Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 21

Jesus foretold what happened in A.D. 70.  The Romans sieged Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.  Some forty years after He spoke these things Luke records in chapter 21, it happened. History will verify it. That generation did not pass away before it occurred.

And it was horrible.

The life was squeezed out of the city’s inhabitants, stopping all sources of supplies from entering.  Eventually they could not hold their city and the warring was within. On their streets, in their neighborhoods.

 People were slaughtered. Blood ran. Bodies were piled.  One ancient historian said over a million...and thousands more marched away as slaves.

When Jesus spoke these words, some of those very people who were in His presence would experience the horror.  The temple indeed had no stone left unturned.  It was completely destroyed.  Within it, all records of genealogies.

Students of ancient history can know that much of what Jesus said has happened.

We are wise to heed what is recorded for us.  What He said.....

WILL BE.

And He said He is coming back for His children.

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 20

Humans die. People die, babies are born.  God’s design of procreation remedies death. Men and women marry and procreate.  Life cycles and continues.

One of the religious groups, in an attempt to set Jesus up for trouble, asked a “what if” question. What if a woman has several husbands...who will be her husband in eternity?



 “Jesus said, "Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.” (verses 34-36 from The Message) 

"People in this world get married. And their parents give them to get married.

But it will not be like that when the dead rise. Those who are considered worthy to take part in what happens at that time won't get married. And their parents won't give them to be married.

They can't die anymore. They are like the angels. They are God's children. They will be given a new form of life when the dead rise...” ( verses 34-36 NIrV)

Relationships on the other side of this realm will be different   

If you want to spend eternity in God’s eternal heaven, it better be to be with our Creator Father God, not wife, husband, mother, daddy, grandparent, or any other earthly relationship.    

On this side of eternity, our purpose in this world is to raise and build families   We find pleasure and purpose in our relationships   Nature is inclined to it, designed for it, and marriage instituted for it.  

Children of this world begin life headed for the grave.  All of us.  We have children and families as if we are birthing recruits that will continue the future, a future in which we will no longer  be present.  

We may very well recognize our spouses and loved ones, but heaven will not be an extension of life and relationships as we know it in this realm.  Our relationships are very limited by time, sin, and death.  

But we will not miss Jesus.   We WILL know Him.   

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 19

“...because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." (verse 44 NASB)

Jesus made a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only to weep over the city. (verse 41)

He came in to people cheering.  

"BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" (verse 38 NASB) 

”As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen...” (verse 37 NASB)

A very short time later the same city would be crying for His execution.   He did not live up to their pre-conceived ideas about how the Messiah would fulfill the long awaited prophecies.   They “...didn't recognize and welcome God's personal visit." (verse 44 from The Message)

I wonder if ever I too “...did not recognize the time of God's coming..." (verse 44 NIV) 

So often I wrestle prayerfully about my understanding.  I never want to miss God because He has not come to my rescue in the way I want or expect.  

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 18

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (verse 1) 

“... pray consistently and never quit.” (The Message)

“... pray, and not to faint.” (ASV)

“... pray and not to lose heart.” (NASB)

I have seen my prayers answered in visible ways.  I have seen answers come relatively quick.  I have seen them answered in just the way I asked.   

Other prayers have been prayed over and over. 

And over.

And still, I do not realize His answering.  

Did He say “no.”? 

Did He even hear? 

Why does He delay? 

Should I change my request?

Or stop completely? 

No stopping Jesus says.  He clearly teaches in the very first verse of this chapter, no stopping. 

When I don’t see results, when it seems as if it is futile....no stopping.  

Tonight, I hear Him clearly. 

“No stopping, Connie.”

“Keeping interceding, child.”

“I AM at work.” 

Lord, if You ever get tired of my asking, I suppose You will let me know in some way to let it go.  Until then, I keep bombarding heaven with those few things I continue to bring to You in prayer.   Help me to trust you in the waiting.  

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 17

Jesus is still headed to Jerusalem.  

At this point in Luke’s narrative there are ten people who have leprosy outside the village where Jesus is passing by.  

Leprosy is contagious.  Lepers stayed away from other people. They saw Jesus and kept their distance, but called out to Him asking for His mercy.  I wonder if they had not heard that Jesus had healed someone with leprosy. Certainly they knew something of Jesus else they would not have called out to Him.  

