Tag: Luke

Hard Words

Re:Verse reading–Luke 4:14-30 (day six)

And he added, “I tell you the truth…” Luke 4:24

I need hard words from Jesus, often. I need the chisel of his word to chip away the hardness of my heart. I need the two-edged-swordness of his word to cut between the bone and marrow. In his graciousness, Jesus doesn’t say the things we want to hear, but those things we are desperate to hear, the kind of words that are meant to lead us to repentance.

Paul, when writing to Timothy, told him that there would be a day when people would gather around them “ear ticklers.” (2 Tim. 4:3) Truth is our ears don’t need ear ticklers for our ears to be tickled; we tend to tickle our own ears just fine, all we have to do is avoid the chisel and sword of God’s Word.

This year 2018, more than ever, open his Word, read it, need it. Embrace his hard words, don’t avoid them.

A Call to Read

Re:Verse reading–Luke 1:1-38 (day six)

Luke makes his purpose clear for writing this Gospel, “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:4)

Luke was convinced (by the Holy Spirit) that an orderly and historical presentation of eyewitness testimony would strengthen Theophilus’ faith in the Gospel truths he had been taught. What was true for Theophilus is also true of us. Certainty of God’s truth does not come from without, but from within God’s Word. This is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a book that we can hold in our hands, and testimony we can read with our mind, and by the Spirit, affirm in our heart. The Spirit illuminates truth, and He has chosen to do so through words written on a page originally written by men who either were apostles or walked with them.

Do you ever wrestle with doubt and uncertainty? Follow Luke’s advice, don’t run from the Bible, run to it.