No? Go Do So!

Daily Reading: Luke 10

Scripture Focus: You go, and do likewise (Luke 10.37)

Devotional Thought: Have you ever met anybody who puts more energy into making excuses than making progress, who tries harder to look good than to do good? In Luke 10, Jesus met a man who was like that. When Jesus told him to love God and love his neighbor, he tried to justify himself rather than doing the simple truth found in the Bible. Basically, he said, "No!"

No. When called to love and lend, to sacrifice and serve, our first response may be, "No" but Jesus says...

Go. I love being "at church", but I can't stay there. In order to serve God effectively, I must get beyond the four walls of the church building and out into world. Jesus doesn't take us out of the world, but keeps us from the evil of the world.

Do. I do not go out to be a spectator in life. I go out to be a participant. God has things for me to do. What are they? Look around. There are plenty of people by the side of the road. There are more than enough for all of us Samaritans if we would just be willing to roll up our sleeves and do the work.

So. Jesus said we are to do likewise. We are to love and serve like the Samaritan did. He wasn't loved and served by the Jewish man he helped, but still he helped him. Commentator William Barclay says, "We must help a man even when he has brought his trouble on himself (30); Any man of any nation who is in need is our neighbor (31-33); Our help must be practical, and must not consist merely in feeling sorry. (Beacon Bible Commentary, 505)

Prayer: Jesus, thank you that you came and rescued me from the side of the road. Help me to go and do likewise. Amen.

Psalm of the Day: 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! (Psalms 137:1-9)