Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Luke 14:7-11  When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table,  he told them this parable:   8  “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.   9  If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10  But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.   11  For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” This is a passage that personally challenges me.  Why?  Because I often want to take the place of honor at the table instead of the lowest place.  Jesus is challenging the most inherent part of our sinful nature which is pride.  Pride is always asking th

The Narrow Door - Luke 13 22  Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23  Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them,   24  “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door,  because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.   I am always drawn to passages where Jesus challenges the crowds about what it means to enter God’s kingdom and how often we misunderstand what he is saying. In today’s text, Jesus responds to the question, “Lord are only a few going to be saved.”  This is obviously an important question, so how does Jesus reply? First, let’s not water down what Luke records here. The main point Jesus makes is, “the door is narrow and few find it.”  Does Jesus mean that there will only be a few people in heaven? Based on many other passages in the gospels and Paul’s letters to the early churches, I would say this is not what he is teaching. But why? And what d

Luke12:4-7 New International Version (NIV) Warnings and Encouragements 12  I tell you, my friends,  do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.   6  Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.   7  Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Jesus is not only encouraging his disciples about how God will provide for their every need but also about the challenges they will encounter when they are persecuted fir their faith. Then he says don’t be afraid of those who can kill your body but the one who has the authority to throw your body into hell.  You might say, “Is Luke talking about the devil or God?” At first I was thinking this might be the “evil one”, or the one we call “Sat

Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer 11  One day Jesus was praying  in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord,  teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2  He said to them,  “When you pray, say: “‘Father, [ a ] hallowed be your name, your kingdom  come. [ b ] 3  Give us each day our daily bread. 4  Forgive us our sins,      for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. [ c ] And lead us not into temptation. [ d ] ’” 5  Then Jesus said to them,  “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;   6  a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’   7  And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’   8  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity [ e ] h

10  Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire  and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.   2  For I can testify about them that they are zealous  for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3  Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.   4  Christ is the culmination of the law  so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Paul states again in chapter 10 of Romans that his deep desire is for his fellow Israelites to be saved.  He observes that though they are deeply zealous, their zeal is misguided.  Their zeal was to establish their own way of becoming right with God. This passage is a good reminder that though zeal or excitement can be a good thing, if it isn't directed at something true it is not a good thing.   For instance, there are many false religions that people believe in and are zealous for. But if the religion is not based on the truth, it

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel 9  I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying,  my conscience confirms  it through the Holy Spirit—   2  I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.   3  For I could wish that I myself  were cursed  and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,  those of my own race,   4  the people of Israel.  Theirs is the adoption to sonship;  theirs the divine glory,  the covenants,  the receiving of the law,  the temple worship  and the promises.   5  Theirs are the patriarchs,  and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,  who is God over all,  forever praised! Amen. If anyone wondered if Paul was anti-Jewish, they haven't read this passage. Though Paul shook the dust off his feet in protest of the religious Jews in Pisidian Antioch who tried to persecute him, he clearly shows his love for his fellow Jews in these verses.  He is in anguish that they are rejecting all of the promises God has made to them through their descendants al

Romans 8 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh  but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,  they do not belong to Christ.   10  But if Christ is in you,  then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.   11  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead  is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies  because of his Spirit who lives in you.  12  Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.   13  For if you live according to the flesh, you will die;  but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,  you will live.  Since Paul is writing to the Roman Christians, the first seven chapters were a summary of the role of the Law in leading us to Christ, who did for us what we could not do for oursel

Romans 7 " I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.   16  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.   17  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.   18  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. [ c ]  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.   19  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.   20  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.  21  So I find this law at work:  Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.   22  For in my inner being  I delight in God’s law;   23  but I see another law at work in me, waging war  against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin  at work within me.   24  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is s

Romans 6:11-14 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin  but alive to God in Christ Jesus.   12  Therefore do not let sin reign  in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.   13  Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness,  but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.   14  For sin shall no longer be your master,  because you are not under the law,  but under grace. In chapter 6 Paul deals with the power of sin in a believer's life.  He is trying to avoid two extremes.  One, we can avoid sinning if we try really hard to keep the law.  The problem is we can't in our own power become perfect. Two, because we are forgiven we can go out and sin more and receive more grace each time.  The thinking goes like this,  " The more I sin, the more grace I will experience. Therefore I will sin all the more. "  You can se

Peace and Hope 5  Therefore, since we have been justified  through faith,  we [ a ]  have peace  with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   2  through whom we have gained access  by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Paul summarizes the argument he has made thus far in the first four chapters.  We have been made right with God through what Jesus has done for us, and our faith in Him.  The result of a right relationship with God is peace .  When we were stuck in our sin, we were at odds with God, and the result was fear and anxiety.  The thought of our relationship with God was not comforting, but we had a sense of judgment and condemnation.  But through faith in Jesus we experienced something completely new, peace .  You don't know peace until you find it.  You can't explain it.  When you are not at peace with God, you would not have been able to put a name on it.  But when one you found peace with God, you realize how badly you missed it when you didn't have