The Great Banquet

A Devotinal by Margot Cioccio

Luke 14:16-24 (NIV1984)

 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet 
and invited many guests. 
At the time of the banquet he sent his servant 
to tell those who had been invited,
‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 
“But they all alike began to make excuses. 
The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, 
and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, 
and I’m on my way to try them out. 
Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. 
Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 
‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor,
the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘
what you ordered has been done, 
but there is still room.’  “Then the master told his servant, 
‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, 
so that my house will be full.  
I tell you, not one of those men who were invited 
will get a taste of my banquet.’”

Jesus is calling to come to feast at his table. In Psalm 23: He has prepared a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.

I almost missed this, just before the story of the Great Banquet in verses 12-14 you find these instrucitons. Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, 

do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; 

if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  

¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  

¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, 

you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

I have been sitting here tonight trying to figure out what to write. This is my third try and I'm tired at this point. I probably should have gotten this done earlier in the day. I was thinking I had at least three written that only needed to be typed. When I read them this evening they did not connect for me.
I started with the sheep and the goats and then tried something from Psalms about being satisfied with the portion and cup that God has given you. I tried to write about the thieves on the cross. I will get back to those eventually. For what ever the reason they just are not working for me tonight.

So what is God wanting me say in this devotional?  He invites us all to come and spend time with him. He has prepared a wonderful feast, a great banquet. He tells his servant that everything is ready, invite them to come. The servant goes out and invites them to come. He calls us to come to be with him, to spend time with him. But they all alike began to make excuses.

I wonder what excuses you might be using to not find time to spend at the feet of Jesus. 
Life is so busy and it is easy for us to make similar excuses for not spending  time with Jesus. Your relationship with the Lord should be growing. You should be knowing him more and more with each passing day. We should have long ago moved beyond the basics of the faith. I picture gigantic adult sized babies in diapers needing to be bottle fed who refuse to grow up and learn to feed them selves. 
I look at the number of believers who depend on going to church each Sunday to be feed. What would happen to you if you only feed your body one meal a week?  I was reading about starvation on Wikipedia and found the following. "The energy deficiency inherent in starvation causes fatigue and renders the victim more apathetic over time. As the starving person becomes too weak to move or even eat, their interaction with the surrounding world diminishes." You would never think of only feeding your family just one meal a week.  Somehow we think that going to church once a week or sending you kids to youth group or kids church once in a while is going to be enough for us to be strong and healthy.  You need to learn to feed yourself, you should soon grow beyond needing to be fed by others and be going directly to Jesus. He's prepared the banquet and invited us to come and we have a thousand excuses.  I don't like this line in today's verse, I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. Opportunites and invitations pass away. We had a homeless guy die in an ally near our church recently. Did we as a church do all we could to show him the love of Jesus. Was he like the thief on the cross who accepted Jesus just prior to dying. I don't know. I do know you can't go back and regain the time that has been lost. I like to think as long as someone is still breathing it is not too late for them to meet Jesus. The thief on the cross makes it into paradices and the only thing that changed is he believed. That gives me hope for many of the folks in our neighborhood. Some are walking very near the gates of hell. I know Jesus wants us his people to not be so apethetic, he wants us to care. The thief on the cross was never baptized, never took communion, never said a sinners prayer - he makes it in - in is better left out.  I do think Jesus keeps calling sinners all the way to the very gates of hell.  Yet he has saved us and he has a destiny for us, there are things he has set aside for us to do during our life. If we don't spend time with him we will never hear him calling like Isaiah did. You will never expereice his heart for the least of these - in your starved state you will likely be apethetic to the needs around you. If you don't abide in Him and allow him to abide in you there will not be fruit in your life.  Your relationship needs to be more than a fire insurance plan tucked away for a disaster.

 I like verse 13-14 "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,  ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Most of the year we serve a meal to our homeless and poor neighbors. We see between 100 and 200 people depending on the time of the month. We have taken off the month of August to give our leaders and volunteers a break. This week will be our first week back.

The folks who come to the meal we serve can't pay for it. The finances to for the meals come mostly from people in other states that have heard our story and want to help. We are a very poor church in the heart of Spokane. It has been quite a journey from Suburbia for some of us and it is kind of like a mission field down here. After years of doing church in other contexts this one is really strange and we are having to trust God to figure it out. I can tell you that it is a blessing to serve these folks. 

Here's are a couple of videos of the work we do with the homeless and poor. 

Most Recent Video 

Our First Video 

Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town 

and bring in the poor,

the crippled, the blind and the lame.

Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, 

so that my house will be full

The Reason You Do Not Hear

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A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

John 8:47 (NIV1984)
47 He who belongs to God hears 
what God says.
The reason you do not hear is 
that you do not belong to God.”

I’ve been asked recently about hearing God. Its a topic far bigger than one post could possibly cover so I will try and break it down into little bites of truth. So lets start at the beginning and try and understand why you might not be hearing God.

