On This Day: When That’s Not What We Expected

   The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’” (Luke 7:18-20)

   I am old enough to have had many of my church scenarios unfold quite differently than I had imagined. I can picture times when I was so clear that God was leading me into something I thought would be one scene of exciting ministry after another, only to find out years later that the real-life story was quite different than I expected. John being in prison at the end of his service to God has a certain ring of familiarity to it!

   One of my early lessons in how the unexpected should be expected was in a journey through the book of Exodus a few decades ago. It kept standing out to me that what God called Moses and Israel to do consistently turned out differently than they had imagined would happen.

   For example, after God spoke to Moses about his role in delivering Israel out of Egypt, and after God had responded to all Moses’ complaining and questions, Moses went to the people, the people worshiped God for hearing their prayers and coming to their rescue, and everyone was united in knowing and doing God’s will.

   That is, until Pharaoh responded to Moses by doubling the workload of the people!!! Suddenly the people all turned on Moses as if he had lied to them! 

   When we follow this through the ten plagues, and on into their early adventures of trusting the Lord on the way to the Promised Land, we see the same pattern. God showed the people what he was doing, he even appeared to them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, but every time things turned out differently than the people expected, they complained that there was something wrong with GOD!!!

   And what exactly was the problem? 

   That God kept putting them in situations they could only face by faith. That is exactly what they did not want then, and it is exactly what so many church folk don’t want now. We want to live in a constant state of sight-based living where everything turns out exactly as wonderfully as we expected. For God to keep putting us in impossible situations where only he could fulfill his word sends us into a tailspin. 

   I will get to Jesus’ reply to John tomorrow. But today some of us need to stop here long enough to attach to the God who is with us in prison. He is with us in scenarios that are painfully different than we thought they would be. He listens to our questions asking whether we got it right in the core issues surrounding our understanding of his will. 

   God’s encouragement to us is that when we are in scenarios like what John the Baptist was experiencing, we should send word to Jesus about it just like John did. Except for us, that would mean pouring out our hearts to our God in prayer and then meditating on whatever he shows us next in his word to see how he is answering the cry of the distressed.

   Psalm 102 begins with this heading, “A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD”. God puts these things in his word so we can come to him with words he himself has given us for the occasion. And when our occasion is feeling weary with how differently things have turned out from what we had once thought God was doing, John the Baptist in Luke 7, and the psalm writer in Psalm 102, may help us bring our own perplexing questions to God. 

   However, no matter what questions fill our hearts, and no matter which Scriptures we read next, God will hear and answer our prayers. Just expect that his replies might be of the unexpected variety.

© 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 Jesus Marvels at a Man’s Faith

   When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. (Luke 7:6-10)

   I trust it’s “enough said” about the contrast between Jesus marveling at great faith and marveling at great unbelief. We should know in our hearts which group we are in, and which group we want to be in. 

   For the rest, I want to share how we travel through the Beatitudinal Valley in the Beatitudinal Journey of transformation. This is based on Jesus’ Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12, his introduction to what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. 

   The first four Beatitudes are what I call the downside of the valley. If we attach to the blessing of God in each one, there is a feeling of going deeper inside ourselves with each step until reaching the core of our being where we absolutely long for what God is doing in us in Christ. The second four Beatitudes describe what we become like once we have encountered God in the humbling work of the downside into his mercy. 

1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” As we stand between the two scenes of Jesus’ marveling, we feel God’s blessing as we recognize in ourselves the many ways we fail to have such great faith as that centurion. Yes, it is a blessing when we look at this scripture passage and realize it does NOT describe our kind of faith. And it is a blessing when we look at Nazareth and its unbelief and feel that is far more what we are like. God is blessing us with the realness of admitting our true soul condition.

2. “Blessed are those who mourn…” While the natural inclination of the flesh is to run back up the downside of the valley and get out of there because we don’t like how our humbling feels, when we feel God blessing us, we find ourselves irresistibly going deeper into the mourning of our soul-condition. To let ourselves feel grief over why we have so little faith (instead of self-justifying that we are not so bad after all) is God’s blessing. There are comforts that are only experienced by those who will mourn their poverty of spirit. 

3. “Blessed are the meek…” At this point, we still refuse to go back up the downside in an “I will do better next time” kind of way, and instead, in meekness, we go deeper and admit we can’t fix our lack of faith, but Jesus can. Knowing the miserable state of our soul condition, we yield to Jesus’ authority to transform us into his likeness from one degree of glory to another, and we know it will not happen until we give up on ourselves and surrender to him.

4. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” When we are fully aware that we do not have the great faith Jesus honored in the centurion, and that we have dishonored our Savior with so many episodes of unbelief, we find God blessing us with the hunger and thirst for the “righteousness of faith”. It is a blessing to feel this hunger at the most real experience of our poverty of spirit because now God can satisfy our hunger in a way he could never honor our good works. 

5. “Blessed are the merciful…” Once we are hungering for the righteousness of faith by grace instead of any good works, we know what mercy feels like. We can‘t judge others weak faith because God has mercifully addressed our own! Instead, knowing how God has blessed us in his mercy, we become merciful to others who struggle with their faith. As Paul said, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions” (Romans 14:1). Once we have been blessed on the downside of the Beatitudinal Valley, we begin the upside journey by relating towards everyone from a merciful heart.

