SCRIPTURE

Studied: Luke 14 

OBSERVATION

Luke 14:16-23 ~ A man once gave a great banquet and invited a lot of guests. When the banquet was ready, he sent a servant to tell the guests, “Everything is ready! Please come.” One guest after another started making excuses. The first one said, “I bought some land, and I’ve got to look it over. Please excuse me.” Another guest said, “I bought five teams of oxen, and I need to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another guest said, “I have just gotten married, and I can’t be there.” The servant told his master what happened, and the master became so angry that he said, “Go as fast as you can to every street and alley in town! Bring in everyone who is poor or crippled or blind or lame.” When the servant returned, he said, “Master, I’ve done what you told me, and there is still plenty of room for more people.” His master then told him, “Go out along the back roads and fence rows and make people come in, so that my house will be full. Not one of the guests I first invited will get even a bite of my food!”

APPLICATION

I have a few more verses than usual today because this story really sent a message home to me. In my last devotional I was touched to invite friends to dinner that can’t afford to return the favor. In this story I was convicted to invite non-Christians to church, and not just because that’s the one place where they are more lightly to hear the Word of God and be convicted of their sin, but because often we will waste our time inviting and re-inviting those who profess to be Christians yet they find every excuse possible to avoid being in church with fellow believers. Now, if I also don’t see ‘fruit’ in these self-proclaimed ‘Christians’ then I need to treat them as non-Christians and witness to them as I would any other non-Christian. I sometime believe that Christians who have accepted the Lord at some stage in their lives, and have no real relationship with the Master, feel like they have their ticket punched and therefore they feel like they have no real need to be bombarded by Christians trying to get them in church or committed to some outreach, or even in-reach program of the church. Jesus came to minister to, and win the hearts of the ‘sick’ (sinners). As we busy ourselves in God’s work, let us therefore be about the Father’s work and minister to the ‘sick’.

PRAYER

Lord I feel like I will need introduction, or leadership direction, to the lost around me, because as Christians we tend to hang mostly with Christians. Please help me to be keenly aware of the unsaved and then give me opportunities to minister to them, invite them to Your house, pray for them, show them Your love, and help them to understand their lost condition and the need for a Savior that will secure their eternal destiny. Yes, I understand that we also have a need within the church for ministry to the brothers and sisters that already know You, but I am even more convinced that there is a greater need to win the lost and truly minister to the sin-sick of my community. I can only do this through Your love, direction and power, Lord, so please be my guide, protector and strength through each and every day as opportunities are presented to me.