On This Day: Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child

   Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

   

   I love it when I come to a very familiar passage of Scripture, wonder how “our Father in heaven” will get through to me with anything new and applicable to my present life situation, and then feel the wonder of God taking my little chin in his hands and turning my attention to the exact thing he wants me to see. And today, that hit me more meaningfully than ever!

   I have been a kid my whole life (6+ decades). I have been a parent for over 40 years. I have helped my wife with our family daycare for over 20 years. I have had young folk come and go through our lives like children and grandchildren in our hearts. 

   With that as part of the backdrop to this scene, I realized today that when Jesus talked about receiving the kingdom of God like a child, I have always put the focus on what children are like. What are the childlike qualities that Jesus had in mind to illustrate what it is like to come into his kingdom like children?

   But when the Holy Spirit turned my attention to “receive… like a child”, I suddenly realized this was God’s gift for today. It isn’t just what children are like that Jesus was referring to, but what they are like when they receive a gift. And THAT made me smile with tears of wonder. I KNOW what children look like when they receive things from us.

   There is a certain joyful anticipation in children the moment they hear that we have something in mind for them. They are giddy with excitement to know what it is. They can’t keep quiet about it. They are full of questions. They are helplessly bound to speaking to each other about it, sharing their thoughts out loud about what it could possibly be. 

   In other words, when children know they are going to receive something, it captivates them. They can’t stop and change to thinking about anything else. Try to get them to sit still, or sit straight, and you will fail. The way children anticipate the thought of us giving them something is a delightful picture of joyful anticipation and eagerness to have whatever we have in mind. 

   And then there is the look of comprehension, the moment when they see what it is and are overwhelmed with the excitement of the gift. Whether it be a present for their birthday, or a surprise gift from our garage saling, or just that it’s a really good day to have ice cream, the “like a child” side of receiving things is distinct and universal. 

   When I replayed that amazing morning in Sandspit around 1965 when I was seven years old and I looked up at the sky with the sudden awareness that God was watching me, I can still recall the way it felt to be a child receiving such a gift. And when I sat in church in the community hall in Sandspit and heard the tubes on that old organ warming up to a hum, and we would start singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and I knew in my heart what that meant even though I could never explain it, I knew what it felt like o be a child receiving a gift from God. 

   I could go on. In fact, I’m sure God will keep me on this path for a while, reconsidering my own heart and how well I receive the gifts of his kingdom like a child. But the whole scene has touched my heart deeply already in that like-a-child kind of way that leaves me in awe and wonder at the colorful threads God is weaving into his tapestry, intentionally including me in the picture. 

   And now I hope you are encouraged to let yourself receive God’s gifts like a child, and then follow him in “the obedience of faith” as you use your gifts to his glory and the good of everyone you meet. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: How to Forcefully Enter Jesus’ Kingdom

   “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. (Luke 16:16-17)

   It has been a very long time that I have struggled to really “get it” about what Jesus meant by this. On one side, “forces” sounds like something we do when we’re not invited, or not welcome. On another side, it sounds like we are adding words to grace, something Paul was so clear is not an option. 

   This time, traveling along this section of the trail brought out some new thoughts on the matter. I asked God where I could see people doing this. Where do I see people forcefully entering Jesus’ kingdom? What did it look like for them to do that, and what would it look like for me to follow their example?

   The first person who came to mind was the “sinful” woman going into the Pharisee's house uninvited because Jesus was there. She was quiet. She didn’t interrupt. She didn’t even say anything to Jesus. 

   However, she was unstoppable. If ever someone had a list of reasons to NOT go see Jesus, it was this woman in the scene of a Pharisee’s home. But Jesus was there, and that’s all that mattered to her. She had an insatiable need to know this Savior who had forgiven her sins, and so she quietly, politely, and determinedly forced herself into the scene. 

   The next one that came to mind was this man named Zacchaeus. A despised tax-collector. A thief who had used the political system to his advantage. He heard that Jesus was coming through his town. However, he was short. He had no chance of seeing Jesus with the crowd that was surrounding him. So, he forced himself into the scene by climbing a tree to get a better view. Jesus saw him, invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’s house, and welcomed Zacchaeus into the kingdom of God.

   Then there were the blind men who heard a commotion of people heading in their direction and shouted out to someone to tell them what was going on. When they heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by, they began shouting out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!” They would not stop calling Jesus’ name from their blindness. They were desperate. This would likely be their one opportunity to connect with him and, even when told to be quiet, they could not. They kept forcing their need into the scene until Jesus heard them, stopped, and restored their sight. 

   The main quality of those who force themselves into God’s kingdom is that they have an unstoppable faith. Once they connect to Jesus in repentance and faith, and once they know he has saved them by grace through faith, not of works, they cannot be dissuaded from following the Savior.

   And then I realized I could see myself in the picture. As a young man, I was very quiet. I was respectful. I was a hard-working teenager. I didn’t try to provoke anyone who saw life differently than I did. I simply knew that Jesus Christ was Lord. I knew that what is written about his teaching, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and the building of his church is true. I knew that Jesus was and is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come into God’s kingdom except through faith in him. 

