I would like you to take a minute and imagine the most powerful bomb in the world crammed into a shoe box. Once this bomb goes off some are actually looking for all the parts of the shoe box to try to put it back together again – the shoe box is legalism and Jesus is The Bomb that in this passage just altered the orbit of the earth with the force of what He is saying!
“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:16-19
Did Jesus come and hand out food stamps and government welfare checks or are we all spiritually poor before we discover The Good News of Grace?
Did Jesus start any prison breaks, did I miss that section completely or are we all prisoners before we discover Freedom through Christ Alone?
When Jesus died and was buried ad was resurrected weren’t the people still oppressed by a brutal government?
When did the “year of the Lord’s favor” start and why is it critical to grasp what that year is?
To have been sitting in that synagogue that day would have been to see the start of a Radical Revolution the likes of which could not have been predicted by the wisest of men! Here were people who were being taught, “do this and don’t do that”, these people were forced to act, look, live, behave and do the same exact things IF they were ever to be accepted by God – does that sound familiar?
It should because that is 99.99999999% of churches in America teaching law over Grace, watered down Grace and exclusion to certain groups that don’t think and act the same as they do – in short the devil has done a Great job of sticking Gods people right back in PRE-“year of the Lord’s favor” which is where I live, what I talk about and what is indeed Life itself to All who enter Grace!
If you want to see what this “year of the Lord’s favor” really looks like and if you are tired and weary and beaten down by life or if you just think this whole Jesus stuff is a bunch or religious hog wash and more ways to control you and force you to be like someone you are not – I beg you to answer just 7 simple questions with the scripture that goes along with them! Let these 7 simple questions be a starting point to a new understanding and a new spiritual year for you –
“the year of the Lord’s favor”
Click on the link below and enjoy the journey: