Luke 11:5-13 – The point here seems to be not to be afraid to ask God for things in prayer. He even uses an example of a completely unreasonable request – knocking on the door at midnight to ask for bread. Who in their right mind would, first of all, arrive at a friend’s home from a journey, presumably unannounced, at midnight? (If he was expected, then why wasn’t the man prepared for him? Then again, in Jesus’ day you couldn’t just call ahead …) Even if am unexpected guest arrives at midnight and you’ve nothing to offer, wouldn’t you wait until the morning to go begging?
\nSo Jesus is saying, don’t be afraid to ask God, even ridiculous requests. Ask Him! If you do, you will receive. What a God, who is even prepared to hear our requests for bread at midnight.
\nLuke 11:20 – He calls them on their challenge to his authority. Do they really believe that he is from the devil, casing out demons or do they simply want to avoid the more obvious truth that the kingdom of God is here? If the latter is true, that would mean that they would have to change or be excluded from the kingdom. if it’s the former, they can go on as they are, and not deal with what Jesus taught.
\nA lack of belief is frequently not a result of studying the facts and the evidence, rather it’s the desire to avoid facing an uncomfortable truth.
\nLuke 11:44 – It’s so easy to, like the Pharisees, turn following Jesus into a set of rules and practices. Go to church, tithe, don’t swear, etc. In fact, the crowds clamor for a simple religion that doesn’t require them to think. Just give us the rules and we’ll follow them.
\nWhen the leaders give in to this, and it’s so, so common, the people follow, thinking they are following God. Just like walking over an unmarked grave, you think it’s part of the path and don’t know what lies beneath, people who follow these kind of men don’t know how far they are missing the heart of God.
\nIt’s easy to sit and long for someone to tell you what to do an how to live. It even feels spiritual – we’re following the direction of one more mature. But God says to dig deep and deal with our hearts, not our actions, and leaders, lead people to do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"