If you are trying to hear God and do not belong to him - you don't hear because you don't belong to God. Its not because He is not speaking or calling unbelievers to come. You are not listening. It says in Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” God is knocking and calling but it much like all the radio signals that are out in the airways, you can’t hear them unless you are tuned into the station. The acceptance of Jesus is like the radio being tuned to the station broadcasting Gods voice. He is both all loving and he is just. We have a big problem called sin. The beginning of the journey is to realize our good works, our sacrifice, or rituals are not enough to fix the problem of sin so we could  reach God.   It says in Acts 2:21 "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” You won’t call on him or open the door to him as long as you think you have no need for what he offers. The following passage illustrates that it is not about being good enough. It is all about believing and turning to Jesus.  In Luke 23:39-43 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
That guy was a bad man deserving his sentence for the crimes he had committed. He did not do most of the stuff that we include in "getting saved". He never said a sinners prayer or walked to the alter in a church. He never got baptized or took communion.  He did not have time to learn the Bible or amend in any way the wrongs of his life. Yet Jesus said he would be with him in paradise. All he did was believe Jesus was innocent and asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

My posts are written mainly for believers, to encourage them in their walk with Jesus. So this may seem like a repeat of things you already know. If you are a believer you should be able to hear God and I will look at some possible reasons in future posts, why you might be struggling. Perhaps however, you have friends who are asking you questions about God, I hope this helps.  The starting place for hearing God is to believe, just like that thief on the cross. In John 10:25  Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” The thief on the cross did nothing more than believe.  In that moment he was “tuned” into Jesus by believing and was able to hear his voice and he followed Jesus right into paradise. He heard the knock, and he answered the door in that moment Jesus came into his life. He would come into yours too.
Prayer:
Dear Lord,
I hear you knocking and calling. Like that thief on the cross I suddenly realize that you did not deserve death on that cross. I call to you - remember me Jesus, I need you. God sent you in his love and you took the punishment to satisfy Gods justice. You took on the punishment my sins deserved. I turn to you as my God and as my saviour. Tune my heart to hear your voice that I may follow you today and every day until I follow you into paradise.

When My Faith Seems Small

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When My Faith Seems Small

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio
 

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for 

and certain of what we do not see. 

 

I have faith in chairs, that when I sit in them they will hold me up. I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. I have faith that Mt.Rainier is still there on cloudy days when I can't see it looming over the Western Washington landscape.

Do I have faith to believe that God's promises in His word are true? Beyond that do I have faith to believe the things He has spoken to me in my quiet time with Him? Do I really trust him like Abraham even when every circumstance seems to shout the very opposite of what God has said?   I do - I'm not saying I don't have days when doubts creep in and my faith seems very small - I do. We all have those days.  I want to share some of the things that I do on days when my faith seems small. 

 

I Spend Time With Jesus: The first place you will find me is at the feet of Jesus. I lay it all out before the Lord. He already knows the condition of my heart and I ask like the father in Mark 9:24b
 “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

 

I Remember: I remember the mercies and the goodness of the Lord. I make a point to tell others on those days about some time that the Lord has helped me in the past. In Revelation 12:11 "They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." The word of your testimony is a powerful weapon by which we overcome the enemy. 

 

I Use My Weapons: I  remember 2 Corinthians 10:4 -5 "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." We have already been given powerful weapons for demolishing the strongholds in our lives and in the lives of others. If I know the Word then I will know when an argument is setting itself up against the knowledge of God. The more of the Word I have in me the less likely I am to sin against God. Psalm 119:11 is a good case for Bible memory. It say's "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you". Now I have some friends who really work at Bible memory, they practice in their spare time and they have many passages memorized word for word. I am not very good at memorizing. I may not be able to quote word for word, or give you chapter and verse but the Word is in me. For example just in writing this devotional post I am able to remember key words and concepts so that when I can quickly find the verses that I want to use. I have may not have spent time consciously memorizing, but I have spent lots and lots of time reading the Word. I have spent lots of time singing the Word. God wired me in such a way that allows me to remember things that have been set to music. We all have little tricks that help us remember the things we want to remember. My point is that knowing the Word is a powerful weapon against the enemy. 

 

I Stand on the Word: As I am praying and seeking the Lord often I will come across a verse that jumps out and speaks deeply to me in some way. That becomes a Word that I begin to stand on. It is like it jumped out just for me. We are promised that the Holy Spirit will teach us in John 14:26  "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." Those words I often put on 3x5 cards and carry in my pocket or I post it places where I will see them and be reminded. 

 

I Ponder: There are things that I don't know how or when God will work out - I just know that He will. I remember that He is able.  They are for me like money in the bank. I know it will be there when I need it in the future. I am making faith deposits for the future in the little steps of faith I take today.   I don't generally tell anyone those private things that God has spoken to me. Like Mary I take those things and treasure them or ponder them. Luke 2:19 says "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." I often journal those things so that when they do happen - I have created yet another testimony that will help me with things in the future. 

 

I hope that these little tips are helpful. This is certainly not an exhaustive list but these are some of the ways that I build myself up. 

Oh one last thing...

 

I pray in the Spirit - I don't always know how to pray but I trust that the Holy Spirit knows the mind of the Father and is able to pray through me. I love how the message explains this in Romans 8:26-28 "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good." I have to quote something my friend Mark Kenney posted today "Someone asked if I believed in tongues. I said I'm pretty sure that most everyone I know has one..so I'll say yes." I try not to make that subject a divisive issue. For me praying in the Spirit for me has been a huge blessing. It has added a deeper dimension my prayer life, particularly when I don't know how to pray. Its a gift - not a badge of spirituality.

 

I have found that I have faith for a given trial when I have been spending time at the feet of Jesus. It is a bad idea to wait for a trial and then to beginning cramming trying to work up faith. One must consistently be using faith and practicing faith in small things. Then when bigger things come our way we are able to look to the many small things that helped us to practice and grow in faith. David had practiced on lions and bears before he stood before the giant Goliath. Use what is going on now to build some spiritual muscle.

 

Prayer:  Dear Lord, Help me build some spiritual muscle in this trial I am facing. Help me to remember and to try some of the ideas in this devotional. Help me grow in faith so that I honor you in the situations that I face as I walk through day to day life. I invite you to be present with me as I go through this day.