Tagged: Luke
The Intensity of God’s Intentions
Please read Luke 1. Link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201&version=NIV
I remember, when I was a boy, using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight into a dot of light on a dry leaf. In just a matter of seconds, smoke began to curl up from the leaf and the charred edges of a hole spread away from the dot of sunlight.
One day, God’s intention to keep His promises concentrated on a young woman in Israel.
No wonder Mary was greatly troubled.
God’s intentions ignited quickly into a plan:
“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
The intensity of God’s intention to accomplish His Death-to-Life Project remains undiminished. In fact, it has concentrated on the little boy developing in the womb of young Mary.
A Gospel Turn
10 BC
Trampled politically and culturally – that is Israel.
Four hundred years after some Jews returned to Jerusalem from exile, Israel is a valuable piece of real estate but an insignificant nation. However, a new chapter of The Big Story is opening in Israel. The first four books of The New Testament lead us into that chapter.
The writer of Luke sets out “to write an orderly account” of “the things that have been fulfilled among us.”
Matthew begins with a genealogy to introduce us to a messiah, or anointed one – one who is “the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
The book of John opens with a mind-bending declaration:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. . . .
Then,
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
And Mark simply, clearly introduces this next chapter in The Big Story:
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah.
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