The day with dianne Louise

During those days He went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, He summoned His disciples, and ahe chose 12 of them- He also named them apostles. Luke 6:12,13 Luke highlight the emphasis on prayer. Luke was a physician and he would understand the importance of preparation, diligence and choosing the right path. Jesus had many disciples, he had a crowd of followers but now He chose 12, perhaps in line with the 12 tribes of Israel, or perhaps God likes the number 12. It can be found 187 times in the bible. 12 is considered a perfect number, it symbolises authority and power. The word apostle means sent one. Whereas the crowd followed Jesus and adhered to His words, his apostles  were sent out with authority to do His will. The fact that Jesus prayed all night indicates the importance of the choice He was about to make. Judas, although he was the betrayer, was chosen, his part was not a good one but an essential one. This is the only tim...

On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was paralysed. The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so they could find a charge against Him. Luke 6:6,7 These are some of the saddest words ever written. I would have been watching Jsus closely to see His glory, but these men had allowed offense into their hearts and we're looking for a reason to excuse their self-righteous attitudes and offense. Jesus, the love of God, manifest in the flesh, came to win His creation back to a loving Father and all these people could do was find offense at the way He chose to set them free. Always, always seek God for what He is saying, especially when things are so opposite to your expectations. God tells us in the Old Testament His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. How can we expect Him to perform according to our limited dictates. Trust Him! Amen!

On a a Sabbath, He passed through the grain fields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands and eating them. But some of the Pharisees said, " Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus answered them, "Haven't you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry- how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat? He even gave some to those who were wih him." Then He told them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Luke 6:1-5 The Jews venerated David and excused his  behaviour. However, Jesus was telling them someone greater than David was here and all they were doing was eating grain as they walked through the fields. I imagine the disciples were beginning to feel as if they had won the lottery, the law as being cut from their shoulders, their were beginning to behave like little, free children and Jesus as happy to ...

Then they said to Him, "John's disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but Your's eat and drink." Jesus said to them, "You can't make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? But the time will come when the groom is taken away from them - then they will fast in those days."  He also told them a parable, "No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new garment, but the patch from the new garment will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins be ruined. But new wine should be put into fresh wine skins. And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, "the old is better." Luke 5:35-39 Forever when I have read this I am annoyed by the constant criticism of Jesus by the Pharisees and see Jesus' reply as an ...

After this,  Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named ale I, sitting at the tax office and He said to him, "Follow Me!" So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Him. Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for Him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors?" Jesus replied to them, "The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:27-32 There are times when I go into various groups of people I feel as though I am in the midst of a bunch of trolls. They seem so consumed with animal like behaviour I am off put. Yet yesterday when I was in such a group, the thought came to me, Jesus came for the sinners, not the nice folk. In fact the Lord does His greatest miracles in the midst of such folk. We c...

While He was in one of the towns, a man was there who had a serious skin disease all over him. He saw Jesus, fell facedown, and begged Him, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Reaching out His hand, He touched him, saying, "I am willing: be made clean," and immediately the disease left him. Luke 5:12-14 Imagine living with a skin disease all over your body and nothing and noone has been able to bring you relief. Your community casts you out as unclean, you are alone and unwanted. Your agony of soul is great: you are bereft of family and friends and you are poor, begging for bread, living in the slums of life and your body is a mess and a constant aggravation.  Suddenly you hear the crowd talking about a Messiah who heals the sick. For the first time, in as long as you can remember hope fills your soul. The Messiah, He can heal you! Daring rebuke you enter the crowd and pursue your healing. When people see you they shun you, throw things at you but you...

As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God's word, He was standing by lake Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee). He saw two boats at the edge of the lake, the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from land. Then He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch." "Maser," Simon replied, we've worked hard all night long and caught nothing! But at your word, I'll let down the nets." When they did this they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord!" For he a...