Day 13: Believing

Luke 11:29-54; Genesis 20; Psalm 13

The people of today have no excuses as to why they won't believe. The message of Jesus is everywhere, and despite the fact that Christians sometimes mar the message, it is still present and still available in this country. It is so sad that so many of my students feel that Christ is worthless. I hope and pray that they will someday be willing to listen to God's truth, and realize the incredible love and power found in Jesus. It is like in Jesus’ message—the Pharisees will be punished even more because all of the prophets, all of creation points to Jesus and they still refuse to listen.  If people won’t accept Jesus and his miraculous works and amazing sacrifice for what it is, then there is no amount of miracles that will convince them.

The Pharisees had it all wrong. They were concerned about their image, about condemning others for their wrong, and presented an elitist view of God. This is nothing like what God wants. He wants a follower to be generous with wisdom, love, justice, and resources. I pray for the church. I pray that they would repent and throw off their Pharisee-like perspectives and replace them with the perspective of Jesus.

I hope that believers in the world are not like Abraham in this passage—that they compromise and cause others to sin because of their lack of faith. This goes for people and families today as well. Sin causes people to want all sorts of things that destroy; but I hope that those sins would seem worthless, disgusting, and not worth tearing families apart. We can “trust [God's] love” as the Psalm says because it has rescued all mankind and can rescue hurting families in their time of need.