6. “Blessed are the pure in heart…” Weak faith is a double-minded faith. We want to trust Jesus, but we trust other things more (like the self-protection of our unbelief). As God humbles us through the Beatitudinal Journey, we find ourselves wanting to simply live by faith in every situation. We cling to Paul’s “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). We want “the prayer of a righteous person” that “has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). We simply want to be “the righteous shall live by faith” in everything.  

7. “Blessed are the peacemakers…” This is a faith issue. Church folk who do not labor to bring people to have peace with God do not have faith that God would use them, or that the good news of great joy is the only hope of escaping God’s wrath against sin, or that Jesus alone can grant eternal life to those who believe. By now we should see how the Beatitudinal Journey gets us here so that our mercifully pure hearts are desperate for everyone we know to have peace with God, and so we tell others about Jesus by faith that we are joining God in his work of saving souls.

8. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness…” I hope we can see why this is not the first step of the Beatitudinal Journey! But once we have experienced the blessing of God in the first seven Beatitudes, we are so in love with leading people to have peace with God that we can at least grow in our sense of blessing that any persecution that comes from this way of life is a joyful evidence of our fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Now, while this On This Day sharing is a bit longer than most, this has still been a very brief example of how to apply the Beatitudinal Journey to today’s lesson about Jesus’ view of our faith. It should give us all hope that we can feel blessed by God as we face our poverty of spirit as much as if we were already on-fire-for-the-Lord peacemakers being persecuted because we are causing so much trouble to the world, the flesh and the devil. 

   The bottom line is that Jesus marveled at the great faith of the centurion and the great unbelief of his hometown folks. I’m not sure whether he still marvels at things in his ascension to the right hand of his Father, but how he views both faith and unbelief will not have changed. Today’s lesson from Scripture calls us to step out in faith to grow up in faith, and this includes whatever steps of the Beatitudinal Journey God is focusing on today (and tomorrow, and…).  

© 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 Jesus Shows What We Are Like

   “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)

   I won’t detail the storm, but the description of “a flood arose,” and “the stream broke against that house” hits home. That’s why Jesus used parables, word pictures, metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech. They are so easy to say, “I know what that one feels like!” 

   For a few decades, I have practiced beginning my time with God by telling him how I am doing. No, I am not informing him of things he doesn’t already know. Rather, I am admitting to him my “soul condition” so I can attach to the “soul provision” he has given me in his Son. The more honest I am about how I am doing, the more Bull’s Eyeish is my experience of attaching to what he says in response. 

   Today this hit with the simple awareness that Jesus was asking me, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Or at least that’s the way it sounded to me. At first. 

   I then found myself wondering whether he saw me as the man who did put his words into practice or the one who did not. How would I know? Does this mean “perfectly” kept his word, or devotedly tried to keep his word? 

   Yes, I struggled through such thoughts and feelings, being honest to the core of my being, and that’s when Jesus ministered to me through his word and his Spirit so that I KNEW what he was saying to me. His words pierced me like I had never read them before in my life: “I will show you what he is like…” 

   Now it felt not so much like Jesus was confronting me with all the ways I may have failed to put his words into practice, but that he was declaring his view of my life, that he knew “what he is LIKE”! Not PERFECTLY! But this is what Montgomery Paul Vigh is LIKE! 

   And suddenly I could say that the next words applied to me. It wasn’t the storm I’m facing that says I am the people who say “Lord, Lord,” but never do what Jesus says. It’s the other way around. Because I have been seeking to live in “the obedience of faith” since my youth, I have withstood one storm after another for one simple reason: God has taught me to hear my Savior’s voice and follow him where he leads. No perfection. No measuring myself as better than anyone else. No earning my standing with God through good works. Just looking back and knowing which group I am in. I am in the group of people who come to Jesus, hear his words, and put them into practice. 

   When I went downstairs for my prayer time, I realized that I had never confessed to God that I had sinned by not getting baptized when Jesus told me to. I caved to abuse. Yes, understandable. No, not excusable. Yes, I know I was under God’s mercy. No, I did not do what Jesus called me to do. I chose self-protection over knowing and doing the will of God. 

   However, when I brought the pain of that experience to God this morning, I confessed my sin, received God’s forgiveness, handed over to him the guilt, shame, and fear of what I had done, and grieved how I had hindered my siblings who wanted to get baptized by not being the big brother who would lead the way. YES, being THAT gut-level honest with God is so REWARDING! The way we get to know our Savior when we are honest with him is so worth the pain of facing such wounds. 

   The conclusion of the matter is that I dealt with one more thing Satan has tried to use to his advantage. Instead, I have ringing in my heart that Jesus is the one Mediator between me and God, and he is my Advocate in responding to the devil’s lies. Jesus says to Satan himself, “I will show you what my servant Monte is like”. 

