Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Join us as we explore God's ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

Nov 23, 2016

A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Today's Scripture Focus

Luke 13:2-5

devotional summary

Face it. Bad things happen to us occasionally. We can’t get away from it. Expect it. And it comes just because we breathe air on this side of dirt. If you take that first breath out of your mother’s womb, you will have bad things happen to you. It’s a fact of life and you just can’t get away. Maybe it’s like James Dobson once said, it’s to keep us from getting too comfortable here and help us remember there is a better place awaiting us. If we never had problems here, we might not long for heaven the way we do. So maybe it’s okay for bad things to happen just because.

But Jesus also indicates that sometimes bad things do happen as a result of our wrong doing. That wasn’t true for those Galileans who were killed or the victims of the tower wall that fell in Siloam, but He warns those listening to Him that they better changed their ways or bad things will happen to them soon. He says the walls of Jerusalem will come crashing down on them if they don’t change.

Those are interesting words considering in forty years the Romans will destroy Jerusalem and the temple and the whole city will be reduced to rubble. I wonder how many of those in that crowd were caught under the falling stones as catapults and battering rams smashed the walls. Some of them didn’t change their ways. We know that from their behavior toward Jesus at the mock trial, calling for His crucifixion, mocking Him on the cross.

So some of the bad things that happen to us are a result of our wrong doing. Either natural consequences of our bad behavior, like the health problems that come from drug addiction, abuse of alcohol, and a host of other illicit behaviors. Or punishment from God for our disobedience to Him like He did with the Israelites and sent a plague among the community.

The bottom line for any individual is that you know your heart. Is there any unconfessed sin there? If so, ask God to forgive it and thank Him for His forgiveness. Then recognize that all of us will suffer in this world. Accept the suffering as identifying with our Lord. He suffered and died for us and was sinless. If He suffered and did no wrong, then we have nothing to complain about when we suffer for the wrong we do. Bad things will happen to us. Use them to remember Jesus faced bad things, too. He faced them so we can enjoy good things for all eternity.

Today's Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year - Psalms 134-136

see the whole year's plan here