   However, I can look at times when I was told to disobey Jesus in some way, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t get loud. I didn’t shout and scream. I simply had a forcefulness of faith that was given to me by God and I could not be different than he had made me, or than he was making me. 

   While I bemoan how my body is deteriorating with age no matter how much I exercise, my faith in Jesus Christ as Creator, Savior, and Lord, is as strong as ever. I am alive to the one who found me; he has set me free indeed, and I take hold of my identity and standing in Jesus Christ the Lord in the “obedience of faith” to the glory of God and the good of those who need this encouragement. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Words That Comfort Richly

   “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:13-15)

   While my first interest in seeking God in his word is always what he is teaching me (because however I put his words to me into practice affects everything I do in seeking to love and bless others), there are times when God’s ministry to me comes in the way of him telling me how he thinks of others. 

   Often this is positive, as in helping me see how to apply his word to me because he shows me his love for others, his forgiveness of others, his gifting of others, and he wants me to share that with him.

   Other times it is negative, as in identifying his view of what people have done to me by showing how he related to the same things himself, through his messengers, or especially through his Son. 

   All that to say that every word of today’s Scripture told me God’s view of people who were relating to Jesus a particular way. And by showing me God’s view, it comforted me so much about my experiences with similar people since God is good and will bring every wrong to justice one way or another.

   A Scripture that often guides me in how personally I interact with God’s word is this: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). When I picture what God has in mind for me to let his word dwell in me richly, I see a heart that treasures God above all others, that treasures God’s word above all words, and that treasures living by God’s words above any thoughts or opinions of men, me included! 

   When I come to a Scripture like this one in Luke, every phrase speaks comfort into my heart because it gives God’s view of real-life heartaches. To let those words dwell in me richly involves attaching to how personal God is with me. He sets a stage so familiar to my own. He reveals the hearts of people so I can see them in his own words. He presents them as they really are and answers them as he really is. It’s all so plain and clear that it comforts me as much as I will let it dwell in me richly.

   I hope that my sharing of this helps to do the “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom” part. 

   I can’t think of any songs that capture this particular passage about Jesus rebuking the Pharisees that would fit “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God”, but I know we have songs that glorify God for his justice, mercy, and faithfulness in handling everything according to his sovereign goodness and working all things in our lives together for good. 

   Today, I already feel the richness of God’s comfort in telling me both sides of the story. Hypocritical narcissists are nothing new. They often look like they are winning, just as the Pharisees appeared to be victorious when they succeeded at putting Jesus to death. 

   But those who love God instead of money are the ones who live as “more than conquerors through him who loved us,” knowing that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). 

   And so, we set our hearts on God as our supreme treasure, we set out into the day to use our money, our time, our spiritual gifts, to serve others in love, and we do so in the hope that someone out there will be encouraged to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love their neighbor as themselves, including using our money for God’s glory and their good.

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Friends and Enemies Praise Jesus

   “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:34-35)

   Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem has been a long-standing grief for me. It is a thread of heartache woven into the tapestry of God’s work of redemption. It pictures the wonder of God’s longing for his people, and the tragedy of his people’s preference for the world, the flesh, and the devil.

   One of the most beautiful invitations of God to his people is this from Isaiah 30:15, “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’”

   When Jesus made his lament over Jerusalem, he associated himself with what God had already communicated about his desire for his people to return to him. If they would return and rest in him, he could save them. If they would quiet their lustful idolatrous hearts and trust in him, he would be their strength.

   However, the sad conclusion back then was a prelude to what the Messiah would face when he came, “But you were unwilling”. And the fact that God would put his heart on such glorious display and the people would be unwilling to attach to him breaks my heart. 

  Which brings us to Jesus’ return. There is coming a time when everyone will declare “‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” The prophets said this would happen; Jesus amened that this would happen; Luke recorded Jesus’ words that this would happen, and Paul explains it even further: 

   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

   This is what Jesus meant. At his return, EVERY knee will bow before him in acknowledgement that he is “King of kings and Lord of lords”. No one will stand in pride against him any longer. All will bow in submission.

   At the same time, EVERY tongue will “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” No more Youtubers declaring their arrogant atheism, no more science deceivers promoting the evolutionary religion, no more comedians mocking Jesus and his redemptive work. EVERY tongue will confess out loud that there is absolutely no doubt that Jesus Christ is Lord after all. 

   But just as Jesus warned Israel about the judgment coming on Jerusalem, God warns us in his word of what it will be like when Jesus returns to finalize his judgment on the world:

   Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

   Jesus is “patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (II Peter 3:9). However, everyone in this lifetime shows their willingness or unwillingness to receive him. Those who refuse him will receive God’s justice against their sin. It is coming as surely as Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD. 

   As to those who receive Jesus during this lifetime, here is how they will feel when Jesus returns and takes us home:

   After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)

   We will all praise and glorify Jesus Christ as Lord when he returns. Some will be his enemies who denied and dishonored him their whole lives. Others will be his friends who called on his name and received his gift of eternal life. 

