Bourland Family Blog

Yesterday we flew back from Georgia after dropping off and saying goodbye to our oldest Bella for her 9-month missions’ trip around the world with Worldrace. Of the 44 people going, Bella is joined by 4 of her classmates from her Senior class who are also doing this for their Gap Year. It was a special treat to spend time with the 4 families that were there with us. What a huge support it was and will be as we have our own journey of sending these precious kids of ours off. (That’s right, for the next 6 weeks Bella and the rest of the ‘Racers’ will be living in tents.

My quiet time today was on Luke 12:35-40. Jesus is talking to the disciples about ‘being ready’. He uses that imagery of servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding celebration where they are ready to open his door and serve him when he returns. As you read in my Post Title today, Jesus says, “Keep your loins girded and your lamps burning.”.

Loins being girded denotes the aspect of preparedness. In the eastern cultures of that day, you would do this so you could work or fight. The graphic below is the best one I could find in short order. Step 6 could also be stuffing the extra material in the belt versus tying it together.

The reason this is important is because Jesus is saying that we must be in a posture that is ready for action. We must have our hearts and minds prepared for the arrival of our Savior. Not only that but we must have our ‘lamps burning’. Many times, our testimony is talked about as a lamp to the world; being a light in the darkness. So, we are to be ready and a lamp to the world when Jesus comes. Jesus then also tells us that when the master comes and finds his servants this way (prepared and lamps burning), he turns the tables and serves them. This unexpected twist cannot be taken from life but is something extra provided for God’s people. But then the reward of God’s people is never commonplace: it is always the unexpected.

For who is the greater, the one who reclines at table (the master), or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am in your midst as One Who serves.

Luke 22:27 [AMP]

One of the things I have heard in the past and heard it again this weekend is that God’s Character makes Him predictable…but, when God acts it is very unpredictable. I would also say that the ways that God’s bestows earthly rewards/blessings are unpredictable as well.

Application:

I must be ready. One of the biggest helps I have on staying on the right path and living an upright life is that I would be mortified if I was both unprepared and sinning the moment the Lord returned. I don’t know the moment He will come back but I want to be living a life of Christ-Following-Action and my lamp lit when I see His face coming through the clouds on that day.

“Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom!  Sell what you possess and give donations to the poor; provide yourselves with purses and handbags that do not grow old, an unfailing and inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:32-34 [AMP]

The BITE in yesterday’s post was that we should “Seek the Kingdon” and now we are seeing here that “its the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom”.  Then Jesus tells us what that looks like.

Jesus again discussing the comparison of earthly and heavenly riches.  He teaches His followers to concentrate on the ‘real’ riches, Heavenly Treasure.  This can look like selling our earthly possessions or even giving them or the proceeds away.  However, we should not take away a message that Jesus requires all His followers to sell all their possessions.  Jesus was entertained by Martha and He later set watch of His own mother under the roof of one of His disciples.  Jesus is not set on the mission to create a class of holy paupers; this would be to sin against love because those holy paupers would become a load on their hardworking neighbors.  In neither one of the cases of Martha or the disciple that took His mother in, did Jesus rebuke His follower because they had possessions.  Jesus and His followers had money to buy food and give alms. 

I think it is pretty clear that Jesus is not excluding private ownership; but he is placing emphasis on the fact that believers must not be dominated by their possessions.

“Trust in riches prevents trust in God.”

When ‘trust in riches’ takes place, the things we own become a deadly barrier to the life Jesus wants for us (His Kingdom). Real riches are a treasure that does not fail, found in purses that do not grow old. These riches are safe from thieves, from rot, and from moths (which eat away at some forms of earthly riches, e.g. clothes). The heart and the treasure go together. Anyone’s heart, the concentration of his energies and interests, is always with his treasure; in other words, the things he values most.

Application:

If I look deep down -> what do I treasure?  What possessions do I have that I don’t have loose hands with?  What earthly material am I chasing? Having just sent Bella off for a 9-month missions trip where all she has fits in a 65-liter backpack, can I grow to a place that when she returns, I too have made movement to have Kingdom.

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, what shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’  And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’  But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21 [ESV]

This one hit both at home in my personal life as well as my leadership role at church. Our world and our planning sense (which itself is not a bad thing) can convince us that this a good way to operate; to set up a nest egg for retirement or ensure you can maintain a standard of living (when hard times hit) we have allowed ourselves to enjoy. One of the things that stood out to me is how many times the man in the parable said “My”.

