Chapter-a-Day Luke 13

: Image by chotda via Flickr

Then [Jesus] said, “How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use? It’s like a pine nut that a man plants in his front yard. It grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches, and eagles build nests in it.” Luke 13:18-19 (MSG)

When I read these words of Jesus, it reminded me of the message we heard in worship yesterday. In a world in which “instant” this and “convenient” that is marketed to us incessantly, I find it easy to want my spiritual maturity to be a simple recipe:

Instant Christian
1 part Jesus
1/2 part prayer
Pinch of knowledge of God’s Message
Dash of church

Directions: Add ingredients into a soul and stir.

I’m reminded this morning that God’s kingdom is not about a moment, but an eternity. It is not a destination but a journey. I look back and see how far I’ve come, but then I look to the horizon and see how far I have to go.

So I begin another hour of another day within another week in another year of the journey. God, have your way in me as I press on.

3 thoughts on “Chapter-a-Day Luke 13”

A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives.

I grew up sort of thinking this way. Sort of. I knew that my personal relationship with Christ and my accepting Him as Lord of my life is what granted me salvation, yet the community I lived in felt more like the “neighborhood”, where you would be at the banquet as reward for showing up all the time. Part of the disadvantage of growing up in a mostly homogenous community is that sharing Christ with strangers just didn’t happen in our day-to-day events. Everybody…I mean everybody…CLAIMED to be a member of the Christian community. I have learned alot as I have matured and want to make my kids more aware of the throngs of people around us who don’t know Christ.

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