Daily Reading: Luke 10
Scripture Focus: “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me. (Luke 10.16)
Devotional Thought: Hear the pleading words of Jesus: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10.2). We often share our prayer requests with our friends, don’t we? This is Jesus’ prayer request. Should it not be at the top of our prayer lists?
As Jesus instructs his evangelists in their work, he reminds them that they will be rejected, but he tells them that it is really him who is being rejected. And, those who reject Jesus reject God.
How often do we fail to witness and to invite because we fear rejection? They won’t come anyway… People will ridicule me… I will get a reputation for being a religious nut… People will start to avoid me…
I grew up in a church and time when it was part of the culture to invite people to church. We used to report “calls” in our Sunday school classes. The question was basically, “How many people did you invite to church this week?” I wonder why we don’t do that anymore. I guarantee that if we adopted that approach, we would see our churches grow. We would see people come to Christ. Yes, we would be rejected, but at least if we invite them, they would have an opportunity to receive Jesus. Without the invitation, there is no opportunity. Forty-four years later, I still remember the person who invited me to church for the first time. How grateful I am that that person risked rejection!
If we are earnestly praying for Jesus’ prayer request, wouldn’t we be willing to risk rejection?
Prayer: Lord, you were despised and rejected by men. Help me to not shy away from rejection, but to go with you outside the camp and bear the reproach you endured. Amen. (Isaiah 53.3 and Hebrews 13.13)
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)
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