Passage Read: Luke 9-10
Meditation Verses: 10:13-16
Thought
These foreign cities of old, if Jesus had appeared to them and done the miracles He was doing now, these cities would have repented thoroughly. The power of God and the message of God are more decisive than we realize. People who hear of God and see His power, if they do not repent on the spot, they are in grave danger. All these cities where Jesus had gone, they should have repented in dust and ashes! But for the most part, everyone went on their way, convincing themselves that they were not seeing what they were indeed seeing. Some believed and followed, most did not. Jesus expected wholesale repentance like Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah.
Application
If this is so, then we today are under great judgment, for the Gospel is preached all the time in so many places. And instead of great turnings to God, there are only a few here and there who are saved. This generation and every city of the earth are under great judgment for ignoring the only Gospel that saves, the sacrifice of the Son of God for their forgiveness. Instead, everyone goes on their way as if nothing significant happened and no incredible news was given them. I need to repent in dust and ashes in the face of the Gospel; I need to be broken and devoted to knowing and serving Jesus! And I need to have confidence in the power and authority of the Gospel to transform lives at its preaching, or condemn those who ignore or oppose it.