'Luke' Tagged Posts (Page 2)

I remember witnessing my first baptism in Ghana, West Africa. We were all gathered behind the Effiakuma church building where there was a small tank of water. A brother stood outside the tank with a lady and was instructing her about the responsibilities of becoming a Christian (I had to ask since I don’t speak Twi). Before he finished, his voice was raised and he was giving great emphasis to what he was saying. Even though I didn’t understand a…

Because God dealt with a few people directly regarding their sins, many in the Bible believed that personal distress or calamity was always the result of God’s disfavor with an individual. Job’s friends certainly believed this, as Eliphaz first words of “comfort” were to tell Job what a horrible sinner he was by asking, “whoever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen that those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap…

“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). Often, biblical texts wherein the wealthy are condemned are often misconstrued and misunderstood as condemnation for being wealthy, but this is never the case. Many of the Bible’s great characters were men of incredible wealth: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, David, Solomon, etc. The rich but foolish farmer in today’s text is a good case study. The problem was…

So goes the song that is often taught to our small children but that adults would do well to relearn and remember. Jesus said, “the lamp of the body is the eye” (Luke 11:34). This statement is first recorded in the Sermon on the Mount (cf Matt 6:22-23). In that specific context, Jesus warned against the inordinate desire for money and this world’s goods. We know this because in the three preceding verses Jesus admonished us to pursue everlasting heavenly…

Life is filled with choices. The vast majority of these are in the realm of the mundane: What pants or shirt am I going to wear? Will I have a burger or chicken fingers? Plain or peanut M&Ms? Or neither… I’ll have a Snickers bar! Some choices are between what is right and wrong, between good and evil. Will I keep this gossip to myself, or will I give it wings? The cashier gave me too much change. Will I…

When I was a teenager working on the farm, I remember the first time I was allowed to drive the tractor in the field by myself. And “by myself” I mean with no one else in the tractor with me. My job was not difficult. It took 4 tractors to plant soybeans in those days: two discs, a do all, and a planter. I had the easiest job – the first disc through the field. Our fields were square at…

I am an avid gardener and have been for many years. Like most gardeners, I know exactly what vegetables I want, and I know exactly which variety of those vegetables I want. For example, when it comes to sweet corn, I am strictly a Bodacious grower. With indeterminate tomatoes, give me Atkinson. When it comes to peas, nothing but Mississippi Pink Eye #2 Purple Hull will do. I also grow varieties of okra, different types of peppers, squash, cucumber watermelon, cantaloupe,…

“And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John” (Luke 7:29). I have found this to be a most intriguing and helpful phrase. How exactly does one “justify God?” Just a couple of scholarly explanations and I’ll get to the main point of this article… “They considered God righteous in making these demands of them” – A.T. Robertson. “Declaring… that God’s will concerning John’s baptism was right” –…

One mistake that is often made is to teach truth using a text that seems to support the point, but in its context really doesn’t. For example, all my life I heard Psalm 111:9 used as a proof text not to refer to men as “Reverend.” The argument was that the only time that term was used in the Bible (we all used the KJV) was in Psalm 111:9, and there it was used in respect to the name of…

I remember hearing this from a friend of mine concerning another friend of mine when I was in the 5thor 6thgrade. My “uncool” friend was over to spend the night with me, and we gathered for some basketball with some other guys, all friends of mine, but guys who ran in a different circle than my other friend. I remember being hurt over that statement. I loved my friend (and still do 40 years later though we are not as…