Daily Readings For October 21, 2010
Ephesians 3:14-21
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19
St. Luke 12:49-53
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, 15 from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name. 16 In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self, 17 so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, 18 with all God’s holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; 19 so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.
20 Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; 21 glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19
1 Shout for joy, you upright; praise comes well from the honest.
2 Give thanks to Yahweh on the lyre, play for him on the ten-stringed lyre.
4 The word of Yahweh is straightforward, all he does springs from his constancy.
5 He loves uprightness and justice; the faithful love of Yahweh fills the earth.
11 but Yahweh’s own plan stands firm for ever, his heart’s counsel from age to age.
12 How blessed the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his heritage.
18 But see how Yahweh watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his faithful love,
19 to rescue them from death and keep them alive in famine.
St. Luke 12:49-53
49 ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! 50 There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 ‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; 53 father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.’
I have a hard time wrapping my mind around what St. Luke is saying. This to me seems to be from the old testament or koran .
What Jesus is saying is that he came to cause division. Most people in American society, and definately in Jewish and Middle Eastern cultures will offend and be rejected by their familys for following Jesus. No matter how graceful, kind, or gentle you are when speaking the truth about Jesus, people will hate you for it, and your own family will reject you for it. Lifelong friends will leave you at conversion, and mothers and fathers will be greatly angered at your conversion. Part of the reason is that as a Christian, out of love, you must eventually let them know the truth. The truth is, if they don’t believe and obey Jesus, they will spend eternity in Hell. That convicts unbelievers of their sins, and they will hate you for it.