   And God’s gift is in his word that calls us all to know and love Jesus Christ now so we can live with him in love forever. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Answers Bigger Than Our Questions

   Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Luke 12:41-48)

   Jesus was a Master at asking and answering questions. And, if we want to be like him in this, we best be ready to get in as much trouble as he did!

   Today, my attention was drawn to the parable Jesus told in response to Peter’s question about the previous parable. While it may look like Jesus wasn’t answering Peter, the fact was that he was giving an answer that would expose hearts (in a right brain way) instead of merely settle minds (in a left brain way). 

   One of the things involved in this is what Jesus already said about his parables. He explained to his disciples that he spoke in parables to differentiate between those who were in his kingdom and those who were not. To the disciples, “it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). 

   What I realized not long ago was that Jesus would not give the secrets of his kingdom to those outside the kingdom because “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14). 

   However, Paul clarified about believers, 

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (I Corinthians 2:12-13).

   As we read the way Jesus asked questions, it was always to expose which hearts were hearing him and which were not. When he answered questions, it was always the right answer, even if it did not directly address the specifics of the questioner. 

   Today, this all became clear as I realized that by the time we finish meditating on Jesus’ answer to Peter, we will know if what he is teaching is for us or not. The way we will know is whether his words move us into the “obedience of faith” or leave us clueless and disinterested. 

    And one of the best encouragements when we feel like we aren’t sure we “get it” is that we find ourselves asking God more questions because we must know what Jesus means by the “secrets” of his kingdom. And as long as we keep asking, seeking, and knocking, we will keep receiving, finding, and opening doors. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: To Fear the One Who Calms Our Fears

   “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:4-7)

   I can still recall the before-and-after of John Newton’s words,

“'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace, my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.”

In my early years, this didn’t make sense. How could God’s “Amazing Grace” teach me to fear and relieve my fears at the same time?

   At some point, I came to understand the difference. God’s grace taught me to fear God in the reverent-love kind of way, while that same grace calmed my fears about being too unlovable for him to bother with me. 

   I do wonder if today’s text was in Newton’s mind as he wrote that stanza of his song. At the very least, what Jesus said in this passage is what John Newton was trying to express. And it is something that we must learn for ourselves to have a genuine sense of peace with God.

   If we replay the scenes of Scripture where people are told some expression of “Fear not!” or “Do not be afraid!”, we will find that these expressions often followed someone feeling afraid of God or his messengers. 

   One of the most familiar is when an angel appeared to some shepherds to announce the Savior’s birth. When “an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them… they were filled with great fear.” 

   However, “the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:9-11). 

   This shows how one angel from the presence of God first brought the men to a state of fear of such awesome glory, but because of that same glory the angel could urge the men to “fear not” because the Almighty God of eternity was now sending his Son into the world as our Savior from sin. 

   After Jesus had secured our salvation through his death on the cross, we see another scene where a fear-reaction for some is a fear-calming encounter for others. Matthew writes that “an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.” The angel’s sudden appearance was terrifying to the guards who had never trusted in Jesus as the Savior.

   However, “the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you’” (Matthew 28:2-7).

   Again, the same angel that caused such a debilitating fear because of his expression of God’s glory was the source of a fear-calming announcement of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the most joyful thing those grief-stricken women could ever have heard.

   Today, I realized this is another one of those “replacement policy” scenarios with God. He tells us to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). We don’t stop thinking of the scenarios that are freaking us out, but we bring those very concerns to God in prayer so that we feel his peace instead of our turmoil.

   In the same way, we don’t focus on the negative of trying to not be afraid of scary people. Instead, we focus on fearing God for real so that all our other fears are put to rest. It may be another one of those “simple but not easy” facets of “the obedience of faith”, but it is the will of God for us to relate to him like that.

   Today, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). And that includes seeking to know the grace that calms our fears in the fear and reverence of our loving heavenly Father. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Repentance is the Greatest Kindness

   When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:29-32)

   I sometimes marvel at how different Jesus was from our North American church culture. If we hear that “crowds were increasing” to hear about Jesus, we lean to making sure we don’t offend anyone and ruin the moment. Jesus used the opportunity to shoot an arrow at the bull’s eye and see who noticed.

   I think I understood from a young age that repentance had to do with sin. It had something to do with admitting we were sinners. But it wasn’t the same as making an apology, or saying, “I’m sorry” and then promising to never do it again. 

   At some point, I understood that repentance is focused on a change of mind, not merely a change of behavior. In other words, while someone can change their behavior to try pleasing someone, or to avoid getting in trouble, it doesn’t mean they have changed their mind about what they believe is most satisfying in life. 

   Repentance, on the other hand, begins with a change of mind that then changes our behavior based on new beliefs and values. It is consistent with everything God does that aims at giving us new hearts so we can live in “the newness of life”. 

   In repentance, someone changes their mind about loving sin and hating God to loving God and hating sin. This change of mindstate obviously changes how we live since the things we love have reversed. When we did things out of love of sin, it certainly looked different than when we now do things out of love of God. 

   We can see the goodness of God in this as Jesus told the Jewish people that they were an evil generation. It would not be loving of Jesus to leave them perishing in their sins just because they thought they were okay because Abraham was their father. They had to understand that no earthly heritage can make up for our sin. Only being born again through an experience of repentance and faith can make us right with God. 

