LUKE 19 I don't know about you but I think all too often we look at the story of Zacchaeus like a children's bible story with a cute song, "Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he" But I can really relate to Zacchaeus. Not just because we are both short and we can't see in large crowds. But because I know what it feels like to be a lost sinner that se...

Luke 15 Today's reading is one of the most beloved chapters in the Bible. It contains three parables, each answering the same objection from Jesus' opposition. Interpreting Parables Because these are parables, we should heed a few guidelines for interpreting parables: Focus on the main point, not every little detail. A parable is a story told to make a point -- so ...

Luke 14 As I finished reading Luke 14, I felt that I needed to focus my mind on Luke 14:25-33 (some bible translations reference this section as The Cost of Discipleship). Jesus was speaking to the multitudes (or great crowds) when He explained what it meant to follow Him: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and bro...

Luke 13 When Jesus speaks, we all should listen. As Peter said in John 6, "To whom else would we go? You have the words of eternal life." Here Jesus continues to give life-giving words to his listeners. He speaks about the value of the smallest bit of our faith (a mustard seed, a bit of leaven) and how God can use that to make much (a towering tree, 3/4 of a bushel of ...

LUKE 12 22 And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your lifewhat you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you th...

Luke 10 The verse that we will focus on today from Luke 10 is very well known... 27And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." BUT ... Who IS my neighbor?? And what does that mean to me? Instead of trying to answer this myself, I give y...

Luke 9 As I read through Luke 9, I realize there are many short stories and conversation narratives that I would consider myself familiar with. There's the feeding of the five thousand in versus 10-17 and Jesus healing the epileptic boy in versus 37-43. There's the lesson on what it means to be "great" in verses 46-48. We read about the cost of following Jesus in verse ...

Luke 3 In this chapter, we see the humility of John. This I love about him. He demonstrates what it means to be a servant of God and particularly a servant of Jesus. He knows what truth is he speaks it boldly to the people who flock to hear this strange wild-looking, wild-living man in the wilderness. It reminds me of a book about reaching people I cracked a few months...

LUKE 2 How human was Jesus? If you've spent much of any time in church circles, you know the correct answer to this question. Jesus was fully God and fully man. We know the words we're supposed to say, but in practice I don't feel like we often know how to balance the divinity and humanity of God. When did Jesus known He was God? Did Jesus always know everything? ...

Luke 1 I am really enjoying our reading plan. I especially like that the plan has us reading a different Gospel every season. Winter was Mark's Gospel, Spring was the Gospel according to Matthew, Fall will be the Gospel of John and Summer (beginning today) is Luke. The four Gospels are all biographies of the life of Jesus written in the first century either by eye witn...