   I know it is only by grace through faith that I have any relationship with Jesus Christ at all, but today my Savior assured me that he knows what I am like as his little brother. And then he showed me the children in our daycare whose efforts to put our words into practice are childlike, sometimes childish, immature, not as good as we would do, but so absolutely heart-captivating to see how they are putting their hearts into trying to do what we say. 

   And today, Jesus told me he sees me like that as well. A little kid trying to walk in the obedience of faith. And so, in Jesus Christ my Lord, I take my stand. 

© 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: Good Person, Good Treasure, Good Fruit

   “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)

   When I come to a passage like this, I think of it as a “self-examination text”. Jesus is addressing things we must first apply to ourselves before considering how to contribute to God’s work in the body of Christ.

   I found it helpful to discover that the “good” in the tree, the heart, and the fruit means moral goodness. It isn’t fruit in the sense of how we are affecting others, but fruit in the sense of what the tree produces whether anyone notices or not (an apple tree is an apple tree even if no one eats the fruit!). 

   The main point is that in Jesus’ kingdom, the work of God is so transforming that there cannot be any disparity between the person we are, the things we treasure in our hearts, and the way we act towards others. 

   Which reminded me of a huge lesson I learned in the early 90’s, that God always begins his work in our hearts and people are more committed to self-protection than to knowing and doing the will of God. 

   The reason that stands out today is that self-protection makes liars out of us. Hypocrites. We try to act like good people on the outside, but God’s transforming work is hindered because we won’t give up lordship over our hearts. God can’t transform us without leading us out of our old hearts into the new hearts the prophets foretold, but our fortresses of self-protection are defiant that no one is going to mess with the things we have hidden deep inside, not even GOD! 

   For some of us, the “log” that needs to be removed from our eyes is the log of self-protection. Whatever it is we do to hide a traumatized, reclusive soul must be removed so we can be “transformed into the same image (as our Savior) from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18). 

   Opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s inspection will invariably lead us into another journey through the Beatitudinal Valley. God will bless us with the poverty of spirit that admits the ways we are not doing well in what he is teaching us. He will bless us with the mourning that grieves what he is showing us about ourselves that is not like our Savior. He will bless us with the meekness that gives up trying to fix ourselves and opens the door of our self-protection in submission to the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord. And he then blesses us with the hunger and thirst for the righteousness of being in our hearts what we are trying to portray in our works. 

   This then leads to us being blessed by becoming genuinely merciful people because of the mercy we have experienced in our hearts. We are blessed by having pure hearts that make us the same on the outside as we are on the inside. We are blessed by becoming peacemakers who genuinely want everyone to experience peace with God, and that leads to us being blessed with joy in our persecutions because we know that the way the world is treating us is because we truly are becoming like our Savior (based on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12). 

   In Luke 6, Luke is showing us things Jesus taught about life in his kingdom. If we have confessed with our mouths that Jesus is Lord (over every part of our being, self-protection included), and we have believed IN OUR HEARTS that God raised his Son from the dead, the salvation we claim to have will show in what we do (Romans 10:9-10). If that is not what is showing, it’s time for a heart-to-heart with our Father in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ his Son. It will be transforming.  

© 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 ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ Principle

   "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:37-38)

   One memorable experience of helping people with the bad kind of judging was when I was talking with a young couple about how they were doing. The wife began presenting some complaints against her husband and I listened to try to understand what was going on. I soon realized that I was seeing a 2-column page in my mind with “subjective” on the left and “objective” on the right. Each of her statements were subjective so I mentally put them in the left column and kept asking her to go deeper. 

   After a handful of complaints were added to the “subjective” side, she suddenly said something objective that had happened to her long before they had even met, and it had to do with her Dad, NOT her husband! 

    Suddenly, the couple was united in addressing an unresolved experience of childhood trauma instead of wasting time and attachment on things that either weren’t happening at all or weren’t happening to the degree that was imagined. 

   Since then, I have witnessed many instances of the contrast between the unrighteous judging that weaponizes perceived faults or failures as reasons to join the enemy's work of “stealing, killing, and destroying” (John 10:10), and a few instances of the righteous judging where objective sin was handled as Jesus instructed in Matthew 18:15-20. 

   The part that ministered to me the most in my time with God this morning was simply that I must agree with my Savior that letting my mind wonder, or evaluate, or imagine what might be going on with someone when nothing is visibly presenting itself for my participation is wrong. It isn’t just the concluding that someone must be doing something wrong when I haven’t seen it, but letting my mind spend time trying to figure out if someone is doing something wrong is what is forbidden. 

   The “out of sight, out of mind” adage is the way I will remember this. Do I see objective sin going on with someone? No? Then stop thinking about them and turn my mind to, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). 

   Do I see objective sin going on with a fellow believer? Yes? Then I must go and talk with the person in private and follow Jesus’ instructions with the aim Paul added, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). 

   I know that worldlings love to misquote Jesus about his “do not judge” teaching as if we are not allowed to call their sin what it is. But Jesus himself always called sin to be sin while “in God’s kindness” always working “to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4) so he can restore us and forgive us. 

   Now, here is a thought: what would happen in Jesus’ true church if we would judge the sinful judging done by our own people in the way Jesus taught us to confront sin, and required our people to avoid any kind of unrighteous judging where no one even saw anything happen at all?  

