April 9 (Thursday) -- Repent or Be Thrown Out

Moses’ last blessings of Israel: Deuteronomy 33:1-29

Repent or perish: Luke 13:1-21

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep: Psalm 78:65-72

An anxious word: Proverbs 12:25


If any of you want to know how powerful blessings can be, read today’s passage from Deuteronomy in the Amplified version of the Bible at Deuteronomy 33:1-29 (AMP), and be sure to read the footnotes for each blessing.

In today’s passage of Luke Jesus is at it again, calling for repentance. This time the conversation got started because some people assumed that bad things happen only to people who live sinful lives. Jesus responded to them with two important principles:
1) We can’t assume that bad things happen to only bad people, or that bad events happen to only people of some lower religious stature.
2) The people talking like that need to repent. In fact, they need to repent or they’re thrown out. This is so important that Jesus said it three times in this one passage (verse 3, verse 5, and in the parable of the fig tree in verses 6-9).

To sum it up – Jesus calls us to live holy lives and not try to rank ourselves amongst our peers. Are we saved by grace? Of course! But we can’t throw out this often repeated teaching from Jesus about living right. Living It Like Ya Mean It is an integral part of believing in Jesus.