But they did.  “...they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" (verse 13 NASB)

These people with this incurable disease were hopeless.  They couldn’t fix what was wrong, they could not want it bad enough, wash it off, or wish it away.  They needed help from outside themselves. 

Mercy. They needed mercy. 

And so do you and I.  

“When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." (verse 14 NASB)

Answering their request, Jesus told them to do what a healed person would do...to go show the priest.  

“ ...as they were going, they were cleansed.” (verse 14 NASB) 

Jesus showed mercy.  

I wonder if I would have responded like these lepers.  Jesus didn’t heal them right there.  They weren’t healed until they were walking in obedience.  There was no evidence they’d been healed until they headed out to do what Jesus had said. 

I believe that we too, put our trust in Jesus, and He cleanses us “as we are going.” We are called you put our faith in Him, obey His command, and have full confidence that He will do what only He can do.  

Cleanse.  

“...if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7 NASB)

The leper’s did as Jesus said, and they got more than mercy.  They got healing.  

I’m sure all were happy.  Only one turned back to personally thank Jesus. 

I have not had leprosy, but I have been healed.  I want to be that one that returns to Thank the One that purchased my healing.....

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter16

Luke chapter 16 records Jesus’s parable about Lazarus and the rich man.  

This is the only time Jesus taught with a parable that names were used. Scholars do not think this is the Lazarus Jesus raised from the dead. Interesting to wonder about, but it doesn’t change the purpose of Jesus’s teaching.  

The characters are the rich man, Lazarus, the angels, and Abraham.  

The rich man had opportunity to help the poor, sick Lazarus.  It seems he didn’t, the poor man died.  The angels took him to the side of Abraham.

The rich man died also, and scripture tells us he woke up in the place of departed spirits, in torment, and could see Abraham and Lazarus.  

The rich man asked Lazarus for help.  Then he asked that messages be sent to his family, warning them to avoid ending up where he was.  

This parable teaches me again...

Angels take their orders from God.  Not humans.  

God uses angels to do His bidding and deliver His messages. Not humans. 

When humans die, and they pass to another realm, and there is no going back.  

God sent prophet after prophet. He spoke face to face with Moses and gave His Ten Commandments.  “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Verse 31 NASB) 

People don’t die and turn into angels.   (And by the way...not once in scripture is a messenger angel of God female.  They are all male.)

When humans die, eternity has been decided.  You don’t get to come back for a do-over. 

“... in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.' ( verse 26 from The Message) 

Jesus Himself is the only One Who crossed that chasm.  

He left heaven, was born in human flesh, died, and lives again.  

And even that evidence is not enough for all men to heed the warning that rich man wanted to send back.  

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 15

Jesus was criticized because He didn’t use the teaching methods that had always been used.  He taught using parables.  Illustrations that had deep meaning. To make things worse, Jesus made Himself available to people that the religious society of the day considered worthless.

The parables in this chapter have a common thread. Jesus and redemption.

He saw the truth about the sheep, the coin, and the son. He knew what they were and how they got that way.  He also saw what they could be.

Jesus is the Source of hope for each and every person who is lost or in rebellion.

I’ve heard countless teaching on the story of the prodigal son, layers and layers of application.  Tonight, I look at Jesus’s story from the standpoint of a parent.

God is a perfect Father.  I look at how this father handled the problems in His family.

One of his sons was dissatisfied.  “Give me...” he said.

The father had given him everything he had ever known.
He had given him life!  Shelter, clothing, security, provisions. He’d had every need met. He would inherit what his father had worked for, insuring his security in the future.

But this young arrogant son demanded to be given what he thought was rightfully his.  He can’t wait for his father to die, he wants to be at liberty to please himself.  Now. On daddy’s dime....

(The father in this parable is God.  Sure isn’t me....I’d have had a fit.  And said a big loud “absolutely not.”)

This story depicts yet again what God did in The Garden.  He gave this son free will and allowed him to choose the knowledge of evil.  All he had known was good.  He had been taken care of, protected, nurtured, and loved.  He exercised his will to choose and chose to “..go to a far country..” (verse 13 KJV).  Certainly his father had taught him differently than how he chose to behave.