   When we hear Jesus call a growing crowd an evil generation, we must first deal with whatever is wrong with us in our evil world. But when we get right with God in repentance and faith, we must accept that it is a great kindness when we seek to show people “the whole counsel of God” in relation to both sin and salvation because “there is salvation in no one else (speaking of Jesus), for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

   It is still very much on my heart and mind that we must “Humble ourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt us, casting all our anxieties on him, because he cares for us” (I Peter 5:6-7, tense adjusted to fit the grammar). Repentance is a gift-word to describe how we humble ourselves concerning our sin, and faith is a gift-word to describe how we humble ourselves concerning our Savior.

   There is a plumbline reality called “speaking the truth in love” that causes us “to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Jesus spoke the truth in love to a crowd that had no clue how sinful they were, and how much judgment was against them. In his kindness, he was seeking to bring them to repentance for the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of eternal life. 

   There is clearly something in there we need for ourselves, and something we need to imitate in loving others as Jesus has loved us. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: To Rest in What is Revealed

   In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 
   All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21-22)

   One of the biggest things I want people to know is that eternal life is to KNOW God. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). 

   Yes, that is the essence of what it means to receive eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus has secured the salvation by which we can return to the God who created us and know him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

   This means that our daily interest should be in how well we know God. And, for some of us (at least people like me), how well I know God rests completely on how he feels about knowing me. 

   The stage on which Jesus has made his heart known to me over the years has been one littered by broken relationships. I grew up in a family that was broken. My attachment-light got stuck in the “always on” position because I was desperate to not miss the hope-springs-eternal time that someone might actually want to attach to me. When I learned that the term “hyper-vigilant” describes a mindstate that has been trained to be on guard against danger, I wanted to know how to bring that into my relationship with God.

   Or, how God was shining his spotlight onto my broken radar system so he could heal what was wounded and bring me to peace in my relationship with him.

   Since I had my first conscious awareness of God’s interest in me almost 6 decades ago, and then learned how to listen to him in his word in the most real and personal of ways almost 33 years ago, I can chart a relationship with God that has been growing because I am God’s child. My security with him doesn’t rest on how well I hang on to him, but on how settled his love is for me. My significance to him doesn’t depend on what I do for good, but what his goodness has delighted in for me before I was even created. My acceptance with God doesn’t rest on my good behavior that must always be that 1 ounce more than anything I do wrong. Rather, my acceptance with the Triune God rests on him accepting me in his beloved Son.

   No matter who I talk with, and no matter who I imagine might read this, my supreme interest is in how they know God. I regularly remind people to see the grace and peace of God in the Beatitudinal Valley because the way God blesses us is typically so different than religious (and irreligious) life has taught us. We need to attach to God in our poverty of spirit in order to know what it means to truly have peace with God. 

   Today it feels like God is comforting me in some of the most painful losses I have experienced as he shows me the reality of his desire to find me and have me as his own. Yes, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Yes, the judge of all creation. Yes, the eternal Father, the glorious Son, the comforting Holy Spirit. They have a personal desire for me to know them and have gone through hell (so to speak) to have me. 

   If no one has told you this, stop pretending, and meet with God as you are. Tell “our Father in heaven” how you are doing. Be the child. Lay your complaints before him. Tell him what you don’t understand. Be honest. Be real. 

   And then listen. 

   Yes, open God’s word and listen to him. He is speaking. His Holy Spirit is with us to teach us all things and bring to our remembrance things we have already known. Whatever stands out, talk to him like that is what he is saying to you. Converse. Dialogue. Meditate on what he says. Cling to it with all your heart. 

   And today, let my testimony that learning “the Son CHOOSES (desires) to reveal” the Father to his beloved brothers encourage you that he will do the same for you as much as for me. Why? Because the level ground at the throne of grace is faith. Not necessarily great faith. Not even mature faith. Just faith that comes like a child and wants to get to know God. Yes, get to KNOW him!

   Eternal life comes through believing in Jesus Christ. And Jesus gives eternal life to us because we must be alive to know the Triune God. As John wrote, “In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).

   The darkness has not overcome Jesus’ work to pour the love of God into my heart by the Holy Spirit he has given us. Come to Jesus as you are and let him overcome the darkness in your life so he can lead you to know God better than you have ever known him before. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Down in Humility; Up in Exalting

   As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62)

   My wife was just reminding me a few days ago about what happened the first time I was going to teach through the Beatitudes in our home church ministry. We were in a series through Matthew that brought us to chapter 5. I initially thought I could do a summary of the eight Beatitudes in one message.

   However, as I was meditating on them leading up to that particular Sunday, the things I was learning about what it looks like to be blessed by God surprised me. What I had once thought was a “to do” list for believers turned out to be a “God is doing” list for the kingdom of heaven. 

   This was so mind-changing that I knew there was no way I could make do with an eight-point summary. I had to lead our church through these one at a time so we could be transformed by the mind-renewal God had given us (Romans 12:1-2). 

