Thursday 16 May 2013

Thursday - Firm Foundation

Prayer:  Come Lord Jesus and be our guest this day with us as we live out our life.  Be with us as we share Your love with those we meet and talk to today.  In Your love we ask this prayer.  Amen.

Luke  14:  25 – 30

Large crowds were following Jesus.  Turning to them  Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children,  his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he can not be my disciple?’  (St Luke14: 25   NIV,  NavPress 2005).      What?   Would you be as stunned as the crowd with these words from Jesus?

Why did Jesus say we must hate our family in order to follow him.    In Semitic understanding,  the family is always first.  Here Jesus is saying that in order to follow him,  family must come second.      This must have been a real eye opener for a lot of the crowd.  Jesus is taking the people out of their cultural heritage and asking for change.   And we all know about change don’t we.    Change is not always easy to do but in order for us to grow in spiritual maturity,  we must continually change.

Then Jesus gives an example of how a person must follow Jesus.    The example is of a person wanting to build a tower.  Engineering principles state that in order to build the tower,  the tower must be on an extremely firm foundation.   This is the same as following Christ.   If we want to follow Christ,  we need a firm foundation – an understanding of basic Christian beliefs.

What would you say are basic Christian beliefs?

Prayer:    Great God,  You are our firm foundation.  As we seek You out through prayer and reading scripture,  we find a loving God like no other.    Help us this day to build and maintain a firm foundation in our Christian beliefs.  Help us not to waver in our beliefs but to always reflect Your love in all we do and say.  This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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