Luke 4:25-27

In the measure that you believe in God, is the measure that you can receive from God.

Faith alone pleases the Father that those who believe in His only begotten Son would be given life…eternal and true. If we have faith the size of a mustard seed, one of the smallest of the seeds, we could move mountains in His name. 

It isn’t our being pious that saves us it is in believing in HIS righteousness.

pious |ˈpīəs|

adjective

devoutly religious.

righteousness |ˈrīCHəsnəs|

noun

the quality of being morally right or justifiable

Christ came to earth to save us from our unbelief and failing faithfulness.

This was evidently a miraculous interference, as no rain fell for three years and six months, even in the rainy seasons. There were two of these in Judea, called the first and the latter rains; the first fell in October, the latter in April: the first prepared the ground for the seed, the latter ripened the harvest. As both these rains were withheld, consequently there was a great famine throughout all the land.

Jesus speaks of a period of widespread unfaithfulness to God. During this period, judgment came on the nation in the form of famine. The only people to receive healing were Gentiles.

Luke 4:25-27

²⁵ But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; ²⁶ but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

⁹ “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 

1 Kings 17:9

¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 

James 5:17

Ezekiel 18:30-32

As long as you have breath there is hope.

His mercy awaits those who call on in Him in repentance with a contrite heart. God wants no one to perish…no not one. Everyone is judged equitably and individually. God never enjoys condemning a person, but is just and righteous in dispensing His judgments.

Ezekiel 18:30-32

³⁰ “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 

Isaiah 55:7

²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 

Ephesians 4:23

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 

2 Peter 3:9

⁵ Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 

Revelation 2:5

1 Samuel 30:21025

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE - 1621

By 1621, Plymouth’s settlers were sick of the share-and-share-alike policy their English backers had adopted. Many colonists wanted to parcel the common land into private chunks. Deacon Robert Cushman warned them strongly against this kind of talk, which he said was selfish.

God shows no partiality, He does not esteem the strong over the weak, or the weak over the strong. He values the dignity of all His children. This is a valuable lesson in todays culture. God supplies the talent and the increase, not man, and it is meant to share.

These men insisted that the spoil captured from the Amalekites should not be divided with the men who stayed at the Brook Besor with the supplies. David pointed out that the booty captured from the Amalekites was actually a gift from God, who had given them the victory.

David’s band of warriors were one, although they had different strengths and abilities. They would share equally in the fruits of victory.

1 Samuel 30:21-25

²¹ Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David, whom they also had made to stay at the Brook Besor. So they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near the people, he greeted them. ²² Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except for every man’s wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart.”

²³ But David said, “My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us. ²⁴ For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.” ²⁵ So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

⁸ and spoke to them, saying, “Return with much riches to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with very much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.” 

Joshua 22:8

Luke 7:40-43

Help me Father to treat others the way that You have treated me! 

His love for mankind cradles the world. Without His love we would cease to exist.

What does the Lord require of us?

We have to be fair

We have to forgive easily

and always humbly remember how much we have been forgiven of.

Micah 6:8 

Jesus’ reply indicates that He knew the reputation of the woman, but was more interested in what the woman could become through the grace of God. Jesus’ point is that the amount of love showered on the Savior will be in direct proportion with one’s sense of the gravity of the sins that the Savior has forgiven. The woman knew she had been forgiven much, and as a result she would love much.

Luke 7:40-43

⁴⁰ And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

⁴¹ “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

²⁸ “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ 

Matthew 18:28

John 14:15-18

It is all about relationship. Father to child. Child to Father. 

Christ lives inside of us who believe. In the unity of the Holy Spirit we can accomplish His will for our lives and affect the lives of those He places in our path. We can trust Him to accomplish what would be impossible for us. Just B.E.L.I.E.V.E. This light that abides in us should give reflective light to those who are seeking Him.

The Spirit of God is active in the world, but His acts go unnoticed by the world.

believe (Gk. pisteuō) Strong’s #4100: The Greek word for believe literally means “to place one’s trust in another”; it occurs over 90 times in the Gospel of John alone. To believe in Jesus is to believe in His person and to trust in Him completely for salvation. Many of Jesus’ contemporaries believed in Jesus’ miraculous powers, but they would not believe in Jesus Himself. Others wanted to believe in a political Messiah, but would not believe in the One who suffered for their sins. But we must be careful to believe and trust in the Jesus presented in the Scriptures, in the Son of God who sacrificed His life for our sins.

