Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

Extreme! All in! First is last, last is first! Wow, like me, you may be thinking, “Where do we go from here?” After reading this earth-moving, social-status-disrupting, and extreme chapter where Jesus speaks of being completely sold out for God, I feel so inadequate.

I hear Jesus telling us all that we can’t have our cake and eat it too. I think He is saying we can’t try and play church and try to live by the ways of this world. Jesus is clearly telling the dinner host that God is demanding that they follow Him completely. To be all in or nothing. I also hear Jesus telling me, “Kelly, I do not want half of you. I desire all of you!”

I believe the enemy wants us to get tripped up by this chapter. I know he would love us to believe that trusting God is unattainable, His ways are too hard to follow, and, the thought he really loves to keep us down with is, “You are right; you can never live up to God’s standard!”

This is where we can give back a little trash talk to Satan and say, “You know, you got a point. We can’t, BUT HE (JESUS) can!” With Jesus, we can meet the standard in the eyes of our Heavenly Father! Jesus knows we’re never going to get it right by ourselves and that temptation is going to always be knocking. Where the gift part comes in is that Jesus wants us to surrender and simply accept Him. To take on His love and His identity, and in exchange, He wants to take all the mess that we have and all the struggles we have experienced, we are currently experiencing, and we will experience in the future.

So, I will say it again, if we read Luke 14 and think - “I struggle to do all that Jesus says it took to be His disciple” - you are right! You cannot do it alone. We must have Jesus’ help, and we can be assured He will help us each step of the way. All we have to do is surrender and accept Him.

Reflection:

• If you are struggling to understand what it means to totally surrender and accept the love of Jesus Christ, we would love the opportunity to help you understand. Let us know by talking to your campus pastor or emailing us at hello@venturechurch.org.
• If you see yourself trying to white-knuckle your way to being in the good graces of our Heavenly Father, I challenge you to ask God to help you reset. You may be experiencing burnout and need a break. God created rest and knew that we would need it. Don’t do this alone. I challenge you to find someone you trust and tell them what you are experiencing. If you need help finding a community where this can happen, find a House Church near you. This is exactly why House Church exists! www.venturechurch.org/housechurch
• Prayer: Father, You are breathtaking and so vast in Your love! Thank You for sending us Jesus so that we can have a Savior who can help us connect with You. God, please give us the strength, courage, and opportunity to share this good news with those You have brought to our circle of influence. Father, please forgive us when we try to reach You through our own efforts and not Your Son, Jesus. Help us to see that we need You always and want You forever.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Family Application: Luke 14

By: Kelly Lambert

In Luke 14, Jesus talks to some really smart religious people, and He said we should hate our families. WHAT?! Jesus didn’t really mean we should be mean to our mom or ignore our sister. Jesus wants us to love our family and all those who come in and out of our lives. What Jesus was trying to get across is we need to see that loving God means loving Him MORE than any gift that He has given us – including our families.

I remember when I was a child, I received a gift for my birthday from my parents. I loved it, but if you were to ask me if I loved the gift more than my mom and dad, I would have said you had lost your mind! I love them so much more than the gift. This is the same as what Jesus is telling all of us. God is the Creator. God is Our Father. God is the Giver of all that we have, and even though it's sometimes hard to see Him, hear Him, or feel Him, He is still there, and He loves us so much! When we understand this, I believe we not only begin to love Him more, but we begin to love our family and friends more.

• Pray for God’s help to love Him more than anything. I promise He will answer, and He wants to give you the gift of Jesus, His Son. By learning more about Jesus, you begin to fall in love with Him more and begin following Him. Because of Jesus, you can love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
• Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your love and for all of the gifts You’ve given me. Please help me to understand what it means to love You first, above all other gifts You’ve provided so I can know you more. Amen.