   The next big surprise was that, when I announced my change of plans from one message to eight, people voiced their despair that I was going to take that much time to look at these qualities. As one man said, “You’re taking the highest standards of the kingdom of God and you’re going to take eight weeks to tell people who already feel like crap about our walk with God all the things we are failing at?!”

   I couldn’t help smiling at how God had prepared me that week with a far different view from what we had been taught. For the next two months, we had a very uplifting time of considering NOT what were these “highest standards” of what God required OF us, but what were the marks of GOD’S blessing when HE was working IN us. 

   In other words, the Beatitudes do not list eight things we are to do to be blessed. Rather, they show us eight of the qualities we will find happening in our lives when God is blessing us. For what I now call the “downside” of the Beatitudinal Valley, we don’t try to be poor in spirit so God will bless us; God is blessing us with the “poor in spirit” experience so he can give us his kingdom. We don’t try to mourn so God will bless us; we accept that God is blessing us when we find ourselves mourning whatever is wrong between us and him because he wants to comfort us beyond our comprehension. We don’t try to attain meekness; we accept God’s work of blessing us with the meekness that admits we can’t fix ourselves and so we surrender to Jesus’ authority to save us, heal us, fix us, and transform us. And we don’t try to make ourselves hunger and thirst for righteousness so God can bless us; we acknowledge we are being blessed when we feel starving for the righteousness we do not have because we know God will satisfy that longing. 

   The same is with the other four qualities that describe the “upside” of the Beatitudinal Valley. We don’t try to be merciful so God will bless us; we agree that we are being blessed (and have been blessed) when we see how God is leading us to be merciful towards others as he has been merciful towards us. We don’t try to earn God’s blessing by purifying our hearts; we rest in God’s blessing as we join his work of purifying us from the inside out. We don’t try to make ourselves peacemakers so we can earn God’s blessing; we receive God’s blessing of turning us into his peacemakers who want nothing more than to see other people experience peace with God. And we don’t try to earn brownie points for good behavior when we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, but we know we are being blessed by God when our walk with Jesus Christ receives the same hatred as he did when he was here.

   I share all that because today I needed to be reminded that we can face the absolutely most painful, hopeless, discouragements, and those days when feelings can’t even be described in words, and know that “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). 

   Two other Scriptures I really need to review so often are,

   For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)

   “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2).  

   Today I’m being honest with God about things in me I can’t even explain. I’m trembling at his word that speaks of the exact things I am feeling and facing with such a gracious invitation to “draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). And I’m going out on a prayer walk along a favorite trail that will help me experience the blessings of the Beatitudinal Valley God has set before me today. 

   And even though I don’t know all the specifics that await, I do know that humbling myself under the mighty hand of God today will lead to him lifting me up in due time however he decides is the most blessed way of doing so. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Desire to Follow Jesus is Broken

   And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:23-27)

   I not only believe that all scriptures must be understood in the context of all Scripture, but I also expect that whatever God speaks to me about through his word each day will relate to the context of my life’s journey and my present circumstances.

   So, when I came to another familiar section of Luke’s gospel, I had to consider it from this dual context of what Jesus meant then, and how he intends to apply it in my life now. 

   As I looked up words and meanings, I discovered that Jesus’ choice of words in “would” had the distinctive meaning of desire. This is talking about someone who hears about Jesus and feels a desire to “come after” him, or to follow him. What Jesus is then clarifying is what it looks like to do so.

   My personal context is a few decades of living by the focus of “leading people to freedom in Christ so they can experience God in a real and personal way.” And what I have discovered during those decades is that Larry Crabb was right, more people in churches are committed to self-protection than to knowing and doing the will of God.

   So, how do we deal with such a clear description of what it means to follow Jesus when most church folks have no desire to be free of their self-protection? Answer: we show people that even the most broken person can desire to follow Jesus as described and then be honest about who is following Christ and who is not.

   I recall two ladies in one of our churches who were facing broken soul-condition stuff at the same time. Both had buried trauma under their preferred system of self-protection. Both had a role in the church that was seen by everyone. To deny themselves would mean to deny the right to continue relying on self-protection to bury their wounds and to follow Jesus into their journey of healing and freedom in Christ. 

   One of these women decided she would not trust Jesus to heal her and set her free and so she refortified her self-protection and began destroying anyone who threatened to expose her. She idolized the role she had created for herself in the church and would not let anyone take that away from her. The other woman began addressing what was broken in her with a sense that she could submit to Jesus for her freedom and healing because she really wanted to be free to follow him in life. 

   What stood out so clearly was that the one devoted to self-protection maintained a role in the church that made her look like a strong and devoted Christian while the other appeared to be really struggling in her walk with God but was actually submitting to him in one painful step after another of facing trauma I had never even heard of. 

   It is no accident that I so recently saw the difference between a “sinful” woman who came into a house worshiping and loving Jesus with all her heart, and the religious hypocrite who hosted the meal harboring a narcissistic heart under a cloak of self-protective pride. It was the woman who loved Jesus for forgiving all her sins who was truly denying herself to follow him, while the religious elite had no love for Jesus because his role portrayed him as righteous, and he got applause for his acting. 

