Foreign.

Hello good people.

Welcome to Daily Bible Refresh where we bring the Bible to life every single day in a way that is understandable, relatable and applicable.

We read the entire Bible, the New Testament over the course of a three year period.

We use the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a three year cycle of readings.

We're in year C, the epiphany season right now and we're reading.

We make it understandable by reading from the New Testament only the message translation.

Relatable by offering you a couple of points to ponder and applicable, giving you an action step.

And we give it all to you from our website voiceofgoddaily.com the home of the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Guide.

We have a prayer and we do it all in under 10 minutes.

Our reading for the day is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 5, verses 27 through 32.

Reading for the message after this he went out and saw a man named Levi at work collecting taxes.

Jesus said, come along with me.

And he did, walking away from everything and went with him.

Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus.

Everybody was there, taxmen and other disreputable characters.

As guests at the dinner.

The Pharisees and their religious scholars came to his disciples, greatly defended what is he doing?

Eating and drinking with misfits and sinners.

And Jesus heard about it and he spoke up.

Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick?

I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders.

An invitation to a changed life changed on the inside out.

Wow.

Powerful bit of scripture here.

Let's reflect for a minute about this passage from the Gospel of Luke about when Jesus encounters this guy named Levi and other disreputable characters, a story that kind of challenges our assumptions about inclusion and worthiness and transformation.

Here's a few points to ponder.

One is the radical table of fellowship.

Jesus consistently used shared meals as acts of social revolution.

By dining with tax collectors and sinners, he wasn't just being nice, he was deliberately disrupting the social and religious hierarchy of his day.

Today, this challenges us to do and examine who we consider acceptable company and whose tables we're willing to sit at.

A second point to ponder is about economic justice.

Levi was a tax collector, someone who profited from an oppressive economic system.

Yet Jesus invitation wasn't conditional on Levi first making reparations or proving his worth.

This suggests that transformation often begins with inclusion rather than demands for perfection.

Notice that Levi chose to respond by hosting a party, a feast for others, a personal transformation in him that naturally led to the action of inviting others.

One more point is about redefining holiness.

The religious leaders saw holiness as a separation from sinners, but Jesus demonstrated that true holiness means engagement with those whose society marginalizes.

This radically challenges religious institutions today that prioritize purity over presence, doctrine over relationship, or respectability over radical welcome.

Here's your action step for the day this week.

Intentionally share a meal with someone with whom you typically wouldn't do that, with perhaps different kind of socially or different political views or some sort of a different cultural, racial background.

Whatever it would be, don't approach it like a charity or a mission or a chore, but as an opportunity to learn to have some mutual understanding.

If possible, accept any invitation they may give you to go into some space of theirs.

It'll be cool before we have a closing prayer, I did want to remind you that we have a resource for you.

It's called the ABC 123 Bible Study Guide.

You could find it at our website, voiceofgod daily.com it makes reading the Bible as easy as ABC 1, 2, 3, let's pray.

God, you are the divine host of the great feast, and we confess that we too often play the role of the Pharisees, deciding who is worthy of a place at the table, creating arbitrary boundaries between us and them.

Help us remember times when we felt like outsiders, when we've been the ones labeled disreputable, unworthy.

Give us courage to accept invitations to unfamiliar tables and grace to extend welcome to those we've kept a distance.

Remind us that your healing presence is the most powerful in spaces of authentic connection, where pretense falls away and real transformation can begin.

Transform us from guardians of exclusivity into celebrants of your expansive feast.

In the spirit of radical welcome.

Amen.

Always great to be with you here at Daily Bible Refresh.

My name is Dr.

Brad with my name is Dr.

Brad Miller.

I'll be with you tomorrow.

Come join me.

If I could say my abode would even be greater.

Dr.

Brad Miller, join me on Daily Bible Refresh.

Bring a friend.

And when you do, remember that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up, it's created new.

Every morning.

Sa.