Justice Perverted
Author: eejoseph
Highlights from a 24-day Reading of Luke – day 6
From chapters 16, 17, and 18
Not a probability, an impossibility
Serving two masters is not a thing that anyone does. A person is either lost or saved, a child of God or mere human.
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
Luke 16:13-14
The self-righteous
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 16:15
The means of justifying oneself is out in the open. The options are binary. Yeshua’s contemporaries were either following Moses, with John the Baptist showing the straight path to the Anointed.
There are no people going to heaven or hell, and most certainly Yeshua is the only person to have come from glory and goes to glory from humiliation. This is not a teaching about communication with the dead or the devices of the dead.
The certainty of offences
Luke 17:1
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Ready to forgive
Luke 17:3-4
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Not a lot of faith
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
NO SOUL JUSTIFIED BY DUTY = NOBODY SAVED BY WORKS
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Luke 17:6-10
This practical obedience understood. Doing what is expected, keeping covenant, performing acts of loyalty and observing seasons does not get God’s smile of approval. Duty is not faith. Faith is the work of believing in the Son of God. Getting to that point is God’s gift: repentance to the elect (those that are ready to switch from the temporary to the permanent, from old to new).
How to get life
A Jew should not be asking this question. His right standing was never a matter of a single duty, but rather a host of duties.
Luke 18:18
And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
In simple terms, this list of FIVE commands is not the gospel.
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. Luke 18:20
Grace to be me
You should figure out who you are and what you need, and then don’t apologize for it.
-Jeaniene Frost
The finest of friends might say…
I don’t want to discuss the figuring, or the needs, and if you apologize, I will forgive you, until I see that you do not have any figuring in process.
-DrJ
Which issues of CT did that bigot really read?
Christianity Today calls for the removal the 45th president by election or removal for crimes and he responds that he will read the magazine no more. This is what raises the question.
He who believes that the menace in the White House actually reads a Christian magazine also believes that a total shut down of immigration from Islamic states is neighbourly and constitutional. Evangelicals and Christians of any stripe must hold their nose and fake a smile when they talk about the greatness of an America that is so mangled one can understand how a great wonder of the global arena can end up hated and trashed.
Republicans who read a magazine, like Christianity Today, devoted to truth and understanding cannot be anything but the oil-soaked birds of America’s moral majority oil spill.
Potus45 does not read his briefing notes. He spends his time watching a crude entertainment network, plotting perfect phonecalls, writing love letters to maniacal despots, and covering up his crimes.
One or none
An Honest Appraisal of Facts
If the voice you hear and seem unable to avoid is on a channel you cannot change I am sorry for you. Changing the channel is a poor option when every other channel turned out to he a clone of the one to which you are tuned.
I have tried to stay abreast of political developments for good reason. Doing so has a cost. One has to listen to what amounts to the deafening drone of the thieving and perjured scribes and Pharisees along with the voices of conscientious compatriots or colleagues. Poor Israel at Sinai! They tuned out Yahweh and got Moses with same song. Blessed us in the 21st century! We tune out every stakeholder and preserve our sanity.
The cost of tuning out
I kid you not. The message that little dt (of Mar a Lago) did nothing wrong comes with a stifling bad smell, a temptation to turn all of those voices off, and the suggestion to paint every messenger with the same colours. Tuning out the clanging cymbals of political combat for a while is unlikely to affect the flow of life as occurs when one tunes out the voice of Yeshua, even for a minute, so we can cling to older unreliable voices.
One can be hypnotized by the drone
Only time will tell if the elected representatives in the GOP are actually more than tinmen. It is devastating to think that anyone with a spiritual or moral spine (all elected officers are expected to) will chant the false narratives that are the main feature of Republican rallies. If one’s fame comes from making a lot of noise (like Collins, Jordan, Gaetz, and Gohmert), and not from being sighted and thoughtful workers of the facts it will not be long before there arises a new definition of honest.
Highlights from a 24-day Reading of Luke – day 5
Returning home and finding uncommon faith in a Gentile person
Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
Luke 7:1
Today we review glimpses from Days 7, 8, and 9
For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Luke 7:8-9
A widow gets her son back from the dead and Yeshua is called a great prophet
Luke 7:14
And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.Luke 7:16
And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.
Yeshua commends John and exposes the religious zealots
And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
Luke 7:26
The sinners give God his due by being baptized unto John
And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
Luke 7:29-30
A parable about different kinds of people receiving God’s word
Luke 8:5-8
A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, (a) some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. (b) And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. (c) And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. (d) And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Calm in distress and near people of little-faith
But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.
And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.
And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.
Luke 8:23-25
Yeshua and the Bacon Industry
I wow to this idea that there were people, Jewish ones or Gentile ones (whether or nor the mission to Gentiles and Samaritans was yet authorized) who risked being unclean every day. These swine were domesticated! They do not lay eggs, or produce milk, and we have no idea how swine may have been rented out as scavenger-cleaners of people’s lands.
And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.
Luke 8:32-34
“Who am I?”, what to go about it and why
Our Lord raises the question about who he is and then after that is revealed he makes it clear that he does not want this information to get out.
And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
Luke 9:18-22
The revelation of the Saviour of the world was not a popularity contest, is not now, and never will be.
Highlights from a 24-day Reading of Luke – day 4
Home to begin his mission
From days 4, 5 and 6 we see the Nazarene getting out and about following his baptism
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
Luke 4:14
Hometown trip
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luke 4:16
Announcing his mission
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luke 4:18
His mission rejected
And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
Luke 4:29-30
Generosity to fishermen and their job change to manfishers
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.
Luke 5:8-11
Peter’s response to the Nazarene kindness is golden. “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”. Thankfully, the Nazarene does not do as asked.
Doesn’t everyone forgive sin?
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
Luke 5:21
Mission to the sinner
But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Luke 5:30-32
Love your enemies
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:35-36
Swallowing a camel
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Matthew 23:23-24
Impeaching the criminal
Little dt of Mar a Lago runs into the US constitution and the rebel nationalist GOP chokes on a camel after trying to show America how well they can strain out a fly
Caiaphas ran into Yeshua and the temple’s days were numbered
