Jesus made it clear that we would endure hardship in this life. But God gave His children amazing tools to keep trials from overwhelming us. For instance, He placed His Spirit inside each believer to guide and empower. In addition, He gave us prayer so we could not only communicate and stay connected with our Father but also bring Him our requests.

Today I want to focus on yet another one of His marvelous gifts: the Bible. Scripture is the actual Word of God Almighty. It is truth. It never changes. It enables us in all circumstances, so we have a sure foundation on which to base our lives and decisions.

There are thousands of promises in the Bible–countless assurances that we can rely on with perfect confidence. God wants us to learn them so we won’t miss out on blessings He wants to give. And wise believers will turn His promises into prayers and the cries of their hearts.

Let me give you an example that relates to difficult decisions. Psalms 32:8 states, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” We can pray God’s words back to Him, saying that we believe He will teach us and reveal His path, while remaining by our side as our caregiver through the entire situation.

When hardships arise, we need a solid foundation on which to stand. Otherwise, our emotions could easily lead us astray through faulty thinking. God is faithful and unchanging, so we can trust in His promises, which enable us to rest confidently and act boldly.

We typically fill our parties with people similar to ourselves. We invite into our homes those we work with, play with, or otherwise have something in common with. We celebrate with fellow graduates, entertain people from our neighborhoods, and open our doors to four year-olds when our own is turning four. Psychologists concur: we socialize with those in our circles because we have some ring of similarity that connects us.

The man in the parable of the great banquet is no different. The story is told in Luke chapter 14 of an affluent master of ceremonies who had invited a great number of people like himself to a meal. The list was likely distinguished; the guests were no doubt as prosperous socially as they were financially. Jesus sets the story at a critical time for all involved. The invitations had long been sent out and accepted. Places were now set; the table was now prepared. All was ready. Accordingly, the owner of the house sent his servant to bring in the guests. But none would come.

Anthropologists characterize the culture of Jesus’s day as an “honor/shame” society, where one’s quality of life was directly affected by the amount of honor or shame socially attributed to him or her. The public eye was paramount; every interaction either furthered or diminished one’s standing, honor, and regard in the eyes of the world.

Thus, in this parable, the master of the banquet had just been deliberately and publicly shamed. He was pushed to the margins of society and treated with the force of contempt. Hearers of this parable would have been waiting with baited breath to hear how this man would attempt to reclaim his honor. But scandalously, in fact, the master of the feast did not attempt to reverse his public shame. Altogether curiously, he embraced it.

Turning to the slave, the owner of the house appointed the servant with a new task. “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and the poor and maimed and lame and blind bring in here” (Luke 14:21). Returning, the servant reported, “Lord it has all occurred as you ordered, and still there is room.” So the owner of the house responded again, “Go out into the waves and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

The slave is told to do what he must to compel the masses to come, liberating the blind, the lame, and the excluded of their social status and stigma with an invitation to dine with none other than the master. It is a staggering portrayal of a God who is shamed by the rejection of his people, and yet continues to respond with unfathomable grace and profound invitation into his presence. The owner of the house has opened wide the doors. The feast is ready—and there is yet room.

The longing to belong in the right circles is a desire that touches us all. Even so, one only has to watch a group of kids on playground to see how easily our desire to belong is corrupted by our need to exclude. The inner circle is not inner if there are no outsiders. Lines of honor and shame are futile if the majority is not on the wrong side. But in this story, God scandalously breaks these lines of demarcation and stratification. The Father forever challenges the notion that his house will be filled only with the rich or the righteous or those without shame.