© 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: Love in the Absence of Forgiveness

   “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. (Luke 6:29-31)

   One of the most significant facets of being one “who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:5) is loving the words God chose to breathe out into the Scriptures (II Timothy 3:16-17). However, on the flip side, this includes loving the absence of words that people read into God’s word so that it corrupts what our Father in heaven has told us. 

   As I came to the above text, it stood out again that Jesus did not tell us to forgive our enemies, forgive our haters, forgive our cursers, or forgive our abusers. And since adding “forgive them” to such texts subtracts something from the full meaning of Jesus’ words, we must consider what these things look like without forgiving people. 

   This stands out so clearly in Paul’s rebuke, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). People were “presuming” that God was okay with their sin because he was kind, forbearing, and patient in his dealings with them. Paul turns the picture around to show that his perceived blessings while we are sinning are not approval of our sin, but him loving us “to repentance”. 

   The next sentence makes it clear that without repentance there is no forgiveness, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). 

   So, when we know that no one can possibly be forgiven without repentance, we don’t say, “I forgive them” and move on. Instead, knowing that our enemies, our haters, our cursers, our abusers, and our persecutors cannot be forgiven without repentance, we keep loving them towards repentance. We keep doing good to them in the hope they will repent. We keep blessing them with our prayers for their repentance. 

   Now here’s an example of this. People often claim that the best example of God forgiving unrepentant people is what Jesus said from the cross. His words were, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). People say that was Jesus forgiving his enemies, haters, cursers, abusers, and persecutors. 

   HOWEVER!!!

   Jesus did NOT say, “Father, I forgive them…” He said, “Father, forgive them…” What is that called? It is called PRAYER. Jesus was praying for his enemies. What did he tell us to do? He said, “…pray for those who abuse you.” 

   What happens when we pray for our enemies to be forgiven? Answer: we’re not done until they repent. 

   I have learned by personal experience that it is far more loving and liberating to pray for God’s kindness to lead someone to repentance so he can forgive them than to do the “I forgive them, and I’m done” routine. Not only does it call for greater love than forgiving and moving on, but it is what is WRITTEN.

   The bottom line is that, if we are going to “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God” as Jesus taught, let’s not mess it up by trying to live by words that did NOT come from the mouth of God!

   And with all that said, God has brought some people to mind who fit the description of who to love, do good, bless, and pray for, so it is time for me to go downstairs and pray! And yes, I do hope he answers by letting me show love to them, do good to them, bless them, and let them know I am praying for their forgiveness.

© 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 be Angry at Sin Without Sinning

   On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:6-11)

   I’m writing this part after I had my time with God in his word, after I shared my box of sharing (to the left) online, and after having a time of prayer that followed the example of Jesus who “would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16). God wove these three stands together to minister to me in so many ways that left me knowing what he was saying, seeing what he was doing, and joining him in his work. 

   Have you ever read something about Jesus in the Bible and thought, “You mean that Jesus experienced the same things as me?” 

   The way this hit me today was in the definition of “watched”, as in, “And the scribes and Pharisees watched him…” The word carries nuances of meaning that are very telling of their soul-condition, but also very comforting to know that our Savior faced such things!

   “Watched” means “to observe (keep watch over) v. — to watch attentively, as keeping a record of activities in the mind (for later use)” (Bible Sense Lexicon). When we picture the religious elites watching Jesus, we must include these factors. They were watching attentively, but not with curiosity about what they could learn about him. It wasn’t to see if his actions would answer questions about whether he truly was the Messiah. 

   Rather, it was the attentive eyes of narcissistic hearts building a record of Jesus’ activities that they could save as weapons for later use. And the extent of this narcissism is clarified in what they did when Jesus healed the man, “But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus” (vs 11), meaning, “how to destroy him” (Mark 3:6). 

   It helped me to look up Mark’s description of how Jesus felt about these religious narcissists: “And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored” (Mark 3:5). The kind of anger Jesus felt in response to the hardness of heart in the scribes and Pharisees was “Anger: wrath n. — a feeling of intense anger that does not subside; often on an epic scale” (Bible Sense Lexicon). Yes, Jesus was THAT angry!

   I learned a long time ago that anger is a secondary emotion. It is triggered by a primary emotion. In this case, Jesus’ primary emotion was “grieved at their hardness of heart” and his secondary emotion was intense anger that they were willing to destroy the work of God while claiming to be the teachers of the people of God. 

   The short story on how God ministered to me while I was praying was to turn my attention from what I have experienced to how it has affected me. He affirmed the narcissism I grew up with in my home. He agreed with my memory in all the narcissists I have seen destroying families and churches. And then he showed me that he saw the pain it had caused in me and how I learned from an early age to try to protect and defend myself.

   The conclusion was that I attached to God in repentance and faith, repenting of every way I have succumbed to defending myself from the narcissists’ fault-finding instead of relying on him, renouncing any and all ground I may have surrendered to the enemy by relying on myself in this area, and declaring my faith that I would learn to trust him when in the narcissists’ line of fire the way Jesus did. 

