Day 7

Luke 7 BSB

The Centurion.
Do you know the Centurion was a Gentile? A Roman even! And he needed JESUS. 
Let’s look at Verse 9 When Jesus heard this, He marveled at the centurion. Turning to the crowd following Him, He said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” 

Great faith!
What gave this man this great faith?
I wanted to know. So I backed up and read verse 8 again. 

Verse 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it.” 

Is that it? Authority!
Respect for the Authority of GOD! That must be how great faith was found in the Centurion.

I am concluding here that if we have strong and proper respect for the Authority of GOD, our faith will grow exponentially. And if we don’t, well, I don’t have to spell that out for us, do I?  

Perhaps we should also look at the word Authority.
Just the first four words from free dictionary dot com was enough for me.   

The power to enforce

The Centurion respected that GOD had the power to enforce.  Wait! Wait! That must mean that the Centurion saw, knew, believed, accepted, and relied upon the fact that JESUS was/is GOD. 

Respecting the Authority of GOD . . . 
to rule justly
to never be unkind
to never make a mistake
to never miss a thing!  — the list is as endless as GOD HIMSELF of all that HE has the power to enforce! 

Authority.
Respect for the Authority of GOD.
Oh, I am thinking a slow cook of this will yield a delicious aroma throughout the house (life) and nourish us like a hot, delicious stew on a cold December day. 

Yes. This Luke 7 needs to simmer into a delicious, healthy faith!

Day 7

Until next time, holy hugs, Kathie

Day 5

Luke 5 (BSB)

1 On one occasion, while Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the crowd pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, 2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 Jesus got into the boat belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from shore. And sitting down, He taught the people from the boat. 4 When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 

The crowds were pressing in to hear The Word of GOD.  (Let us press in today to hear The Word of GOD – we can do that as we read our Bibles and listen.)

Do you know what JESUS will do in the following few verses?  I hope you will read it for yourselves but here’s my opinion: He was about to pay rent for the use of Simon’s boat. 

I see The one and only GODMAN is completely sinless, completely unselfish, and completely non-abusive. He used Simon’s boat and He rewarded (or shall we say paid) Simon for the use of same. 
(There are life applications here for us — may we ponder and practice them. ) 

If you continue to read you will see that Simon was reluctant to let down the nets because they had worked all night and caught nothing, but because JESUS said so, they put out the nets. 
Are you familiar with what happened? 

Enough fish to fill both boats – Simon’s and the Sons of Zebedee’s! 

Yes! JESUS paid handsomely!  And that was only the beginning of what our Blessed Savior would pay for the likes of those fishermen and us! 

Celebrate today, my Friends, The Savior who paid it all!

Day 5

Until next time, holy hugs, Kathie