• My Crops
• My Barns
• My Grain
• My Goods

Additionally, he also says “I” 8 times (in the Greek). This points to an ingrained selfishness. The man is not concerned with how to use his wealth wisely. He is not trying to serve God or help other people. He is not even concerned in having a richer and fuller life for himself. He is concerned only with self-indulgence. God calls this man a “Fool!”. The really stupid thing was the rich man’s self-assurance that the future was in his control.

Laying up treasure here on earth is an indication that we feel possessive of what ‘WE have EARNED’…that somehow it is something for us to decide what to do with for ourselves. I also feel like the person who is given a lot, yet only continues to extend 10% to the Lord, is a ‘check-boxer’ and the heart of that position is really no better.

Application:

As a man whose life hangs by a thread and who may be called upon at any time to give account of himself, I would be a fool if I relied on material things. I would also be a fool to not focus on the riches awaiting me in Heaven.

This devotion causes me to take a second look at where we (Marianne and I) position our reliance…is it on the things (money and possessions) of this world or do we demonstrate a heart of ‘open-handedness’…acting as a conduit for God’s resources He has given us the responsibility of managing?

Now while Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to take dinner with him, so He entered and reclined at table.
  The Pharisee noticed and was astonished [to see] that Jesus did not first wash before dinner.
  But the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside you yourselves are full of greed and robbery and extortion and malice and wickedness.
  You senseless (foolish, stupid) ones [acting without reflection or intelligence]! Did not He Who made the outside make the inside also?
  Luke 11:37-40 [AMP]

Today I finished Luke 11 which from 37 onward is this interaction with a Pharisee who invited Jesus to dinner (or lunch as it can be interpreted) and then follows with a list of “Woe’s” to both Pharisees and Lawyers of the day.

My main focus is this discussion before eating with the Pharisee. 1) Jesus once against discerns the thoughts of the Pharisee and confronts the man on the tradition of washing from one’s hands the sin of the world before eating. It was a process described in minute detail in the Mishnah of ceremonially cleansing oneself before eating a meal. Jesus adeptly calls out the irony in this action in that it does nothing for the thing that actually matters….the condition of a person’s heart in the sight of God.

We all know that the Pharisees were so infatuated with how they were perceived on the outside even though they, on the inside, were corrupt and evil. None of the inside condition was out of the sight of God…He sees it all. Jesus goes as far to say that they are foolish and senseless in their actions. With just a little bit of reflection, the Pharisee would see the craziness of operating this way.

Application:

I have been guilty of paying more attention to my behavior than the condition of my heart. I will say that the focus of my motives and ‘why I do what I do’ has been on the forefront of my mind lately. This is in all aspects of my life: as a dad, husband, manager, leader, friend, and son. Am I just washing my hands and outside of my cup/plate…or, am I looking for the grime that is on the inside that can taint and sour the goodness of what the Lord wants to do in me. It all has to flow from a place of being sold out to my Lord and Savior. That cannot be unless I am consistently cleaning house and leaving my sin nailed to that tree on Golgotha.

Yesterday my family treated me to an awesome Birthday full of memories and fun. They whisked me off to Leavenworth, WA where we did a toboggan roller coaster, had crepes, ziplining, and just wonderful time together. I am so very blessed to have the family I do.

My reading today is Luke 33-36 which follows in the Amplified.

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or crypt or under a bushel measure, but on a lampstand, that those who are coming in may see the light.
 Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye (your conscience) is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound and is not fulfilling its office, your body is full of darkness.
  Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness.
  If then your entire body is illuminated, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright [with light], as when a lamp with its bright rays gives you light. Luke 11:33-36 [AMP]

This is a very well-known passage of Jesus talking about the witness of those in the past of other prophets like Jonah and yet the One they have with them now is greater. When Jesus talks about the ‘eye’ being the lamp of the body, the amplified called this your conscience and I think ‘your perspective’ is another good definition. What you fill your eyes with impacts the whole body. The eyes have a job that is involved in almost everything the rest of the body does. When the eyes have a singlemindedness focused on good, then the whole body will do good. However, when the eyes are focused on evil then the ‘whole’ body is consumed with darkness.

Another point that I takeaway is what verse 33 says about hiding the light. It’s not that it can’t be seen if it is hidden, it also cannot fill the space with light. Meaning, its not just to be seen but to illuminate.

Application:

Are my eyes fixed on RIGHTEOUSNESS? Have I really taken the perspective that what I fill my eyes with is in direct relation to the state of the rest of my body. Do I allow myself to watch movies, ‘reels’, or any other content that is not filling my body with the light of uprightness? Am I allowing the light of my ‘Walk with Jesus’ to fill the spaces I occupy?