   Now I am watching for who needs ministry along with me today and I intend to join God’s work in them with faith that Jesus is still at work to set the captives free. I also will watch carefully my feeling of anger at the narcissists who keep trying to destroy God’s work in others. I am eager to see what God does in me and around me as I walk with him 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 ‘The Old is (NOT) Good' Enough

   He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (Luke 5:36-39)

   My personal reaction to reading those last words, “‘The old is good,’” was that I know too many church folk like that! 

   The above conversation took place while Jesus was at Matthew’s house having a meal with “tax collectors and sinners”. At the same time, “some Pharisees and their scribes” were peeking in to see what was going on and “grumbled” at Jesus’ disciples why Jesus would hang out with such people. 

   Jesus never played favorites or showed partiality to his friends. He alone was without sin; everyone else needed the “good news of great joy” that could only be found in him. So, Jesus customized a parable for both groups of people, the “sinners” who had come to dinner and the religious devotees who were judging everyone.

   Because Jesus’ illustrations for the religious devotees are easy to understand, our focus must be on how we are doing at receiving the “new covenant in my blood”. Jesus didn’t die merely so we could have a fire-insurance policy for when we die. He died to make a new covenant between God and sinners. Through Jesus’ death, God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). 

   So, “when we were dead in our trespasses,” and God “made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5), he brought us into the new covenant. It is a binding relationship in which God is the adoptive Father who has made us his adopted sons.1  

   What I want to leave with everyone is the reminder that the new covenant cannot be added to anything and cannot be replaced by anything. It doesn’t supplement our systems of good works, and it doesn’t pale in comparison to “the old is good”. It is the only relationship by which sinners can receive eternal life. Period. 

   Do you lean more to the religious devotee who struggles to give up self-reliance to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and restoration to God? Or are you more tempted to settle for the drunken stupor of sin that thinks the old is quite good enough? Either way, in 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). 

   So the only question is, are you one of the people who “walk in the light, as he is in the light,” so “we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7), or are you one of those who “loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19)? 

   Jesus still comes to tax collectors and sinners by any name or label. He still calls religious devotees to leave their sin and follow him. No matter where we are in relation to Jesus, we all have the same call to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ into the fullness of life.

© 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.)

Footnote 1: Yes, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29), which is why “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14), “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:26), “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). The expressions of “brothers and sisters” or “sons and daughters” is NOT in the Bible and is NOT what God means by “sons”. We all have the exact same status with God in our spiritual identity, the same status as Jesus, which can only be conveyed through “sons” and “brothers”. It is a horrible mistake to tell people the Bible SAYS there are two categories when God himself breathed out one category of “sons” who are “brothers” to Jesus Christ as our Firstborn.

On This Day: When Jesus Calls for Change

   And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:29-32)

   Think about it: what do you feel when you hear Jesus calling you? Is it a suggestion? Is it a demand? Is it a trailer for something ahead? Or is it the scene you are entering right then and there and your surrender to the script of God (in Scripture) is required?

   Just by looking up the meaning of words, I find that they come to mean so much more to me than English brings out. In today’s case, Jesus clarifying who he came to “call” means “to summon v. — to authoritatively communicate a demand for the presence or participation of” (Bible Sense Lexicon).  

   Everything about God says he should be the one in charge, not us. When we hear the call of God through his word and Spirit, it is the Father calling his children to walk in the obedience of faith. It is the Shepherd calling his sheep to follow him home. It is the Master calling his servants to know and do his will. It is the Creator calling his creatures to leave their sin and come to him. Everything about God makes him the one in charge over everything about us. 

   This is why Jesus calls us to “repentance”, which means, “repentance ⇔ reconsideration n. — a change of self (heart and mind) that abandons former dispositions and results in a new self, new behavior, and regret over former behavior and dispositions” (Bible Sense Lexicon).

   In other words, repentance is a change of a person’s heart that results in a change of a person’s actions. When the Psalm-writer asked, “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?” the answer began, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3-4). “Cleans hands” signifies righteous actions coming from a “pure heart”. Sinners can only receive a pure heart expressed in clean hands when they repent and replace their love of sin with the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Over the decades, I have been hurt by enough narcissists who refuse to admit their need of change that I want to be changing daily in the newest installment of how to be more like Jesus. I believe God calls us every day as we spend time with him in his word and then seek to put what we learn into practice. 

   And since the aim of our salvation is to make us like Jesus, we must expect every day to feel like we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18). 

   For me, that includes what God started yesterday in the “he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16) combined with today’s calling to repent and believe like never before and join God’s work in anyone else he shows me is hearing Jesus’ call to turn around and follow him. 

© 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 Jesus Teaches Fishing For Men

   And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:6-11)

   Luke’s description of what Jesus said to Peter on this occasion is expanded by Matthew and Mark to include what he said to the four men.

   Luke (Jesus to Simon Peter): “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 
   Matthew: “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’” (4:19).
   Mark: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men’” (1:17).

   I see these records like puzzle pieces. Each one adds a detail or two that expands the picture. Since Peter had reacted so strongly to Jesus giving them a miraculous catch of fish, Jesus explained to him what was really going on. But then we are shown what Jesus said specifically to the two pairs of brothers, and how the men left everything to follow him. The rest is His-story, as they say. 

