Good News for Today

Daily Reading:  Luke 10

Scripture Focus: In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will." (Luke 10.21)

Devotional Thought:  In today's chapter, there is good news for today...

·       Rejoicing in the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Though he faced a grueling death, his joy was unabated.  Our joy also needs to come from a source deep within our souls, not based on the circumstances of life.  When our joy depends on anything else, it will be fleeting.  Are you filled with the Spirit?  Are you allowing that joy to pervade your life?

·       Praising our Father, Lord of heaven and earth.  Good news: God is our Father, too!  And, our Father is Lord of heaven and earth.  In 2014, the European Space Agency sent the probe Philae from the spacecraft Rosetta to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  It was a 10 year mission requiring intricate planning and details.  They didn't just decide one day to do it and then send it out the next.  God is like that.  He is Lord of heaven and earth!  He's got a plan and he's working it out to its final conclusion

·       Seeing hidden things.  Do you remember the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum?  Jesus made that same point nearly 2000 years before Fulghum got rich making it.  Jesus always spoke in ways that were easy to understand. Let’s heed the words of Jesus spoken another time: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Luke 18.17).

Be filled with the Spirit and let your joy come from within.  God is Lord of heaven and earth.  Following Jesus is not complicated. 

Good news for today!

Prayer: I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 137.1-9

1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.

3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion! ”

4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!

6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations! ”

8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!

9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!