   We cannot obey this calling to deny ourselves and follow Jesus grudgingly just to ensure we have our fire insurance policy from hell and some hope of a RIP in heaven. It begins with a desire to follow Jesus that then applies itself in self-denying ways throughout the day, throughout conflicts, throughout facing trauma, throughout falling into sin, so that whatever messes and successes we face, our desire to follow our Savior is applied in real life for God’s glory and the good of his people. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: My Story of What God Has Done for Me

   The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:38-39)

   First, we now need to clarify that “story” is an account of something that happened. It would be considered true unless otherwise stated. The need to clarify this is because the world wants us to think that if someone is “just telling stories” it means things that are not true, when a story is an account that could just as well be a true story as someone telling fables. 

   All that to say that my “story” is a true account of God’s work in my life, including my story of telling you how God focused on my story today!

   This morning’s story of meeting with God began with my usual keeping short accounts with God about anything sarky or sinful I had not confessed to him, telling him how I was doing, and then wondering to him what I was supposed to “get” out of the amazing (but familiar) account of Jesus delivering a spiritually-traumatized man from demonization (Luke 8:26-39). 

   However, it was when I got to Jesus’ final words to the man that I knew what God was addressing with me, that my focus in life is to tell people what God has done for me, and that did NOT include an amazing immediate deliverance event. 

   My story of what God has done for me includes these scenes:

1. I grew up in a home where an angry agnostic dad was always in conflict with a quiet Christian mom. The stage was set for me to test everything I heard to know the truth. 

2. At seven years old I looked up from my front yard in Sandspit, BC, and knew God was watching me. It was a good feeling.

3. At twelve years old I heard a gospel presentation at the end of a boy’s Sunday School class that triggered a clear response of faith. Without telling anyone, I inwardly asked Jesus to please be my Lord and Savior because I wanted to experience what he had done for me on the cross.

4. After struggling for a couple of years always feeling like I needed to receive Jesus again because I was still such a sinner (my dad made sure I knew this was what I should think of myself) I went forward at a Barry Moore Crusade in Abbotsford BC (early 70’s) to affirm that I “got it”. Jesus died once for all, and I only had to receive him once for all. 

5. Soon after this I knew I was to declare Jesus as my Lord and Savior through baptism. However, after the pastor had visited to talk with me and my sisters about it, I was again traumatized by such a tirade about what a horrible specimen of a Christian I was that I caved and failed to honor Jesus. 

6. When I was around 18, I had grown stronger in my faith and knew that it was time to confess Jesus as my Lord through baptism no matter what anyone else thought of it, and so I did. I was not aware of any celebration of the event, only that I was obeying my Savior in faith, and that was all that mattered. 

7. From there, I could go on about the ways God was leading me to get to know him better through Bible college, my early years of marriage, moving to Merritt to pastor a Baptist church, and how he used Larry Crabb, Henry Blackaby, and Neil Anderson, to give me the life purpose, “Leading people to freedom in Christ so they can experience God in a real and personal way.”  

   What God did this morning was assure me that he only required me to tell my own story of what he has done for me, not someone else’s. And one of the delightful things is that he used a demonized man whose story was totally different from mine to encourage me to tell my story today that is totally different from his. 

   I simply trust that my place in God’s work is to tell of things that some people need to hear today. And if you are one of those people, what is your story of what God is doing for you right now, and how are you joining him in that work?

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Faith is Built on Our Lack of Faith

   One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25)

   The connection between the Beatitudes and our lack of faith is HUGE!!! And Jesus taking his disciples through a storm in their boat was a prime illustration of how God builds up our faith by exposing our unbelief.

   What I call “the Beatitudinal Valley”, or “the Beatitudinal Journey”, is my summary of the eight Beatitudes Jesus presented to introduce what we call his “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5:1-12). Here’s what they look like in a boatload of disciples going through a storm with Jesus.

   The first Beatitude in this valley is a step down into “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” It should be noted that this is the first thing we will see God doing when he is blessing someone, he leads them to know their poverty of spirit. 

   In this case, we can see how Jesus was blessing his disciples by letting them see the true condition of their faith. This was likely in preparation for what they would be required to do not long after this, and it may have been a way to keep the men humble about their distinctive place in his ministry. 

   As the blessing of our poor-in-spiritness settles into our souls, it leads to the blessing of “Blessed are those who mourn…” Contrary to the prideful heart that wants to fix whatever poverty of spirit it sees, the blessing of God leads us deeper into some honest mourning about our condition. 

   In other words, while today’s trend with children is to try and keep them from feeling anything bad about themselves, God blesses us by leading us to sincerely mourn things in our lives that are not like him. And there is something about us lacking faith that makes us quite different than Jesus. 

   The blessing of mourning whatever is wrong with us leads deeper into a state of “Blessed are the meek…” This is where we know there is no way we can fix whatever poor-in-spirit area of our lives we are looking at, and so, instead of trying to do better, we turn to Jesus in surrender to his shepherdly authority to lead us into his Father’s will. 

