Tim’s Daily Bread Devotional 8.16.21

By August 16, 2021Daily Bread

Good morning! I hope this day finds you and your family well, and I want you to know that you are in my prayers daily during this difficult time.

I invite you to take a few moments with me to reflect on today’s Upper Room Devotional below — as well as on the theology woven into “It is well with my soul.”

Special thanks to Peggy Graff and her guests for providing this uplifting and inspiring addition to us in her Dog Days Duets series. I pray that these weekly selections will uplift your spirits and feed your soul as much as it does mine.

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 14:15-24 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The Parable of the Great Dinner

15 One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 Then Jesus[a] said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. 17 At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ 19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ 20 Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ 23 Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you,[b] none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today

The Parable of the Great Banquet.  On more than one occasion Jesus told a parable that featured a banquet or a feast.  In this parable of the kingdom of God a man is holding a banquet and the invited guests are too busy to show up.  All of them have excuses.  So he says to his servants, “Go quickly to the city’s streets, the busy ones and the side streets, and bring the poor, crippled, blind, and lame,” but the servants report that there is still room at the table after all these have been invited.  The generous holder of the Great Banquet, then says, “Go to the highways and back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled.”  The invitations are extended in wider and wider circles until, ultimately, everyone is invited to the feast—including all those who, in Jesus’ time and culture, would have been excluded.

The good news of this parable is that the saving grace of God is extended to everyone.  Everyone.

Thank you for sharing this early moment of your day with me, with God, and with the words and music that I hope you will carry with you throughout the coming day and night.

I am so grateful for you, for our church, and for the Love that will see us all through this very difficult time. Please stay safe and well and we’ll be together again in spirit tomorrow morning!

Grace and Peace,


Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor

Here’s more about this passage of scripture via Upper Room devotionals:

AN OPEN INVITATION

With whom can I share Christ’s love today?

read more