Read Luke 13:1–9
The practice of digging around a tree is common when it is not growing well and, in turn, not producing the fruit it was planted for. When the soil around the tree is disturbed, the roots are damaged in the digging, and then the tree has to grow new roots, which, in turn, strengthen the tree to bear fruit for the next season.
Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree that doesn’t bear fruit. The owner says, ‘Well cut it down’, but the man taking care of it says, ‘Leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilise it’.
The tree doesn’t need to be destroyed but disturbed and fed instead.
We are like this tree. We were planted in the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus and given a purpose – to bear fruit. Yet it is easy to drift away from Jesus and begin to follow the way of the world and the way of ourselves. We find it easier to listen to the devil, tempting us with lies in the idea that ‘it is my life and my body; I can do what I like’.
But Jesus has chosen you as his own for his purpose. To bear fruit. The fruit of God’s love in action toward those around you. You are created to be a blessing to others. You are blessed to bless others with God’s love in action.
When the word of the Lord challenges you to live differently, it is like Jesus digging at your roots – the roots in self rather than in the word. You see, the word is the fertiliser of life, and the word of Jesus Christ will feed and sustain you in bearing the fruit of God’s love in action.
When Jesus digs at your roots, hear the word, and be ready for his word to guide, challenge, heal and restore you. Be prepared for his word to nourish your hungry soul, ready to go out into the world with new growth and fruit that blesses others.
Dear Jesus, dig into my roots of selfishness and worldly ways. Let me grow in you to bear fruit for others. Help me to be a blessing to everyone I meet today. Feed me, nourish me, and strengthen me daily in your holy word. Amen.
Pastor Mark lives with his two daughters aged 11 and 8 in Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane. He currently serves as a pastor in the LCANZ and is passionate about sharing Jesus’ love with those around him. Pastor Mark loves to travel with his family to see the wonders of God’s creation and meet people who share their stories of what God has done for them.
‘Can I pray for you today?’
by Sal Huckel
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:14).
Read Ephesians 3:14–21
What a prayer! For the Ephesians to receive a prayer from Paul such as this would have been something I can hardly comprehend. Yet here we now have this timeless prayer at our fingertips to help us in our faith as we try to grasp how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ.
We’ve been reading about the Great Commission and discipleship. What if we need to pray for someone? Not everyone has the confidence to pray ‘freehand’ for another person. Don’t worry. Here’s one that will more than ‘do the job’.
‘I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith’ (Ephesians 3:16).
If we can’t really understand this, read on. ‘This love surpasses knowledge’ … we don’t have to understand it … ‘May you be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God’ (Ephesians 3:19).
Put this in the context of what we know about prayer: ‘Ask and it will be given to you’ (Matthew 7:7). Wow, this prayer is going to be answered, no question.
‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen’ (Ephesians 3:20,21).
Mind-blowing. Not only can we pray these immeasurably powerful words for anyone we choose, but Paul also already included us in the prayer he wrote to the Ephesians.
Go and make disciples. Pray for people! Write this prayer out and pull it out the next time someone asks you to pray. Remember the truth of Matthew 7:7.
Lord God! You are my God! Help me to grasp the depth of your love for me so that I can indeed help someone else who desperately needs to know this! Show me a person this week whom I can pray for and encourage in person or by letter. Lord, I ask in faith, knowing that what we ask in your name will be done according to your will. In Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.
Sal is the wife of Matthew, pastor at Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church and assistant bishop of the LCA Vic–Tas District. They are blessed with six children who all love and serve the Lord in their different walks of life, from high school to post-grad. Sal is currently studying a master’s degree in counselling practice. She loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at any opportunity.
You did what, now?
by Sal Huckel
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working’ … [Jesus] was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:17,18b).
Read John 5:17–23
Fancy accusing God of working on the Sabbath! Yet here we have (preceding an important passage showing without a doubt the deity of Jesus) the legalistic accusation that Jesus was breaking the Sabbath. This is on the back of an amazing, miraculous healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. This was a place of sorcery and false worship; it failed the man for years and years, and Jesus showed without a shadow of a doubt that he could heal and forgive sins in a moment.
As you read today’s passage, what stands out to you the most? The legalism of the Jewish leaders who couldn’t see that Jesus had worked a miracle? Or the freedom that we have in Christ, freeing us from legalism and ritual for the sake of ritual? Or the explanation Jesus gives in what we may struggle to comprehend in an almost circular or riddle-like fashion? Truly, this speech is worth taking time over today, to unpack and slowly think through the message. Whatever we say about Jesus, we are saying about God. Whatever we say about God, we are saying about Jesus. You will come across people saying all sorts of things about Jesus. Here we have a wonderful passage in which Jesus makes it clear who he is.
If you have never read the Athanasian Creed, seek it out and read it. It is one of the three creeds in the Book of Concord and contains the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the true church.
Lord Jesus, thank you for revealing God to us and showing us the way to the Father. May my life, words and actions point to you: you are the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through you. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Sal is the wife of Matthew, pastor at Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church and assistant bishop of the LCA Vic–Tas District. They are blessed with six children who all love and serve the Lord in their different walks of life, from high school to post-grad. Sal is currently studying a master’s degree in counselling practice. She loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at any opportunity.
What an inaugural vision that was!
by Sal Huckel
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking (Ezekiel 1:28b).
Read Ezekiel 1:4–6,22–28
Perhaps for you, like me, today’s reading is a challenge to relate to or even picture in our mind’s eye. This is Ezekiel’s ‘inaugural’ vision! Wow, the first time he heard from the Lord, this is what it was like. Ezekiel’s ‘entry-level’ experience!
Some of us will have had dramatic experiences of the Lord, while others, quietly growing and maturing in their faith, may never have experienced anything they would consider interesting to others or worth writing down for all to see.
Long ago, hearing those kinds of stories had me doubt if I was really saved (can you tell I wasn’t Lutheran yet?!). Yet now I share snippets of God’s work in my life when things come up in conversation, amazing passages I may have read and had a realisation over, or a lightbulb moment in church that I write down to think about later when I hear a verse of Scripture that is a treasure for a particular kind of question.
So, what do you make of today’s passage? Perhaps it’s a reflection opportunity: what was your ‘inaugural experience’ of the Lord? Or perhaps it’s the descriptions used in connection with the Lord’s voice (‘roar of rushing waters’, ‘tumult of an army’). How did Ezekiel recognise the likeness of the Lord? We may have so many questions. We see so many descriptions of different encounters of the Lord in Scripture and so many descriptors of his voice.
One thing we know: we hear his voice in Scripture. This is where we find him; this is how we recognise him. ‘My sheep know my voice’ (John 10:27). Stay in Scripture, learn his voice, and follow and recognise only him.
Lord, may I steep myself in your word so much so that I can never mistake anyone’s voice for yours. Thank you for guiding me through my faith journey so far: the valleys, the mountaintops, the parts that seemed ordinary and the wild rides as well. May I use my experience and my testimony to show others who you are and how they can recognise you too. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is the wife of Matthew, pastor at Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church and assistant bishop of the LCA Vic–Tas District. They are blessed with six children who all love and serve the Lord in their different walks of life, from high school to post-grad. Sal is currently studying a master’s degree in counselling practice. She loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at any opportunity.