   And as we surrender to Jesus to help us, we find ourselves in the blessedness of “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” because we find ourselves now longing for the very thing we don’t have. In this case, Jesus is using his disciples to point out any ways we lack faith, and showing how he uses storms to expose such things helps us look at what is happening in our lives to see if he is doing something similar. 

   The upside of the Beatitudinal Valley leads into “Blessed are the merciful… the pure in heart… the peacemakers… those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,” but the primary focus of the disciples in the storm is how Jesus was blessing them on the downside of the Beatitudinal Valley to humble them in the area of their lives that mattered the most, their faith. 

   I hope this encourages you to be honest about your soul-condition, particularly in how you feel God would address your faith (or lack of faith). I believe the Beatitudes show us how the only way we can grow in our faith is by agreeing with Jesus when he asks us where our faith was when we didn’t trust him with something. 

   And the disciples' request of, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5) is a very good example of how we will grow in faith once we admit we need to do so. 

   To encourage us to admit we have weak faith, don’t forget how Paul instructed the church, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions” (Romans 14:1). This shows that people who are weak in faith should feel as welcome in the church as anyone else, but with the guidance that focuses on how to grow in faith, not how to win quarrels (there is a big lesson in that about the people in our churches who love to quarrel and what it says about their faith!). 

   And here’s a word from Jude who was an earthly brother to Jesus but had to come to faith in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He exhorts us, 

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt…” (Jude 1:20-22).  

   That shows us that we must strive to build up our assemblies of believers in our faith while being merciful to those who doubt because we know how much mercy we received to give us whatever faith we have attained. And if we are the ones who struggle with doubt, Jesus’ church should be the safest and most loving place to admit it, and to be built up by those whose faith is stronger than ours. And that should be true no matter what storms of impossible situations we go through.

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Good News of Jesus’ Kingdom

   Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. (Luke 8:1-3)

   The difference between “the gospel” and “the good news of the kingdom of God” is huge. 

    To clarify, what we call “the gospel” means “the good news”. For me, it is sad that someone invented the word “the gospel” to replace “the good news” because “the good news” gives a distinctive statement about the reality of the kingdom of God that people don’t know is there when they only hear “the gospel”. I much prefer the way God said it, that what Jesus came to give is the “good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Can you see how we downplay what God said in his own words by replacing “good news” with “gospel”?! 

   However, the main focus of what I want to clarify is simply that whether we think of it in the familiar English term “the gospel”, or more accurately in the biblical terminology of “good news”, the point is that it is about “the kingdom of God”. This is synonymous with “the kingdom of heaven” (used 32 times in Matthew’s account), and with the later clarification that it is “the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13-14), meaning, Jesus kingdom! 

   My point is that too many church people do not know that receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is not a one-on-one relationship. It is a “kingdom of God” relationship. We cannot receive Jesus Christ without entering his kingdom. He came into the world, not to live with us in the world, but to invite us and call us and save us into his kingdom. There is no other version of Christianity. To view receiving Christ as a personal decision that only involves us and Jesus is not what the Bible means by receiving Christ.

   I believe that the incomplete gospel of North America has led to so many of the problems in people living out their places in the body of Christ. By leaving “of the kingdom” out of the gospel, people have received a customized relationship with God that can’t be found in Scripture. But the result is people thinking that doing anything in the church, or in the body of Christ, or in the kingdom of God (if they even hear of the term), is like an optional kind of Christian living for those who want something more for themselves. 

   The truth is that the gospel is the good news of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The good news is that we are no longer stuck living at the mercy of corrupt earthly governments. In every nation of the world, what is true of everyone who receives the good news of great joy is that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). 

   Do you see that connection between being delivered out of the domain of darkness that is in every nation of the world and transferred into Jesus’ kingdom where we experience him giving us redemption, the forgiveness of our sins? God has done this replacement work by taking us out of one place and bringing us into another, and that connection to Jesus as our redeemer, the one who secures the forgiveness of our sins, only happens in Jesus’ kingdom.

   The necessity of declaring our faith in Jesus Christ through baptism is supposed to be like our initiation into the kingdom of God. It is not secondary. It is not optional. It is the way people professed faith in Jesus Christ from the very first day of the church being filled with the Spirit. If they believed (and they weren’t in the process of dying before they could be baptized), they repented and were baptized. No living person in the New Testament was ever considered a Christian if they were not baptized. 

   There is so much more to say about this, but I think the real issue is the personal side of it, whether people who have received just the North American gospel (that receiving Jesus is a just-Jesus-and-me experience) are willing to take another look at Jesus and the apostles proclaiming “the good news of the kingdom”. It is what Jesus heralded from the beginning, and if we have not yet seen the good news as it relates to Jesus’ kingdom, it is imperative that we examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith since the faith is only found in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Love of a Forgiven Soul

   “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:41-50)

   Because I believed in God from a young age, it tended to help me be a good kid. When that was combined with angry abuse that always told me I never did anything right, it nurtured a fear of admitting to doing anything wrong because the response would be more of the same.

   All that to say it has been quite a journey for me to attach to God in repentance so I could honestly say I was experiencing his love for me, his forgiveness of my sins, and his grace abounding to me no matter how many sins I had to confess. 

