Book of Luke

We are currently going through the book of Luke for our dinnertime reading.  My husband reads this when he is home (which is most nights).  The other night I read since he had to work late.  I have a tendency for rabbit trails.  Here is the trail we went on.

We had left off the night before at Luke 3:7 (sometimes we don't make it all the way through a chapter with a 3 year old and 9 year old).  So I started reading at verse 7 where John the Baptist is telling the people to repent.  He tells them in verse 8 that they can't just say that Abraham is their father (the Jewish people considered themselves righteous just because they were descended from Abraham).  John the Baptist tells them this is not true and that they should be bearing fruit in their lives.  In verse nine he says that trees that don't bear fruit are cut down and thrown into the fire.

At this point my son said he knew that this was talking about hell.  It is fun seeing his mind working.  But I told Him that this was talking about God's fire.  He looked perplexed.  So we turned to I Corinthians 3.  I have a penchant for reading a whole chapter rather than just a few verses to get the context so we started at the top.

This was a great read.  First Paul starts out telling the Corinthians that as baby Christians he had to feed them the milk of the Word and not the solid food, and that they were still at the baby stage, they hadn't grown up.  He tells them that as babies they are carnal, or worldly.  Their minds are on worldly things and not the things of God.  This is fun to explain to kids--the fact that not all people grow up.  We all physically grow up, but a lot of people don't mentally or spiritually grow up.

Paul goes on in verse 5 to explain that we are all workers and we will each receive a reward if we are doing the work of God.  Verse 13 says that, "each one's work will become clear, for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is."  If it is gold, silver, or precious stone, it will survive the fire, but if it is wood, hay, or straw, the fire will consume it.  If your work endures, you receive a reward.  If your work was consumed in the fire, you will suffer loss, but you will still be saved, just without a reward.

I then went on to explain to the kids that the verses (Matthew 6:19-21) that talk about laying up treasure in heaven are talking about the same as the passage in Corinthians we just read.  That seemed to make it add up in my son's mind.  I could see that the dots were connecting for him.  

I also told him that I believe that Revelation 21:4 is referring to the people whose life work was burned up in God's fire.  It says that God will wipe away every tear.  Why are people crying?  The chapter is describing the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem, how there will be no more death or sorrow, so why are people crying?  

I believe when we see our life burned in the fire, the ones whose work gets burned up will be devastated and there will be tears.  I don't know about you, but I want to be one of the ones who gets a reward.  I want my life's work to be gold, silver and precious stone that will withstand that fire!  Good works will NOT save you, but a Christian should be bearing good fruit--doing the work that God has called them to!

We wrapped up our reading by going back to Luke and finishing the passage, through verse 20.  John the Baptist's ministry was to tell people to repent, to prepare the way for Jesus.  He was not politically correct, he didn't care if he ruffled feathers.  Herod had him thrown into prison as a result.