DAY 290 Read Luke 12:35 through chapter 14.
Today's reading: Excuses, excuses! People invited to a "great supper" offered lame excuses for not attending. Another of our Lord's parables examines our attitudes toward spiritual values.
Memory gem: "[He] sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready" (Luke 14:17).
Thought for today:
These men spoken of in Luke were not invited to a funeral or even to hear a lecture. They were not asked to visit a hospital or a prison. They were to go to a feast. The holy gospel of Jesus Christ is represented as a feast. It was to take place in the evening. The Bible speaks of the "marriage supper" of God's Son: "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).
Oh, my friends, we don't want to miss that feast, that appointment with God; and yet, according to this story Jesus told, these people wanted to be excused.
More than nineteen hundred years have rolled away since Jesus told this story. Some tell us that the world has grown wiser, though we do not often hear them say it has grown better. Wiser, they say. But tell me this, Have men any better excuses today than they had in Christ's time?
Suppose you take your pen and write out your excuse:
"Just now (or yesterday, or last week, or whatever it was) I received an earnest invitation from one of Your servants to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Please have me excused because------" and sign your name to it. How would it sound to the King of heaven?
Let us write out another answer:
"While reading these words (or listening to a gospel sermon, or whenever it was) I received an invitation from one of Your messengers to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and I hasten to reply. By the grace of God I will be present."
Will you sign that? May the Lord help you to make that decision today. You must accept it or reject it. To make no decision is itself a decision not to accept the loving request of the heavenly Father and remember--God does not accept excuses.
Today's reading: Excuses, excuses! People invited to a "great supper" offered lame excuses for not attending. Another of our Lord's parables examines our attitudes toward spiritual values.
Memory gem: "[He] sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready" (Luke 14:17).
Thought for today:
These men spoken of in Luke were not invited to a funeral or even to hear a lecture. They were not asked to visit a hospital or a prison. They were to go to a feast. The holy gospel of Jesus Christ is represented as a feast. It was to take place in the evening. The Bible speaks of the "marriage supper" of God's Son: "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9).
Oh, my friends, we don't want to miss that feast, that appointment with God; and yet, according to this story Jesus told, these people wanted to be excused.
More than nineteen hundred years have rolled away since Jesus told this story. Some tell us that the world has grown wiser, though we do not often hear them say it has grown better. Wiser, they say. But tell me this, Have men any better excuses today than they had in Christ's time?
Suppose you take your pen and write out your excuse:
"Just now (or yesterday, or last week, or whatever it was) I received an earnest invitation from one of Your servants to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Please have me excused because------" and sign your name to it. How would it sound to the King of heaven?
Let us write out another answer:
"While reading these words (or listening to a gospel sermon, or whenever it was) I received an invitation from one of Your messengers to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and I hasten to reply. By the grace of God I will be present."
Will you sign that? May the Lord help you to make that decision today. You must accept it or reject it. To make no decision is itself a decision not to accept the loving request of the heavenly Father and remember--God does not accept excuses.
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