   Along the way, two words from the Bible have stood out. First, it was the Greek word for love, “agapè”. This is the word used for God’s love. When God calls us to love with agapè-love, he means to love others the way we have been loved by him. This might give insight into any difficulties we have loving others (even our enemies) when we realize that our expressions of loving others come from our experiences of God loving us!

   As the beloved disciple John wrote, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). We must begin here, that our love begins in God’s love. This also means that our personal experience of that love conditions our personal expressions of love. In other words, if we struggle to love, let’s get help attaching to God’s love!

   The second word that stands out in this is the Hebrew word for love, “hesed”. It is found throughout the Old Testament in English expressions like “steadfast love”, “unfailing love” and the like. It reveals what is called the “covenantal” love of God, the love that saturated God’s covenant relationship with his people. 

   And just in case anyone has ever told you that the Old Testament God was not as loving as the New Testament God, I assure you that they have never attached to this “hesed” love of God that is all through those Old Testament Scriptures!

   It is no accident that we have in Scripture this beautiful and convicting account of a “sinful” woman showing up her self-righteous critic. It continues to expose our hearts as we must ask ourselves how a sinful woman knew enough about Jesus before anyone knew of what he would do on the cross that she would have such assurance of forgiveness and such experience of his love that she would unabashedly love him in the “spirit and truth” worship God desires for us. 

   Some of us likely need to admit we do not know God’s love like that because we have never admitted the greatness of our debt of sin. Others may see that we have a judgmental problem where we judge others as more sinful than ourselves because we can’t admit how sinful we are. It may be that this is where we will get to know God’s love for us as we confess our sins and receive his forgiveness.

   Whatever the case, there was healing for me in this as I see why church folk can be so unloving, and conviction to keep short accounts with God about my failures to love because of my failures to repent. Whatever God is doing to change my mind about things, I want to fully join him in his work so that my experience of his love fuels my expressions of love to him and everyone else in my life today. 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Hypocrites Don’t Know God’s Word

   One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:36-39)

   My first thought about this passage was to thank our Father in heaven for making his word real to his children. While skeptics mock it and reject it, God opens the eyes of the blind so we can see what he has written. He opens the ears of the deaf so we can hear “what the Spirit is saying to the churches”. 

   And so it stood out that Luke’s “orderly account” brought out the contrast between the way Jesus constantly used God’s word (Scripture) to teach and affirm what he was doing, while the religious elite judged him by their own personal notions and presuppositions. 

   Because this Pharisee, Simon, was convinced that the Messiah would never have let a “sinful” woman touch him the way he and his guests had all witnessed, and because the Pharisees were the religious teachers of the people, it is very telling that Simon judged Jesus based on personal preferences rather than the Scriptures!

   This made me explore again what the Scriptures of Simon’s day (what we now call the Old Testament) said that would have made perfect sense of what was happening with Jesus and the sinful woman. 

   The passage in Isaiah 53 is very clear about the Messiah’s association with sinners. It is sadly fascinating that the Jews of our day are just as ignorant of that chapter of the Bible as Simon was 2,000 years earlier! 

   In fact, in videos I have watched of Jewish believers in Jesus sharing the gospel with the Jewish people, when they read from Isaiah 53, most Jewish people think that is from the New Testament because they realize right away that it sounds like Jesus! They are shocked to find that it is their Bible (called “the Tanakh”) that described what the Messiah would do. They are then bewildered by the realization that they knew it was talking about Jesus!(1) 

   When we consider how the prophets spoke of a Savior who would so associate with our sins as to bear them on himself, and then consider what God says about being close to the “broken and contrite in heart” (Psalm 51:17), it should be no surprise that Jesus who was “God with us” would let a sinful woman touch him in worship because she had experienced the forgiveness of her sins. 

   One of my favorite expressions of God’s association with sinners in the Old Testament (Tanakh) is God’s own testimony about himself, 

   For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).

Just as much as God “dwells” in the high and holy place of heaven, he “also” dwells with sinners who are “contrite and lowly in spirit”. The Pharisees should have recognized that Jesus was showing us what this looks like in person! 

   I will conclude with one more Scripture that shows what this Savior would look like when he came into the world to save sinners.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young. 
(Isaiah 40:11)

I am quite sure that Jesus did not see a “sinful woman” worshiping him that day. He saw a sheep who was responding to the Shepherd who found her. He saw a lamb feeling that he had already gathered her into his arms and carried her close to his heart. 

   She, in fact, knew what the Messiah would be like better than a Pharisee whose hard heart saw nothing good at all. And I would rather be thought of as a sinner who has no right to be amongst the religious elites than a religious hypocrite who doesn’t even know what God’s word says about our Savior coming into the world to save sinners.

(1) Here is a link to the “So Be It!” YouTube page that has many videos showing Jewish believers in Jesus (Messianic Jews) sharing the gospel with fellow Jews. https://www.youtube.com/c/SoBeIt32ad#:~:text=Welcome%20to%20SO%20BE%20IT%21%2C%20a%20video%20project,conversations%20about%20Jewish%20life%20with%20faith%20in%20Jesus.  

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)