The father didn’t stop the boy.  He didn’t go chase him down, or bail him out. No rescue.  The son burned all his bridges, wore out all his sources.  The one thing the father did was to keep the door open and an eye watching for his return.  I bet he had callouses on his knees from hours of praying for his safety and his heart to change.

Tough love they call it today.


The son returned, the sibling criticized. I can find myself in both.  The father forgave. I wonder how forgiving I would be.

I am thankful that God has great patience and mercy.  I’m thankful He forgives every time I too, have gone to a far away country.  I’m so blessed that He has taken me back into His arms when I leave the pigsty and come crawling back home in repentance.  


 But we do well to see that there comes a time when God gives us what we choose in our own rebellion.  He may forgive, but His perfect will is that we NOT choose to know the evil that disobedience ushers into our lives.  He will wrap His arms of love around us when we are truly repentant and return to Him,  but the memories of where we have been, the suffering we have endured and caused...is done!

Our world is screaming with the evidence of people choosing to go their own way, turning their backs on our perfect Father God.  Just as Paul wrote...

“People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.

They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life.

They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

 So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out.

And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either—women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men.

 Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose.

 And then all hell broke loose...” (Romans 1:21-29 from The Message)

All hell has broken loose...there are so many prodigals. 

Father help us all to wake up, get up out of the pigsty, and come running back to you. 

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 14

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Verse 35 NASB)

I suppose there are occasional birth defects, but other than that, all humans are born with ears.  Two of them.  

Some may not function, children are occasionally born deaf.  

I notice that Jesus is talking not just to people with ears, but to people who have ears TO HEAR.  

I hear a lot. My ears are not as good as they were, but I still hear very well.  I hear conversations in the room.  I hear wind outside, rain on the roof, the sleeping dog on the floor breathing softly or in the kitchen lapping water.  

I hear a lot of stuff I don’t want to hear! 

I confess, sometimes I  do not have ears to hear.  Sometimes I do just as scripture warns against. “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19 NASB) 

Sometimes I hear the words but they don’t get past my brain into my heart...I don’t have ears to hear.   Sound waves don’t benefit me one tiny bit unless I act on what they communicate.  

Luke 14 has so much rich teaching from Jesus.  Just as every other passage....

  Lord help me to purpose in my heart that I hear your words with ears that hear and a heart that is sensitive and obedient. 

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 13

"He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem. " (verse 22 from The Message)

Luke told us earlier that Jesus was not just touring the country.  "...He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem." (Luke 9:51 KJV)

Jesus knew where He was to go, and He knew what lie there for Him.  He would defeat the enemy of all mankind.  "The wages of sin is death."(Romans 6:23 KJV)

Jesus paid that wage for me when He got to Jerusalem.  My fleshly body is in the process of decaying, but the newborn life within this flesh is eternal.

I don't know what that will look like.  I have some ideas in my head that play it out, but really...it doesn't matter.

I don't want to be like so many in the pages of scripture who completely missed it, because it didn't look like they expected.  I take Jesus at His Word.  He has provided a remedy for my sin.  The penalty is paid.

So, I purpose to also keep a steady course of my own.  I don't know what may lie ahead of me exactly, but I am warned that there will be difficulties.

"In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33 NASB)


The sure prospect of death did not altar Jesus' course.  I purpose that stress and difficulties of my simple life do not altar my course to follow Him in obedience.

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 12

Reading chapter twelve, I can't even get past the first verse.



"He turned now to His disciples and warned them, "More than anything else, beware of these Pharisees and the way they pretend to be good when they aren't.  But such hypocrisy cannot be hidden forever." (verse 1 from the Living Bible)



Hypocrisy is used as an accusing excuse for lots of folks. If you can point out my error, label me a hypocrite, then somehow that makes you feel better about your own error.



Our Lord Jesus is the standard.  Not you.  Not me.  Him.

You and I will be measured against His perfect standard.  And we both come up very, very short.



When I know what is true, what I should do, and I choose not to obey.  I am in hypocrisy.

When I claim to follow Jesus, but I disobey what I know He has said.  I am in hypocrisy.

