Luke 13

Luke 13 starts with a call to repentance. We often ask why bad things happen to good people, and Jesus gave examples of that happening. Pilate killed a group of Galileans and mixed their blood with his sacrifices. And a tower in Jerusalem collapsed and killed people. Both of those were recent events at the time Jesus was talking about them, and He used them to point out that suffering is not dealt in direct portion to sin. His main point, though, is that all sin leads to death, and unless we repent we will all perish. I encourage you to identify one thing in you right now that you need to repent of and tell the Lord that you repent, and ask Him to replace that thing with something virtuous and honorable.

We are the fig trees in God's vinyard. We failed to bear fruit for Him on our own and He wanted to destroy us for it. But Jesus interceded for us and gave us a second chance. If we bear fruit because of Jesus we will be saved, otherwise there is nothing stopping God from destroying us.

Jesus healed a woman with a crooked back in a synagogue on the Sabbath. Rather than rejoicing over the miracle performed in their presence the synagogue leaders told the crowd to basically go get healed some other day. I can't even imagine the mindset - to see a miracle and then tell people that there's a day of the week when such things are inappropriate. But Jesus emerassed them by comparing healing to the simple act of giving water to livestock. Do you hold to any dogma that puts the love of God in a box?

The kingdom of God starts out as a small seed planted in your heart, but it grows in you to form a life of grace, peace, and strength.

The kingdom of God spreads through you like leaven. You cannot have just a little bit of Jesus. He's all or nothing.

The narrow way is simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. You don't have to do a lot of complicated tricks to get into heaven, but you do have to surrender a lot of yourself - and that's the tricky part. We all want to go to heaven, and most of us are able to sacrifice something of ourselves, but totally surrendering to Jesus is a daily thing, and we often find ways of talking ourselves out of it. We do a lot of things "in Jesus's name" but the thing that matters most is that we give ourselves completely to Him, and rely completely on Him for everything. If we don't do that He will never know us.

Jesus was not afraid of the government - even when they directly wanted to kill Him. He stayed true to His mission, and even accepted the fact that He would die. How easily are we made to be afraid by something the government or the news says? How often do we give that fear into God's hands instead of worrying about it and letting it distract us from our mission? Do not fear, but trust in the Lord.