A New Perspective...My Guest Contributors

Let me just start out by saying that you all just continue to be SUCH A BLESSING to me through this blog (and in other ways of course)!  I am daily "blown away" by the insights, the emotion, and the thoughts you bring to this blog everyday and I just cannot thank you enough nor can I possibly express enough how much this has changed my life for all eternity.  My thanks and my love to you all!!!

I have a very special approach for my post today.  My daughter Jordan is having her 14th birthday party celebration today with three of her close friends from church.  When I woke up this morning (after a VERY late night due to my husband's high school football game), the Lord gave me an idea.  I said to them, "Would you all be willing to give me your thoughts on chapters 10 and 11 of Luke?"  They were totally thrilled and went to work on it immediately!  So...here is the thoughts and insights from a VERY special group of young ladies from Oak Hill Baptist Church on today's reading.  Let me show you a picture of these sweet girls and give you each of their names before I get started.

From left to right:  Abigail Chasteen, Megan Pitts, Ashlyn Parsons, and Jordan Habelt

JESUS SENDS OUT HIS DISCIPLES:

• It was cool how many disciples Jesus sent out - 72!
• It's amazing how angry God gets when we reject Him.  In this chapter, if the townspeople reject this message from Jesus, they are cursed.
• Do not take anything with you - not a purse, bag, or sandals.
• Even demons recognize Jesus!  Better than people do!
• The 72 were FULLY protected.

JESUS' PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

• Jesus is saying that thank you to the Father that He is "clouding" the information from the Pharisees and revealing them to the "lower class" people.
• No one truly knows Jesus except the Father and no one knows God except Jesus and those to whom JESUS chooses to reveal Himself.
• The people who were there when Jesus was on earth were truly blessed to see Him and to hear what He preached.
• To get into heaven, you have to have a child-like faith.
• The disciples were so blessed because they got to see and hear what prophets and kings long to hear and to see but could not.
• God has entrusted EVERYTHING to Jesus!

THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT AND THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN:

• We should be kind to whoever we meet no matter what they look like or what their race is.
• Your neighbor is anyone who gave you mercy in your time of need.
• We should be kind to anyone we meet NO MATTER what their circumstances because the 1st and 2nd greatest commandments tell us to do so.
• We must live our lives showing mercy to others.

JESUS VISITS MARTHA AND MARY:

• Mary had the right mind-set, Martha did not.
• Martha was more concerned about worldly things and Mary was concerned more about things that really mattered.
• Don't put worldly possessions before the Lord.  Listen to him and do not let other things consume you.
• While Mary discovered The Truth (listening to Jesus), Martha was concerned about more earthly things.
• Mary discovered what was REALLY important.

TEACHING ABOUT PRAYER:

• God loves you MORE than you even love your own children.
• Jesus is saying, "I love you more than you love your children because I am your heavenly Father."
• Keep asking and you will get it.
• Keep looking and you will find it.
• Keep knocking and the door will be opened.
• God will NEVER deceive you.

JESUS AND THE PRINCE OF DEMONS:

• Jesus is talking here about the fact that if you are against yourself you will destroy yourself.
• Jesus casts out a demon from mute man and the people gave credit to the devil!  Jesus knew their thoughts and showed them anything done by Satan is doomed.

THE SIGN OF JONAH:

• Jesus is here and so many people refuse to listen to Him and believe in Him.

RECEIVING THE LIGHT:

• Jesus tells us so many times that you have to shine your light for God and THIS is one of those times. :)
• When you receive the light of Jesus, your life will show proof that you have Jesus in your life.
• Shine your light for all the world to see.

JESUS CRITICIZES THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS:

• People are too worried about their outside appearance.
• The outside can look clean, but the inside can still be full of corruption.
• The Pharisees and teachers of the religious law asked Him many questions to use the answers against Him.

Well, there you have it...simple and to the point...just what I wanted my post to be today!  Thank you girls for your input...you continue to amaze me and to shine the light of Jesus through your lives.  I love you!!!