When what I do serves my purpose more than who I claim to serve.  I am in hypocrisy
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When my faith is determined by a set of rigid rules about what I think God wants, instead of worshiping and obeying God for Who He is.  I am in hypocrisy.

When what you see on the outside of my life looks much nicer than what is on the inside.  I am in hypocrisy.

I am not perfect. My behavior has often been the ammunition in someone's arsenal, damaging my witness.


I think the Pharisees were one of the very first (if not THE first) denominations.  They had lots of rules.  LOTS.  They assumed they could make enough rules and follow them closely enough, to result in righteousness.

Can't be done.

Hi, I'm Connie.  I'm a hypocrite.

I don't need rules.
I need Jesus.

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 11

“It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."

 And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 

'Father, hallowed be Your name. 

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread. '

And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.'" (Verses 1-4 NASB) 

Luke tells us many several times that Jesus prayed. In chapter 3, He prayed at His baptism. In chapter 5, He prayed in the wilderness. In chapter 6, He prayed before He appointed the apostles.  Jesus prayed alone, but He often prayed aloud.  People heard Him pray.  

One of my pet peeves is the complaint that prayer has been taken out of school.  It is absolute impossible to eliminate prayer....unless you never prayed to begin with.  

I wish I had better exampled prayer in my younger years.  I was a grown woman before I uttered my first prayer in someone else’s hearing.  Shackles came off that day.  

When others heard the prayers of Jesus, they recognized something, and they wanted it.   I have learned many things every single time I read again, Jesus’ lessons on prayer.  

Lord,  You are holy, I am not.  May I never dishonor or misuse Your Name. 

Make me to see when I am not cooperating with Your kingdom agenda, setting things right, restoring  what we have so marred with sin. 

I praise You for providing for my needs. I cannot store up anything that will provide for eternity.  You can and do.

My sins are many, some visible, some are only visible to You.  You see my heart and my intentions.  

Remind me and empower me to be as free with my forgiveness as I need You to be with me.  

Protect me against the enemy of my soul, do not allow me to follow after his lies, make my heart quick to hear Your warnings, and even quicker to respond in obediently turning away from evil, and toward You. 

I encourage you, if your prayer life has been muted and silenced, study the passages of scripture where Jesus taught his disciples to pray,  prayers that are recorded for us.  

He  did that for a reason.  Let’s take full advantage of it and begin bombarding heaven with our conversations with our Creator God.  

And in my opinion, break the bondage of silence, and pray out loud with others.  Just as Jesus taught us to pray, we can teach others.  

Reading Luke at Christmas, chapter 10

Mary and Martha....

We women have heard many teachings on these two gals. How timely for the Lord to have me reading this again in this busy season.
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"Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen." (verse 40 from The Message)

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Most women at some point find themselves in that same place. Busy in the kitchen while all sorts of other things happen elsewhere. Holiday time usually means lots of food, which means lots of cooking. We eagerly look forward to seeing those who live away come home and gather around to visit. The more who gather together, the more food we prepare. And the more time we spend in the kitchen.

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Jesus came to the home of these two women. He seems to have been a close friend and I can imagine how wonderful it was to have Him in their home. Jesus probably didn't arrive by Himself. He drew crowds everywhere He went, this would have been no different.

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I imagine myself in that position. Jesus coming. What could I serve Him? I wonder if He likes Pecan Pie or Pumpkin best? Turkey or Ham? How many might be with Him? Will I have enough? Can I afford to purchase more food or better food? When did I last wash those sheets on the guest bed?

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And Mary...there she is in the other room, where the men are, sitting right at His feet. Listening. With all this work to do....

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"Mary... sat before the Master, hanging on every word He said.." (verse 39 from The Message)
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Martha would hang on His every word too. She was just as interested in what Jesus had to say as Mary was. But she was doing what she was 'supposed' to do.
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Much has been said about what women should and should not do. Scripture itself does as much. At this reading, I praise God for Luke's record of Jesus giving Mary a pass on letting go of all that custom expected. He did not just accept and include Mary, but defended her choice.
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I purpose to be a balanced mix of these two women.

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As this busy Christmas season approaches, I challenge all of us gals to feed our families, decorate our homes, and all the other traditional activities we do....but not at the expense of spending moments together.

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And certainly not at the expense of celebrating the very reason for the season.

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