   A very long time ago I read a Scripture verse that stated, “He who wins souls is wise”. I can’t recall which translation I was reading, or if that was a quote from a book, but it comes from Proverbs 11:30 which is written as “whoever captures souls is wise” (ESV). I can still feel the youthful longing to be such a person as that, someone who captures souls for the kingdom of God, not as trophies, but as treasures of the grace of God to deliver people out of darkness and transfer them into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins (paraphrase of Colossians 1:13-14). 

   Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” I can relate far more to the first half than the second, but the Beatitudinal Valley leads me to let myself hunger and thirst for the righteousness of being a soul-winner and to be in a home church that is learning to fish for men just as Jesus taught the disciples. 

   For today, I mostly want to know where Jesus sees me in my discipling so I can mature into the disciplemaker he wants me to be. My part is to follow him completely and surrender to everything he is doing to make me like him. And if that helps someone get to know him today better than ever, I will rejoice in that as well!

© 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: Astonished by the Word and his Word

   On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-11)

   The more we pray through God’s word (biblical meditation), the more we add truths that become superimposed over everything we read. For example, knowing the Bible is “the word of God” means that everything we read in Scripture is holy ground because it is “breathed out by God” (II Timothy 3:16-17). 

   The same is true when we keep in mind that Jesus is “the Word” who “was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1-5). Whatever we read about Jesus is watching “the Word” who “became flesh and dwelt among us” doing his work. Everything Jesus did was as the personal presence of God’s communication to his people.

   I was being moved by the wonder of these references to God’s word, that Jesus is “the Word”, he was teaching “the word of God”, and he gave a “word” of instruction to Peter. It is such a comprehensive picture of how God communicates through his Son in both the big-picture “word” of the Scriptures and his leading of us as individuals with the personal words of his instructions to us. 

   But then I looked up the definition of “astonished”, trying to attach to the impact of Jesus’ miracle on these people, and that’s when I was astonished!!!

   I discovered that this one English word came from two Greek words. The first word meant, “astonishment n. — an overwhelming feeling of stunning wonder” and the second “to overwhelm ⇔ encircle v. — to overwhelm emotionally, conceived of as an emotion extending on all sides of someone simultaneously” (Bible Sense Lexicon). 

   So, first I was astonished that “astonished” was two words, but then I was moved that the two words were a noun and a verb. The first word (noun) indicated what this response was; the second described how that thing (astonishment) acted on people.

   For me, I ended up being overwhelmed with wonder and joy at all the weaving together of words so that I was in wonder that Jesus impacts people with astonishing astonishment! It made me want to know him like that in life. What would it look like for me to know God in a way that overwhelmed me like that?!

   My whole life I have been a slow-and-steady-as-she-goes kind of guy. That is a good thing to contribute to church life. However, it leaves me jealous (in a good way) of people who are so utterly moved with emotion that overtakes them as described in this scene of His-story. 

   But what this meditation on God’s word did for me this morning is give me a deepened longing to know God’s work in overwhelming ways, and to continue seeking all the realities of knowing God in this lifetime even if it is at the return of Christ that I am finally overwhelmed with utterly astonishing astonishment that fills me with that “joy unspeakable and full of glory” Peter later wrote about (I Peter 1:3-9). 

   How I long to see people share in such fellowship that we love Jesus as “the Word”, we attach to his teaching of “the word of God”, and we listen for “your word” to direct us in the specifics of “hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches” each day. 

   God’s word shows how personal this can be. It is ours to keep asking, seeking, and knocking, so we receive, find, and open the doors to knowing God better every day than we have ever known him before. And that most certainly is how I am feeling this morning! 

© 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 Word Who Amazes with His Words

  And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. (Luke 4:31-37)

   As I look back over my six decades since knowing God was watching over me, it is clear that God’s grace has enabled me to hear his “Word” and his “word” as his word. 

   In fact, whenever I hear the professional skeptics claiming they have proved the Bible is not God’s word, I see a group of blind people trying to convince me that what I see doesn’t exist. It makes me sad for them, but I have never once heard anything that disqualifies God’s word from being God’s word, or disqualifies Jesus Christ as “the Word” who “became flesh and dwelt among us”. 

   In my current journey through Luke’s detailed account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, I am on heightened alert for things he says that could have been tested for their truthfulness. With this radar-on mindset, the things that stand out are impacting me deeply. 

   What’s the point for you and me? That we are being given a witness to Jesus’ authority. He was “the Word” who “was with God, and the Word was God.” He was “the Word” through whom “all things were made”. In fact, “without him was not any thing made that was made.” In Jesus as the Word “was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-5). 

   Knowing that Jesus is “the Word” makes it stand out all the more meaningfully that “his word” impacted people with a sense of authority. He spoke like he had the authority to tell people what was true and how to live by that truth. And my sense is that, if the people knew that about him in person, it is no wonder that it feels that way to me when I read what God’s word says about his word! 

