if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; -- 2 Peter 2:5 (ESV)

I’ve always found it odd the way we have treated the flood. The images we produce of orderly lines of animals queuing up for their place on board, or we have a bearded Noah topside with the giraffe heads popping out. These cute, family-approved, nursery-appropriate shots give us warm fuzzies like the story is about a day out on the water with Noah and his menagerie.

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. -- Luke 18:1 (ESV)

‘How’s your prayer life?’ It’s a question that turns discipleship groups silent and makes community groups find a rabbit trail faster then a hungry coyote. I’ve never met anyone that answered that question with a positive answer. We always feel we should pray more. We should pray with more consistency. We should pray longer. We should pray with less distraction.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. -- 2 Peter 2:1 (ESV)

‘Heresy’ probably brings weird pictures to your mind. People being burned at the stake. Formal trials over ideas or doctrines. Arguments over things that seem antiquated or ridiculous. Those all probably feel buried somewhere in the dusty halls of history, so these verses may seem like an echo from a bygone time. However, Peter won’t allow us to relegate them to the past. He says false teachers have always threatened God’s revelation and will continue to be a threat.

"When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." -- Luke 14:12-14 (ESV)

Have you signed up yet for "Dinners for 8" or have gone to one? Have you a dinner planned with invited guests this summer or will you be an invitee to one? Well, this next parable about a planned dinner may give you some "food for thought" for your next dinner conversation.

He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ -- Luke 18:2-3 (ESV)

How high do your prayers go? Like day-old balloons they seem to float only as high as our energy and then sink again. When we feel this way repeatedly, we can be discouraged and wonder if it is even worth it to pray. It’s in these moments we need to learn from a needy woman and godless judge. Jesus tells us another confrontational and troubling tale about prayer in Luke 18 .

"The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." -- Matthew 16:8-9 (ESV)

We have all admired those stories about less than pure characters using only their brains to turn an impossible situation back to their advantage. Movies like The Sting, Ocean 11, and The Italian Job are modern stories like that. Jesus in Luke 16 uses a parable similar to those stories in an unusual way that teaches us some godly truths centered around a surprising character.