God is Watching

We have an awesome hospitality team at church. The ladies do such a wonderful job preparing and serving the meals. We are blessed to have a time of fellowship around food. Of course, food is not the central focus of our fellowship, but it does provide a good motivation to sit down and talk (fellowship) with others after a great time of worship, learning and serving. From Luke 14, I see one key principle we can apply to our fellowship time.

People are watching and so is God – Luke 14:1

May I also add to this because I think it is also implied, “people are listening too.” After church potblessings are a good time to build relationships and home in on certain people you may not have gotten a chance to know very well. Take the time to do so. Don’t always sit among your own clique.

Are you one of those people who are watching? If you are, then you are well aware when someone in the church is eating by him or herself. Go sit and eat with that person. People are watching, and may I also add to this because it is also implied – “God is watching too!”

Someone will sit by him or herself and that becomes your cue to do what is right – go and attach yourself to his or her table, sit down and strike up a conversation. You know how it feels to go to a church or party and not know anyone there. And you know how grateful you are when someone comes to you and strikes a conversation so you don’t look and feel left out and ignored.

People are watching; people are hearing, and God is watching too!

Jesus zeroed in on the man with dropsy (a swelling of the body do to the retention of having excess fluid - v. 2). No one else did. People were watching Jesus. When Jesus asked the religious zealots if it was okay to heal this man on the Sabbath, they had no answer for Him (v. 4). God was listening.

So Jesus, not needing the approval of man healed the man with dropsy and then sent him away (v. 4). Why did Jesus send the man away? Because what fellowship does light have with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14)?

Jesus then gives a clever story. He wisely chooses a factual situation – the Pharisees will not hesitate to save one of their sons or even an ox that has fallen into a well on the Sabbath (v. 5), but when it comes to saving or helping a stranger, they recoil and turn the other way. God is watching, this is why Jesus was able to use this illustration on them. He knew what they usually do and what they usually do not do at their gatherings. God is watching!


Part of our mission statement is that PEOPLE MATTER! Is this merely a statement written on paper or is it also written on our hearts?  God is watching.  Since this is true, why not give the Lord something to smile about as He watches?

True Riches

Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 23 The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.” 24So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” – Luke 2:22-24 NLT

Here are a couple of interesting note worthy facts from the early life of Christ soon after this birth. Sometimes we read the same story over and over and we gloss over some really rich insights that God brings our way.

Here are some for you to chew and meditate on –

First, after Jesus’ circumcision, forty days later, Mary and Joseph had to come to the temple for the purification rites described in Leviticus 12 and Numbers 18. They had to “redeem” their son since He was their first-born (Exod. 13:1-12). What did they have to pay? Five Shekels (Num. 18:16). Why is this so ironic? Because they “redeemed” the Redeemer who would one day (33 years from this point), redeem them and us, paying for our redemption through His precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

Second, they also had to offer Jesus to the Lord as their firstborn. The required sacrifice to do this was a lamb (Lev. 12:6). However, if someone did not have a lamb or could not afford to purchase a lamb, then they could purchase at a much cheaper value a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons (Lev. 12:8).

Why is this so ironic? When Joseph and Mary purchased the cheaper animal sacrifice, it revealed how poor economically this couple was. They did not have a lot of money. Yet, they possessed the One Person who owned the universe!

Furthermore, since they were so poor, they could not bring to the temple as their sacrifice a lamb. Yet, they brought Jesus “the lamb of God” (John 1:29).

All these examples reveal so many rich truths to us, but here is one that I want to leave you with. Just because a person or family may have the Son of God in their lives and in their home, does not mean in this life such will be given earthly riches. Nevertheless, if as Christians we do not have earthly riches, by having the Son of God we do possess all the true riches that Jesus Himself owns.

Mary and Joseph are seen in the world’s standard as being poor economically, yet with Jesus in their possession, they had the true riches of heaven in the Person of a little boy name Jesus.

Don’t see yourself with what you don’t have in terms of the world’s goods, but see what you truly do have – the Son of God. If you have Him and He has you – you are rich indeed!

Pain Before Pleasure

Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy – John 16:20 NIV

God does not tell us exactly when the joy is suppose to come into our lives, but if we look to Jesus and obey His Word, come it surely will.

When Jesus said these words, He was about to leave His disciples. The disciples had left everything to follow Jesus. Now they were being told that He was to leave them. So Jesus comforts them with this thought: “You will mourn and have grief, but your grief will turn into joy.”

What is Jesus saying? He is saying that sometimes before one can experience the presence of joy, he first must wrestle with sorrow. You and I wouldn’t really understand the significance of joy, unless we already dealt with sorrow to some degree.

There is a fine line between pleasure and pain. For example, when you get ready to take a hot bath, you will fill the tub with hot steaming water and then you slowly get in. As you sink to the bottom of the tub, there is a moment of pain. But as you settle in and as your body becomes use to the temperature of the hot water, the pain turns into pleasure.

I use to lift weights in my much younger days in high school. I got up to bench pressing 335 pounds. There were scores of times as I lifted those heavy weights that I would catch a cramp. That was pain. But when the pain subsided, the pleasure followed. Do you see what I am saying? There is a fine line between pleasure and pain.

A marathon runner often experiences pain while running, yet he or she keeps running, because in the midst of the pain, there is also pleasure in the endurance.

Therefore, when you read and obey God’s Word, joy may not come to you instantly. Don’t give up and say, “forget it.” Hang in there and keep on reading. God wants you to have His joy, but sometimes before He gives it to you, pain may be something you will need to wrestle with first.