Luke 11
Jesus teaches how to pray
One time after Jesus finished praying, one of his students said, “Master, teach us how to talk to God just like John taught his students.” Jesus replied,
“When you talk to God, say:
‘Dad, purify your reputation. Bring your dominion here. Give us our food for the day. Drop the charges for the ways we’ve missed the mark, because we drop the charges against everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us away from anything that might entice us to miss the mark even further.’
God gives the Sacred Wind to those who ask
Then he said
“Imagine that you go to your friend at 4am and say,
‘Can I please borrow some food? Because I have a guest who came to visit from out of town, and I don’t have any food to give him.’
And from inside his house, your friend says,
‘Don’t bother me. I already locked up the house, and my kids are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’
I guarantee you that even if your friendship isn’t a good enough reason to make him give you the food, your lack of shame will be a good enough reason to cause him to give you as much as you need.
If you ask it will be given to you. Look and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened. Everyone who asks receives. Whoever looks will find. And whoever knocks, will have it be opened.
Imagine that you’re a father and your son asks you for fish. You won’t cook him a snake instead, will you? Or if he asks for eggs, do you cook him a scorpion? If you know how to give good things to your children even though you are rotten, how much more will your intangible father give the Sacred Wind to those who ask him?”
Jesus is from God—not Satan
One time Jesus expelled an inferior supernatural out of a mute man, causing him to speak. Everyone was astonished, but some said,
“The way he expels supernaturals is through Satan, the leader of demons.”
Others demanded he give them a sign from heaven to prove himself, but Jesus knew what they were thinking and said,
“Any empire pitted against itself is doomed. A family pitted against itself will crumble. If Satan is pitted against himself, then how could his empire ever last? You say that I expel demons through Satan, but if I use Satan to expel them, then who are your people using to cast them out? I’ll let them decide. But if I expel demons through God’s finger, then God’s empire has arrived right here in your midst.”
Jesus will conquer everyone who isn’t on his side
“When a strong man who is fully armed guards his own house, his property will have peace. But when someone even stronger attacks him and overpowers him, the winner will confiscate all the weapons he relied on and distribute the loot. Whoever isn’t on my side is against me. Whoever doesn’t help me gather, scatters.
Demons come back
“When corrupted breath comes out of someone, it travels through remote areas looking for relief, but when it can’t find any, it decides to return to its old home. When it returns, it finds everything clean and organized. Then it finds 7 other winds even more rotten than itself, and they all live there, leaving the man even worse than before.”
Living by God’s message
While Jesus was saying these things, one woman in the crowd shouted,
“Your mother should be happy to have you as her son.”
But he said,
“Actually the happy ones are the people who hear God’s message and live by it.”
Jesus is even more significant than past prophets
As the crowd grew, he said,
“This generation is corrupted. It craves to see a sign, but Jonah’s sign is the only one that will be given to it. In the same way that Jonah became a sign for the Ninevites, the Culmination of Humanity will be one to this generation. When it’s time for justice, the Southern Queen will wake up next to this generation and criticize them because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon’s wisdom, and now something more important than Solomon is here. When it’s time to separate everyone, Nineveh’s people will appear with this generation, and they will reprimand you because they corrected their minds after hearing Jonah’s message, but now something more important than Jonah is here.”
My vision dictates my enlightenment
“No one turns on a lamp and then puts it away in the basement or under a box. They leave it on the lampstand so that everyone who enters can see the light. Your eyes are your lamps: when you see clearly, your whole being becomes enlightened, but when your vision is corrupted, the rest of yourself becomes darkened too. So be careful that the spiritual light in you isn’t darkness. If your entire being is enlightened without any dark spots, then you will be fully illuminated as if a lamp was shining on you with is rays.”
The interior is more important than the exterior
After he said that, a religious leader invited him to lunch, so Jesus went and sat down at the table. The religious leader was surprised that Jesus didn’t wash his hands before the meal. But the Master told him,
“You religious leaders wash the exteriors of the wine glass and bowl, but your interior is full of robbery and corruption. That makes no sense! Didn’t the same person who made the exterior also make the interior? But if you donate the interior portion to the poor, then the entire thing will be clean for you.
But yikes to you religious leaders! Because you donate a tenth of every little garden herb, yet you disregard justice and God’s love when those are the things you should have been doing along with the others.
Yikes to you religious leaders! Because you love sitting in the honored seats at church, and you love the respectful greetings people give you out in public. Yikes to you! Because you are like hidden graveyards, and the people who walk over them don’t even realize it.”
Studiers of the law should have listened to the prophets & helped people
Someone who studied Jewish law responded,
“Teacher, when you say that, it insults us too.”
But Jesus said,
“Yikes to you who study the law too! Because you weigh people down with burdens that are hard to carry while you don’t even offer one finger to help them.
Yikes to you! You dig graves for the prophets while it was your ancestors who killed them. You are like witnesses approving of your ancestors’ actions since they killed them and now you are digging their graves. That’s why God in his wisdom said,
‘I’ll send prophets and messengers to them. They’ll abuse some and kill others so that all their bloodshed since the beginning of time will be charged against this generation. I declare that all the bloodshed from Abel to Zechariah (who was killed between the altar and God’s house) will indeed be charged against this generation’
Yikes to you who study the law! Because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves didn’t enter, and you held back everyone else who wanted to enter.”
When he left, the religious writers and leaders started becoming very hostile towards him, closely questioning him on various topics waiting to trap him in his words.
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