Danny Panter – Page 35 – The Everyday Prayer

Darkness

“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land…” Luke 23:44

It was the great day of the Lord fallen on Jesus’ shoulders. That’s what Luke wants us to see in the darkness (Amos 8:9). This was much more than the noble death of an innocent man, but the wrath of God poured out; it was judgement day. Not just anyone’s judgment day, but everyone’s, yours and mine, with Jesus receiving the full brunt of sin’s reward.The grace we receive has never been free. Jesus died in the darkness, so we could live in the light.

Listen

Re: Verse reading–Luke 16:19-31 (day six)

The last books (chronologically) in the Old Testament where written about 400 years before Jesus was born. The books of Moses were written another 1100 years before that. That was old then, and it is old now. Antiquated. But listen to how Jesus spoke of these Scriptures, “Moses and the prophets,” as if their words weren’t antiquated at all. These weren’t archaic voices from the ancients, but God-breathed words put to paper meant to quicken the dead hearts of men and women until the end of time. God’s voice is as clear and relevant now, as it was when He first inspired Moses and the prophets to write them.

When we come to God’s Word, we are not coming to an old thing, but we are coming to words spoken by a person, to us NOW. Let’s not take them for granted like the rich man and his brothers.

Coming to Our Senses

Re:Verse reading–Luke 15:1-2, 11-32 (day six)

“I didn’t come into the world to condemn every sinner, I came to forgive and give life even to the worst sinner.”-Jesus, (John 3:17, my own paraphrase)

The older son wanted his dad to condemn his brother, rather than rejoice in his restoration. The whole point of the story is to expose the disparity between the pharisees’ condemnation of sinners and God’s mercy and grace towards sinners (that’s us). In keeping with the story, Jesus’ purpose in telling it was not to stick it to the pharisees. He wanted them to come to their senses too; he wanted them to repent and know the grace and mercy of the Father that the younger son enjoyed.

The question for us is the same Jesus had for the pharisees, will we rejoice when God redeems the most unworthy of sinners (for sometimes we think somehow we are worthy) and gathers them in our church family? Are better yet, should we repent (as a church family) of our indifference towards sinners?

Guts

Re:Verse reading–Luke 7:36-50 (day six)

What I admire most about this woman is her shear guts, her no-one-is-keeping-me-from-Jesus courage. She wasn’t walking into friendly territory; she had been marked with a letter s, for sinner. The pharisees were smug; they would never come in contact with such a sinful woman. She was a dark stain, the other, the one that doesn’t belong; she was the, “that’s what wrong with our society.” She was walking into a room full of daggers for eyes,..and she couldn’t have cared less, because in the heart of that room was her Jesus!

I don’t know what having her kind of guts would mean for me; I know I would likely be different in how I talk about Jesus to others, how I worship, how I love the least of these. All I know is that I want more of it! Guts!

Chrysalis

Re:Verse reading—Luke 6:17-45 (day six)

“A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher.” -Jesus, Luke 6:40

There is a certainty that Jesus alludes to, that all of us will be like our teacher. It begs the question though, who is our teacher (or what)? Jesus assumes a relationship between disciple and teacher that we are simply not accustomed to, not in the formal sense. We would never describe the teacher/student relationship in this way; the student is interested in knowledge not transformation. But Jesus is saying something different. Whether you are aware of it or not your life tends towards transformation, to become like your teacher. If your teacher is the world, then you will become like the world. If your teacher is the baggage you carry from childhood experiences, then you will embody the very experiences that weigh you down.

Jesus was inviting his disciples into a relationship that would catapult them towards transformation. He was inviting them into a commitment to follow, to love, to listen, to be transformed. He was inviting them to a commitment to one another to follow Jesus together.

So, where or to whom are your commitments? Who is your teacher?

AND FYI, committing to coming to a place every so often, i.e. the church building, or a room where you gather with other people for Bible study, does not lead to being like Jesus, only committing to follow Jesus and to one another will do that.

