Luke 10.38-11.36 – Spiritual Life

Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray and assures them of his provision and the presence of God's kingdom.  In doing so he announces that God’s ways and God’s timing is best.  Yet in those ways and in that time, Jesus continues to reveal something radically new – God’s grace knows no boundaries.  For by sitting at the feet of Jesus, Mary crosses an invisible yet strictly demarcated social and familial boundary; only men would meet in the public room of a house, with quarters unseen by outsiders belonging to the women.  So Mary is behaving as if she were a man!  But Jesus affirms her right to do so.  God’s kingdom is simply boundary-breaking.

• In what ways is your relationship to Jesus leading you to be a boundary-breaker?

• What is it that you’re currently asking God for?

• Imagine what it will be like when God’s kingdom is fully here on earth as it is in heaven?  How might this help you pray today?

• Can you commit to praying the Lord’s Prayer each day for the rest of Lent?

Luke 10.1-37 – Loving Action

The seventy-two discover that Jesus’ ways really do work; the kingdom of God comes in power through signs and wonders.  Jesus’ task and the work that is to occupy his followers is to defeat Satan; to usher in God’s new creation in which evil and even death itself are banished.  But as Jesus then explains to a lawyer, the kingdom of God is also a kingdom that comes through practical demonstrations of love and grace; actions that shatter religious, cultural and social boundaries, and so bring God’s peace to his people.

• Do you think you can do what the seventy-two did today?

• Are you aware that as a follower of Jesus you are ‘sent out’ to engage in a cosmic battle?

• Can you recognise those who are radically different to you as your ‘neighbour’, and so love them in the way described in v.27?

• Who can you demonstrate God’s love, grace and peace to today? 

Luke 9.46-62 – Following Well

Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem begins.  From now on Jerusalem is his goal; the city to which Jesus will travel in obedience to God’s call, and where God’s redemptive plan and the rejection of his Messiah will be realised.  And this is one of Luke’s most significant pictures for what it means to be a Christian – travelling in obedience to God’s call.  Following Jesus is what it’s all about.  But following Jesus has serious implications for the trajectory of life.  People discover that their own ambitions and plans, purposes and expectations are called into question.  For Jesus’ followers everything must be secondary to the call to follow him and announce God’s kingdom.
     
• ‘Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem’ (v.51).  What is it that God is currently asking you to face resolutely in obedience to him?

• Is your relationship to Jesus the defining priority of your life?

• What conditions are you currently attaching to following Jesus?

• Are you prepared to follow Jesus wherever he leads and whatever the cost?     

Luke 9.18-45 – Seeing Jesus

Who am I?  This is the question that Jesus brought to his first disciples and brings to us again today.  For some he was simply a prophet, to be identified in the tradition of Elijah and John the Baptist (and others) who pointed towards the coming of God’s kingdom.  But Jesus was so much more.  Prophet - yes; but not one who simply pointed towards a distant divine kingdom.  No, that kingdom was actually being realised in and through his person; it was appearing before people’s very eyes - something that Peter knew; you’re the Messiah, he says, God’s anointed king.  A king however who had come to die in Jerusalem.  In God's kingdom, life only comes through death.

• If someone asked you today ‘Who is Jesus?’ what would you say?

• ‘If you want to gain your life, you have to lose it.’ How does this make you feel?

• What do you need to ‘lose’ for the sake of Jesus?

• In what ways can you see God’s kingdom appearing before your eyes?  

Luke 9.1-17 – Joining In

Jesus commissions the twelve disciples to share his work and sends them out with the same authority that he himself has exercised.  In complete poverty, they are to announce the good news of Jesus; telling people about God’s kingdom and healing those in need.  They must learn to trust God like Jesus himself did, and come to see that in partnership with him they will accomplish great things – a fact that Jesus demonstrates by feeding a great multitude of people with a young boy’s packed lunch.  God’s kingdom comes with the disciples' participation.

• As a follower of Jesus you have ‘power and authority’ to preach God’s kingdom and bring healing.  How does this make you feel?

• In what ways do you need to trust in God’s care?

• Do you know that you can accomplish great things in partnership with Jesus?

• What can you offer Jesus today – no matter how small or seemingly insignificant – so that he might use it to bring about God’s kingdom?  

Luke 8.22-56 – New Creation Power

A storm is calmed, a demon-possessed man is set free, a woman with chronic bleeding is healed, and a dead girl is brought back to life.  This is God’s saving power being displayed in the person and work of Jesus, bringing order out of chaos and life out of death.  And the question of faith is very much in focus.  The disciples are asked to find it, the woman to uncover it, Jairus to hang on to it, and Jesus the only object of it. 
• What ‘storms’ are you currently facing in your life, or in what situations do you currently feel helpless?

• Are you able to hear today Jesus’ words, ‘don’t be afraid; just believe’?

• What might it mean for you to reach out and ‘touch’ Jesus today?

• Where in your life, in your family, our church or in this world do you want to see a release of God’s saving power?

Luke 8.1-21 – Getting It

Jesus teaches about receiving the kingdom of God and living in it.  And this extraordinary kingdom calls those who participate in it to put their life, reputation and property at its disposal.  For the followers of Jesus, nothing must be allowed to distract or divert or to get in the way of the absolute claim of God’s word on their lives.
 
• ‘Path’ or ‘rock’, ‘thorns’ or ‘good soil’ – which of these four conditions best describes your walk with God?

• Does God have absolute claim on your life?

• What gets in the way of you responding to the word of God?

• Can you think of any ways to cultivate ‘good soil’ in your life?