The banquet is ready and there is a call to fill the house with the lost and unworthy, the homeless, the blind, the outsiders and the out-of-place. The invitation Jesus presents is wide enough to scour the darkest of hedges and the depths of the city streets. Whether we find ourselves outside of the circle because we have rejected him or at the table communing with his guests, it is a thought to digest: the kingdom of God is like a great banquet. God’s compulsion is our nourishment. The feast is ready and there is still room.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

Morning    “His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers.”     Song of Solomon 5:13

Lo, the flowery month is come! March winds and April showers have done their

work, and the earth is all bedecked with beauty. Come my soul, put on thine

holiday attire and go forth to gather garlands of heavenly thoughts. Thou

knowest whither to betake thyself, for to thee “the beds of spices” are well

known, and thou hast so often smelt the perfume of “the sweet flowers,” that

thou wilt go at once to thy well-beloved and find all loveliness, all joy in

him. That cheek once so rudely smitten with a rod, oft bedewed with tears of

sympathy and then defiled with spittle–that cheek as it smiles with mercy is as

fragrant aromatic to my heart. Thou didst not hide thy face from shame and

spitting, O Lord Jesus, and therefore I will find my dearest delight in

praising thee. Those cheeks were furrowed by the plough of grief, and crimsoned

with red lines of blood from thy thorn-crowned temples; such marks of love

unbounded cannot but charm my soul far more than “pillars of perfume.” If I may

not see the whole of his face I would behold his cheeks, for the least glimpse

of him is exceedingly refreshing to my spiritual sense and yields a variety of

delights. In Jesus I find not only fragrance, but a bed of spices; not one

flower, but all manner of sweet flowers. He is to me my rose and my lily, my

heartsease and my cluster of camphire. When he is with me it is May all the year

round, and my soul goes forth to wash her happy face in the morning-dew of his

grace, and to solace herself with the singing of the birds of his promises.

Precious Lord Jesus, let me in very deed know the blessedness which dwells in

abiding, unbroken fellowship with thee. I am a poor worthless one, whose cheek

thou hast deigned to kiss! O let me kiss thee in return with the kisses of my

lips.

 

Evening   “I am the rose of Sharon.”    Song of Solomon 2:1

Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses

all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst flowers the rose is

deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the

soul than the rose can be in the gardens of earth. He takes the first place as

the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the

heavens and the day are dark in comparison with him, for the King in his beauty

transcends all. “I am the rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of

roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, he is “the rose of Sharon,” just as he

calls his righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of

Ophir”–the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the

loveliest. There is variety in his charms. The rose is delightful to the eye,

and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul,

whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual

smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of his

love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by

the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long

afterwards, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste

of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in

perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her

highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ, nay, she

shall be the better able to appreciate him. Heaven itself possesses nothing

which excels the rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth his beauty?

Human speech and earth-born things fail to tell of him. Earth’s choicest charms

commingled, feebly picture his abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my

heart forever!

 

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!    Psalms 139:17

Divine omniscience provides no comfort to the ungodly mind, but to the child of God it overflows with consolation. God is always thinking about us, never turns His mind from us, always has us before His eyes; and this is precisely how we would want it, because it would be dreadful to exist for a moment outside the observation of our heavenly Father. His thoughts are always tender, loving, wise, prudent, far-reaching, and they bring countless benefits to us: It is consequently a supreme delight to remember them. The Lord always thought about His people: hence their election and the covenant of grace by which their salvation is secured. He will always think upon them: hence their final perseverance by which they shall be brought safely to their final rest.

In all our wanderings the watchful glance of the Eternal Watcher is constantly fixed upon us—we never roam beyond the Shepherd’s eye. In our sorrows He observes us incessantly, and not a painful emotion escapes Him; in our toils He notices all our weariness, and He writes all the struggles of His faithful ones in His book. These thoughts of the Lord encompass us in all our paths and penetrate the innermost region of our being. Not a nerve or tissue, valve or vessel of our bodily frame is uncared for; all the details of our little world are thought upon by the great God.

Dear reader, is this precious to you? Then hold to it. Do not be led astray by those philosophical fools who preach an impersonal God and talk of self-existent, self-governing matter. The Lord lives and thinks upon us; this is a far too precious truth for us to be easily robbed of it. To be noticed by a nobleman is valued so highly that he who has it counts his fortune made; but how much greater is it to be thought of by the King of kings! If the Lord thinks upon us, all is well, and we may rejoice evermore.

The family reading plan for April 30, 2012

Song 5 | Hebrews 5