

But someone has to start.

Daily Bible reading for September 27

Psalm 57
2 Samuel 16:15-17:23
Ezekiel 18
Luke 19:28-46

Jesus healing the blind beggar (Luke 18:35-43) makes me think of The Parable of Persistent Widow and Jesus healing the paralytic. (Mark 2:1-12) All are demonstrations of persistence and not allowing other people and conditions to get in the way of our salvation. (Luke 18:2-8) It is good to know that when life seems grim, the Lord is listening for our call.

Christ Healing the Blind Man c. 1640 – Gioacchino Assereto (1600–1649)

As the beggar is calling out to Jesus, others are trying to silence him. The “upper class” Pharisees are crowding the front and no doubt, planning and scheming Jesus’ demise. I can almost see their anger as he keeps calling out to the “Son of David!”

Jesus’ first words on the Sermon on the Mount were words of comfort to the less fortunate and those who do not allow suffering to be a reason to lose faith. (Matthew 5:3-11) We see him making good on this throughout his ministry. If our goal is to imitate Jesus’ example, then we need to avoid:

• looking down on others
• silencing others’ enthusiasm
• discouraging others’ ambition

Just like he proved on that noisy street outside Jericho, our Lord is listening to all his faithful children.

Daily Bible reading for September 26

Psalm 56
2 Samuel 15:13-16:14
Ezekiel 17
Luke 18:31-19:27

As Luke leads the reader into The Parable of the Unjust Judge, he tells us that we ought to always be in a prayerful state. (Luke 18:1) As God is being contrasted to the Unjust Judge, we are shown the power of persistence. (Luke 18:2-8)

When we are not regular enough with our praying, we risk being guilty of treating God like a gumball machine. In fact, when Jesus taught the crowd to “ask, seek and knock” (Matthew 7:7) he followed up by speaking of those actions as continuous in nature. (Matthew 7:8) Among the closing words of 1 Thessalonians, Paul reminds us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

When our prayers are not answered right away, we can know that we have been heard. Throughout the Bible, we see that God’s answers and promises were given in his own time. Although, when those prayers are for relief, it can be difficult to keep the faith. In those cases we can take comfort in what our Lord went through in comparison. (Hebrews 12:3)

Similar to the widow in Jesus’ parable, sometimes it is persistence that wins the day.

Daily Bible reading for September 25

Psalm 55
2 Samuel 14:25-15:12
Ezekiel 16
Luke 18:1-30

In the margin of my Bible, beside the account of the ten lepers, (Luke 17:11-19) I have this written:

How often do the love and life of the pardoned sinner fail to respond to the grace that saved him! – Lamar

I don’t remember writing it there, but it pretty much sums up the reason the event is included in the Bible. All too often, we forget to give credit where credit is due when our prayers are answered. Here Jesus is showing his disappointment at being forgotten.

Among the exhortations Paul closed Philippians with, he reminds the reader to pray and make our requests in the spirit of thanksgiving. (Philippians 4:6) Giving God the glory for our successes and blessings is key to maintaining our faith.

Daily Bible reading for September 24

Psalm 54
2 Samuel 14:1-24
Ezekiel 14-15
Luke 17:11-37