John 14:15-18

¹⁵ “If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 

1 John 5:3

²⁶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 

John 15:26

⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

Acts 2:4

¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 

Romans 8:15

²⁷ But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 

1 John 2:27

³ And if I go and prepare a place for you,I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

John 14:3

Jeremiah 22:13-17

Wake up call!! God cares about the poor, the disabled, the alien and those who suffer from racist hatred…more than He does about the greed of the rich. Woe to those of us who do not seek justice and mercy in awareness of His commands to do so. We are heading as a nation into dangerous territory.

The key terms for true, biblical leadership quality—righteousness and justice—were negated by the king’s actions. The king was supposed to be the guardian of his people, but Jehoiakim enslaved his fellow Israelites to build his self-aggrandizing palaces. Israel perished because of its lack of knowledge of God. Knowledge of God here is related to concern for the poor and needy.

This triad of sins characterizing the reign of Jehoiakim would hammer home a resounding message to Judah concerning the collapse of its kingship. Covenant violations would not go unpunished.

Jeremiah 22:13-17

¹³ “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness

And his chambers by injustice,

Who uses his neighbor’s service without wages

And gives him nothing for his work,

¹⁴ Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers,

And cut out windows for it,

Paneling it with cedar

And painting it with vermilion.’

¹⁵ “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar?

Did not your father eat and drink,

And do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him.

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy;

Then it was well.

Was not this knowing Me?” says the Lord.

¹⁷ “Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness,

For shedding innocent blood,

And practicing oppression and violence.”

¹¹ “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, So is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, And at his end he will be a fool.” 

Jeremiah 17:11

¹³ “Behold, therefore, I beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made, and at the bloodshed which has been in your midst. 

Ezekiel 22:13

¹ ‘You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning. 

Leviticus 19:13

¹⁴ “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. 

Deuteronomy 24:14

⁹ “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster! 

Habakkuk 2:9

Ezekiel 22:1-5

God does not tolerate calling good _ evil or evil _ good. As a society we have lost the ability to judge fairly. Greed and the pursuit of money is our idol and the standard we use to judge the worth of an idea, a person or a cultural moral. How sad for all of humanity that our consciences have been seared and the commandments of God have been cast aside even in His house. 

We are living in Babylon. 

Jerusalem’s princes had shed the blood of innocent people. These evil leaders had been: (1) taking advantage of parents and the weak (2) rejecting God and His covenant, leading to ungodliness and inhumanity (3) murdering the innocent by slandering them (4) preferring idolatrous religion and its immoral rituals (5) engaging in sexual immorality with neighbors, family, and relatives and (6) loving money and using it to get ahead of fellow citizens.

These verses focus on the sins of Jerusalem, principally bloodshed (social sin) as a result of idolatry (spiritual sin). A problem in the vertical relationship with God inevitably leads to some degree of injustice and injury in horizontal, human affairs. The city was ripe for judgment. When such hypocrisy is exposed and punishment is executed before the world, God’s people become lasting objects of ridicule.

The worlds only hope is the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel appears to have been articulate, intelligent, and dramatic. He was a person that could withstand great opposition in order to obey the demands God placed on His life.

Ezekiel 22:1-5

22 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations! ³ Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself. ⁴ You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries. ⁵ Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult.

3 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs. 

Nahum 3:1

¹⁶ Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. 

2 Kings 21:16

Micah

From early on God has led me to Micah as His way of showing me what He requires of us as believers. Over and over He has given me the passage Micah 6:8 to internalize and guide me in my quest for more and more of Him. As we enter this holy season may we always remember that Jesus is the reason we celebrate. For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son born under humble beginnings in a manger, to teach us to be fair and show forgiveness in all the things we do. We were to become His hands and feet as we near the end of earthly time as we know it and enter into His.The Christ is the embodiment of all that He enables us to become.

It is the Lord who ultimately gives a person strength, courage, and ability to exercise the virtues of godly living.

Micah 6:8

⁸       He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?

The idea here is that God seeks certain characteristics of true worship from His people. do justly … love mercy … walk humbly: These phrases summarize biblical piety in true worship. The majority of the people of Israel had violated each of these standards repeatedly. The rulers did not know justice (3:1), had no interest in mercy (3:2, 3), and demonstrated no humility (3:11).

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 

Deuteronomy 10:12

⁶ For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 

Hosea 6:6

⁶ So you, by the help of your God, return; Observe mercy and justice, And wait on your God continually. 

Hosea 12:6

¹⁷ Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 

Isaiah 1:17

Micah

Much of Micah’s preaching warned Judah about an impending national disaster. Yet the religious leaders of Jerusalem were falsely confident that no evil would come to them because of the inviolable presence of the holy temple in their midst. Micah sternly confronted their arrogance and their mistaken notions of God: not even the temple on Mount Zion would be spared the onslaught of God’s wrath (3:12).