   I have shared this many times, that in 1992 I went from thinking of my morning time of reading the Bible as “my devotions” to considering it as “spending time with God”. My mind changed from me looking for what I could get out of Scripture to me listening for what God was saying to me. Once I knew that God was speaking through his word, whatever I read, whatever I learned, whatever stood out as God’s teaching to my heart, had authority over me. Even if I was the only one who knew it, I would be measured that day by whether I was receiving and obeying what God spoke to me about, or neglecting and rejecting God’s word.

   This morning was another reminder that, in the same way the people who heard Jesus in person recognized the authority of “his word”, we are to come to the Bible as “the word of Christ” and “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). 

   If I added up all my negative experiences in the church, they could all be categorized as scenarios where church folk acted as the authority over God’s word. The toddlers and teens of the church (in maturity, not age) acted like they knew everything so that even what was written in Scripture had no authority over what they did or said. 

   On the other hand, my very best memories of life with God’s people have been when people were sharing with joy what they were learning from God’s word, and everyone was testifying to the grace of God in how he was working those things into our lives.

   Today reminds me that God’s word through his Son has authority over us all. We can either use God’s word for our own selfish purposes as Satan did in tempting Jesus, or we can imitate Jesus and “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. There is a day of reckoning and rewarding on its way. Jesus himself said so in his own words. As it is written, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).

© 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 the Messiah is Not Welcome Home

   And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away. (Luke 4:22-30)

   The difference between the people of Nazareth who wouldn’t even ask Jesus questions because they were already convinced they were right and he was wrong, and the Bereans who “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11), helps me with something simple but not easy: Jesus’ disciples must keep “speaking the truth in love” because people need to hear “the good news of great joy”. How people respond to the good news is not up to us. 

   From childhood, I have had to think through what I believed in a home filled with conflict about everything. For some divine reason, God kept calling me to notice what he said. I came to love what is written in the Scriptures and to be in awe of the fact that the Creator has made certain that we could have his breathed-out words available in every language under the sun. 

   Today’s ministry to me was the reminder that it is no surprise when people want to kill someone (literally or relationally) for telling them the truth about Jesus. And this issue of self-justifying “unteachable” pride is such a theme in history that the fact it happened even with Jesus himself encourages me to keep looking for lost sheep no matter how many goats are offended by the good news.

   As I write this, I am suddenly reminded of God’s grace towards me, that for decades of reading, studying, and meditating on God’s word in the Bible, whenever I have come to something “familiar” in the Scriptures, I have always learned something new simply because I ask God to teach me. It really makes me wonder what would have happened in Jesus’ hometown if someone had asked him some honest questions. 

   While we can only imagine that outcome, we do have a say in what we do with Jesus. Are we stuck on ourselves that God couldn’t possibly teach us things about his Son we don’t already know? Or are we “more noble” like the Bereans so that we must search the word of God to know what is true? 

   What we do know for certain is that no one in Nazareth at the time of Jesus’ return visit believed in him and so no one received eternal life. On the other hand, in Berea, “Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men” (Acts 17:12). And there was great rejoicing in heaven over each of those sinners who repented and trusted in Jesus Christ (see Luke 15). 

   Don’t let anyone tell you what to believe about Jesus without checking it out for yourself. And when you do check Jesus out for yourself, take full responsibility for what you do with him. Each of us will give account to God for our response to his 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: That Time When Time Gave Birth to a Son

   “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

   I marvel at the wisdom of God in deciding when it was time for Jesus to come into the world. We know this was planned before time was created. Peter writes that “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (I Peter 1:20). In Ephesians 1:3-10, Paul goes into great detail about how the things Jesus had accomplished were ordained before time began. 

   Now that I have this new thought in my mind (Jesus proclaiming that it was the favorable time for all the prophecies about the Messiah’s first coming to be fulfilled), I am mesmerized by his concluding statement, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The prophecy that the Messiah would announce the favorable timing of his own appearing was fulfilled right at that time, in that place, with those people, and all the conflicting thoughts that had to be processed. Jesus had just proclaimed to them that it was time.

   There is a way in which my last few decades of spending time with God in his word each morning have given me a sense of receiving each day what was the favorable time for me to learn something. In fact, the way God opened my eyes and ears to how he speaks through his word in May of 1992 was the favorable time for me to learn to relate to God like this before something hugely heartbreaking broke upon the shores of my heart, so to speak. And ever since, the things I have learned from God’s word each day have felt like the favorable time to learn them and put them into practice. 

   Today it really stands out to me what Paul wrote, 

“For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). 

This was Paul writing about something God said and did in the past to tell people in his present about what God was doing for them at that time, and it was recorded in God’s word in the past so it would stretch into the future and make every day the “favorable time” in the present for people to receive “the good news of great joy” that we now have a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

   However, as I shared yesterday, the emphasis is on Jesus as “the Word” sharing from the Scriptures as “the word” that he would “proclaim” this good news throughout the ages, but it would only benefit those who received him and believed in his name. 