Limits

Re:Verse reading–Luke 5:1-11 (day six)

Simon answered, “Master,we worked hard all night and caught nothing! But at your word I will lower the nets.” Luke 5:6

The experts were done, spent. They had worked the whole night through with nothing to show for it. Not to mention they were exhausted; their bodies ached, and they were likely very disheartened. They had reached their limit. But Jesus pressed for more.

When Jesus presses us for more (passed our limit), we often experience the extraordinary. We see God do a work we otherwise could not do on our own. We experience blessings we could not have foreseen. It is in moments like these that we realize we should have been following and listening to Jesus the whole time, not just when we’ve pushed ourselves to the limit.

That’s the lesson Peter, James, and John learned. They left everything and followed Jesus. Have you? If not, don’t be surprised if he nudges you passed your limit.

Hard Words

Re:Verse reading–Luke 4:14-30 (day six)

And he added, “I tell you the truth…” Luke 4:24

I need hard words from Jesus, often. I need the chisel of his word to chip away the hardness of my heart. I need the two-edged-swordness of his word to cut between the bone and marrow. In his graciousness, Jesus doesn’t say the things we want to hear, but those things we are desperate to hear, the kind of words that are meant to lead us to repentance.

Paul, when writing to Timothy, told him that there would be a day when people would gather around them “ear ticklers.” (2 Tim. 4:3) Truth is our ears don’t need ear ticklers for our ears to be tickled; we tend to tickle our own ears just fine, all we have to do is avoid the chisel and sword of God’s Word.

This year 2018, more than ever, open his Word, read it, need it. Embrace his hard words, don’t avoid them.

Righteousness

Jesus’ death and resurrection carry no weight apart from his righteous life; always faithful, always trusting in the promises of God. Verses like Romans 8:29 make little sense without it,“For those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

Those 40 days in the dessert without food, facing temptation from the devil, are a microcosm of Jesus’ entire life, for it is not as if these were the only times he faced temptation as a man, much less directly from the devil, or that somehow the rest of his life was a cakewalk. They are also a microcosm of the righteous life that would be given to us so that we could conform to the image of the Son. We have no righteousness of our own apart from the righteous life of Jesus.

Israel was rebellious and faithless for 40 years in the desert; Jesus was faithful and righteous for 40 days (a true picture of His righteousness)! We rejoice in His righteousness for in it we not only are afforded forgiveness(by way of the cross) but also His holiness.

Stones

Re:Verse reading–Luke 3:1-20 (day six)

For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Luke 3:8b

Indeed he did! And for that I am eternally grateful! God’s mercy and grace through Jesus cascaded on stones from which new life sprung. Yours and mine! The Gospel message has been pouring over stones from the empty tomb to the ends of the earth. We rejoice! For once we were children of wrath (stones), but now we are called children of God!

For God so loved the world that the sent his only son so that whoever believes in him should not die, but have everlasting life…even stones. Now that’s Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Treasured

Re:Verse reading–Luke 2:39-52 (day six)

But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. Luke 2:51

We have read these words before. It leaves us with the impression that Luke is documenting testimony from Mary herself, as if during his research he had sat down with Mary to hear her side of things. It is likely the case. More important still, it unveils a very common journey. There were likely many moments in Jesus young life where she increasingly had to come to grips with who Jesus was-the Son of God. The scene at the Temple had to be the most profound. Before that moment she likely glimpsed others in His life that gave her pause, but at the Temple she heard words from His own mouth, “Didn’t you know I had to be in MY Father’s house?”

Jesus was at the age where he now was openly reminding his parents who in fact He is; a not so subtle reminder of His calling. Mary had to come to grips with that truth.

This was not just Mary’s journey, but is ours as well. We come to repentance and faith by realizing who He is and the work He has done; our view of him only increases from there. Our spiritual journey is much like how John the Baptist described his, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)