The significant delay in the judgment against Jerusalem may be attributed to the mercy of the Lord. Although the judgment of Jerusalem was postponed, it was finally realized in the destruction of the city by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

The interplay of texts of wrath and mercy in the Book of Micah mirrors the character of God, for even in His wrath He remembers mercy. In the darkest days of impending judgment on the nations of Israel and Judah, there was always the possibility of a remnant being spared. Although the Lord was determined to maintain His holiness, He was equally intent on fulfilling His loving promises to Abraham. The Lord would balance His judgment with mercy. Consequently Micah also balances his oracles of judgment with oracles of promise.

The Lord was judging His people according to the terms of the covenant. But in the middle of the oracles of judgment, Micah reveals the Lord’s wonderful promises of a glorious future. There would be a time when the coming King would gather His people together (2:12, 13), when He would establish peace (4:3), and when He would bring justice to the earth (4:2, 3). Remarkably, Micah prophesies that this coming Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (5:2).

Micah’s reference to the Messiah was quite explicit. From the time he verbalized God’s rebuke at the way the Jews were treating the poor until the time a poor carpenter and his fiancée arrived in Bethlehem, devout Jews knew that King David’s birthplace was where the Messiah would also be born.

Micah wrote the following about the town of Bethlehem seven hundred years before Jesus was born: “Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (5:2). And of that Ruler, he prophesied, “He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.… Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (4:2, 3)

Ezekiel 37:11-14

Without Christ we are dead men walking…we are a people without hope, without a future. When we accept the promise God made to Israel to send a Savior, a King, a Messiah to save them from their sins, we receive His promise of Christ within us, the hope of glory. 

To every person, through His promise to the Israelites, salvation is given…accept this precious gift of life, full and abundant, that He gives to all who believe.

We inherit the promises of Abraham and Sarah.

The major thrust of this passage is the coming spiritual rebirth of God’s chosen people through the agency of His Spirit. The spiritual rebirth would miraculously revive and restore human beings to what God had intended them to be in the beginning. The same body-breath sequence occurs in the creation of Adam.

Ezekiel 37:11-14

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. ¹⁴ I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”

³⁹ ‘Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. 

Deuteronomy 32:39

¹⁴ When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, And your bones shall flourish like grass; The hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants, And His indignation to His enemies. 

Isaiah 66:14

¹⁴ “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes. 

Hosea 13:14

²⁷ I will put My ⁱSpirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 

Ezekiel 36:27

¹⁰ “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 

Zechariah 12:10

Mark 2:17

God loves each and every individual believer. He also loves each and every individual sinner just as much. God has no partiality for any man. There is no man righteous but the King of kings, the Lord of lords, Jesus. 

God’s greatest desire is for every person to achieve union with Him though the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. he uses the greatest gift that He gives to His followers “love” to accomplish his will. 

We will draw others to Him by the love that we show to them.

God’s love for the world that He created exceeds Satan’s hatred. Jesus wins! Shout it to the world!

In this instance Jesus was speaking tongue-in-cheek when He used the word righteous. None are righteous, though some, such as the Pharisees, fancied themselves as such. Christ came to call sinners to repentance. Jesus did not condone the activities of sinners, but required repentance—a change of mind that recognizes the need of a Savior and recognizes Jesus Christ as the only Savior.

Mark 2:17

¹⁷ When Jesus heard it, He said to them,  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

¹¹ For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. 

Matthew 18:11

¹⁰ for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

Luke 19:10

Romans 7:21-25

In mans’ pride and arrogance he cherishes the law thinking that he can do good according to his fleshly conscience. It is only in his humble gratitude for God’s mercy that he comes to the realization that there is nothing good he can accomplish except through Christ within him. 

We can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, the wrong thing for the right reason and then, in Christ, we can do the right thing for the right reason! 

Jesus alone sets us free from the bondage of sin by the renewing of our mind. The law is our task master until we are changed precept by precept into His character. 

 I choose the fulness of life in Christ. 

Paul breaks forth in jubilant praise to God that there is victory through Jesus Christ, who delivers believers from the body of death, the flesh. Paul concludes that the problem is not the law; the problem is the flesh. From this argument, Paul moves into the solution, salvation found in Jesus Christ.

Romans 7:21-25

²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 

Ephesians 3:16

⁴ rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 

1 Peter 3:4

¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 

Galatians 5:17

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1 Corinthians 15:57