   Jesus is speaking these words of hope to us again today, inviting us all to come to the Father through faith in the Christ and experience what has been so perfectly timed to speak to us 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: The Breakdown of Setting People Free

   “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

      It is so interesting to revisit Luke 4 and consider afresh what it was like for Jesus to read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue of his hometown. Because I know how the visit went, it makes me consider what Jesus was doing and how Isaiah’s prophecy was “fulfilled in your hearing” (vs 21). 

   What is so notable today is how Jesus could do everything Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would do even when people would try to kill him for it. He still “proclaimed” the good news for the poor in spirit, he still “proclaimed” liberty to the captives, he still “proclaimed” the recovering of sight for the blind, and he still “set at” liberty the people who were oppressed.

   To “set at” means to send someone in a particular direction. Anyone who went where Jesus directed them would experience what was prophesied. He was sending people to liberty, to what we call “freedom in Christ”, and anyone who would go there, who would follow him into the Promised Land (so to speak), would experience exactly what was promised. 

   However, what I noticed today as the clincher was that the liberty Jesus was sending people to experience was for “those who are oppressed”. Which would mean that only those willing to admit they “are oppressed” would be open to his direction.

   And yes, that is where everything breaks down. The religious elite never experienced what Jesus came to give because their arrogance and pride resisted admitting there was anything wrong with them (narcissists in the Bible!). The prostitutes and tax collectors who came to Christ weren’t any more oppressed than the religious elite; they simply knew they were captive to sin while the religious hypocrites could never admit to such a thing. 

   I can see why God has me on this present focus of honestly evaluating how much I have experienced what Jesus came to give. The “freely you have received; freely give” work of God breaks down if I don’t freely receive for myself first! And that means freely admitting that I am just as oppressed and crushed in spirit by sin as anyone else. 

   I can still see the situation when I was twelve years old and I felt my need to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But I can also see numerous times throughout my life where I felt utterly brokenhearted over my soul-condition and had to receive Jesus’ ministry more deeply than ever. And that’s what I encourage everyone to see, that we must admit anything in our lives that fits the description of oppressed. It applies to all of us in our sinfulness. But it can apply to each of us uniquely with ways sin has damaged us on the inside.

   Whatever the case, please learn from the negative way the people of Jesus’ hometown rejected him that it is time for us to admit our oppression so we will receive Jesus as the one who leads us to freedom. His work is still being fulfilled in the world as people make Jesus known to everyone. The breakdown of this opportunity is when people can’t admit they need him. But the poor in spirit will experience freedom in Christ no matter what deliverance is required.

© 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 See or Not to See, That is the Question

   “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

   My focus on the above paragraph of Scripture is to attach to Jesus Christ my Savior about how well I have experienced what he came to do. If he came to proclaim good news to the poor, I want my impoverished heart to rejoice in the good news. If he came to proclaim liberty for this captive, I want to be as “free indeed” as Jesus intended. And if he came to proclaim sight to replace my blindness, I want to see as clearly as is possible this side of heaven.

   Jesus’ physical miracles were not the primary focus of his ministry. What he did with physical healings was to reveal his greater intention of giving his people freedom from all the ravages of sin. So, his focus on giving sight to the blind speaks to the spiritual blindness of the world, that people must be given restoration of sight to be able to see what God has given us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   When I suddenly saw this through the filter of past, present, and future, it made so much sense of why there is an awareness of seeing that goes back to receiving Jesus as my Lord and Savior, an awareness that there is coming a day when I will see without any hindrances whatsoever, but also that this present life is a journey of maturing in our sight.

   But this also makes so much sense when we picture Jesus as “the light”. Having blind eyes opened to see is not an end in itself, but the means to the end of knowing God. We must have spiritual sight of Jesus to know him and only those who want to know him have their eyes opened.

   Even in church life, some folks have that “hunger and thirst for righteousness” that makes them keep getting to know God better than they have ever known him before. At the same time, others are quite content to carry their life-insurance-policy salvation as they build their lives with “wood, hay, and straw” instead of the richness of their salvation if they were building with “gold, silver and precious stones” (I Corinthians 3:12-13). 

   My encouragement to everyone today is let yourself travel the Beatitudinal Journey in this paragraph of God’s word. Luke’s record is Scripture. What Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61 is Scripture. All Scripture is breathed-out by God (II Timothy 3:16-17) so we can “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 

   So, we are blessed when we hear that Jesus came to restore sight to the blind and we feel poverty of spirit as we realize we don’t see as well as we could. We are blessed when we mourn any deficiencies in our spiritual eyesight, and when we meekly surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ to give us far better sight than we are experiencing. We are blessed when we let ourselves hunger and thirst for whatever righteousness of seeing is lacking in our lives. God promises to satisfy that hunger and thirst for all who surrender to the Beatitudinal blessings (based on Matthew 5:1-12).

   For me, to simply break down Jesus’ work into the past, present, and future gives me confidence that Jesus has already given me sight, gives me hope that my sight will one day be perfected, and gives me faith that I can keep growing in my eyesight “from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18) as I submit to whatever the Spirit is saying and doing in my life each day. 

    Today’s, “To see or not to see” question is ours to answer. The light has come into the world. Let us receive him with eyes-wide-open and keep in step with whatever he is doing in us, through us, and around 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.)