Luke 17:11 - 18:14
November 7, 2014

We bring up the story of the 10 men healed of leprosy every year at Thanksgiving as a reminder to us all to remember to be thankful for what God has done, and continues to do in our lives.  How ironic that we are close to Thanksgiving now, and this passage comes up.   It really is a good reminder.  Too often when things are really "going our way" we forget who caused it in the first place.

The kingdom of God is within us, but the "day of the Son of Man" is a specific, one time event.   It's compared to several other cataclysmic events that resulted in sudden death of almost everyone.   I would take this to mean "the rapture" where the people of earth who are true followers of Jesus Christ will be immediately taken away, and everyone else will perish.

In both Sodom and the days of Noah the salvation of the few and judgment on the rest was simultaneous, and there was no opportunity for people to be saved by some other means at a later date.     Since Jesus is using Noah's Ark as an example here, consider that there is only one way onto the Ark (through the single door) and once the door is closed, there are no other opportunities to climb aboard and be saved.   You are either in through the door before it closes, or you aren't in at all.   Having said that, I don't think it's likely that God will rapture his saints from the earth and then have a "second harvest" sometime later of the people who changed their minds and repented.   That flies in the face of both the Sodom and Gomorrah and Ark accounts.

Chapter 18
How often we forget that God is predisposed to favor our requests!  If the unrighteous judge will eventually give the widow (who has no political power) justice, how much more will our heavenly Father work on our behalf if we would only ask!    I think we look at prayer as a chore, or a task to be done more than a conversation with a benevolent friend.

I want to be confident in my salvation, and I am excited and honored to be a part of God's kingdom.  However I don't ever want that to transfer in my thoughts to pride.   I think it's possible to be happy and not be proud.   And I think it's possible to be thankful without being arrogant.    All it takes is a occasional reminder that I am no different in God's eyes from any other person on earth, when it comes to value or ability.

Last night I was watching something on CNN where a reporter was sitting in Iran interviewing a young man.  I remember thinking "that guy doesn't seem any different than me".   He had the same concerns, the same fears, the same perpective of the future.  We were even wearing the same types of clothing.    I have always viewed the Iranians by what I see in the leaders on TV, but I suspect that their people are very much like us.  Just like our leaders are often disconnected from us as well.

God loves us all, and it pays to remember that.   Even when we pray.

PR