Read With Me: The Gospel of Luke

Do you have plans for Advent? Do you have reading plans for the month of December? Would you like a daily reminder of the reason for the season? I invite you to join me this December in reading the Gospel of Luke. You may use ANY translation. You may read one chapter a day, December 1 through December 24. OR. You may read several chapters a day and have a few days you skip.

Why Luke?! Well. Some advent readings focus on the Old Testament, OR, perhaps on the nativity of Christ. I wanted to focus on the WHOLE story. I wanted the nativity, but, I wanted the teachings, the miracles too. I especially wanted passion week. I think the BEST Christmas songs, the best Christmas sermons, touch just as much upon the cross, upon the resurrection, as they do the manger. He was a child born with one purpose, one mission. He came to SAVE US FROM OUR SINS; He was born to be a deliverer.

I also thought it was a great choice because it is exactly 24 chapters long!!! Every one reads at a different pace, but allow for ten to fifteen minutes a day. The two longest chapters are Luke 1 and Luke 22. My audio bible has Luke 1 at a little over ten minutes in length; Luke 22 is almost nine minutes long.

The whole of Christ's life was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha, where he was crucified, even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as the cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of one and the same day. From the creche to the cross is an inseparable line. Christmas only points forward to Good Friday and Easter. It can have no meaning apart from that, where the Son of God displayed his glory by his death. ~ John Donne

Men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus — unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus — are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season; but they will soon fall away and return to the world. ~ J.C. Ryle, Holiness

There is no unpardonable sin for those who come to Christ for forgiveness. For those who refuse Him, all sins are unpardonable. (Erwin Lutzer, Cries from the Cross, 46)

He that hung upon the cross was the Maker of all worlds. He that came as an infant, for our sake, was the Infinite. How low he stooped! How high he must have been that he could stoop so low! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Simplicity and Sublimity of Salvation."

Keep before your mind, as an ever-present truth, that the Lord Jesus is an actual living Person, and deal with Him as such. I am afraid that many who profess Christ in our day have lost sight of our Lord's person. They talk more about salvation — than about their only Savior, and more about redemption — than the one true Redeemer, and more about Christ's work — than Christ Himself. This is a great fault — one that accounts for the dry and shriveled spirit that infuses the religious lives of many who profess faith. As ever you would grow in grace, and have joy and peace in believing — beware of falling into this error. Cease to regard the Gospel as a mere collection of dry doctrines. Look at it rather as the revelation of a mighty living Being in whose sight you are daily to live. Cease to regard it as a mere set of abstract propositions and abstruse principles and rules. Look at it as the introduction to a glorious personal Friend. This is the kind of Gospel that the apostles preached. They did not go about the world telling men of love and mercy and pardon in the abstract. The leading subject of all their sermons, was the loving heart of an actual living Christ. This is the kind of Gospel which is most calculated to promote sanctification and fitness for glory. Nothing, surely, is so likely to prepare us for that Heaven where Christ's personal presence will be all, and that glory where we shall meet Christ face to face, as to realize communion with Christ, as an actual living Person here on earth. There is all the difference in the world, between an idea and a person. ~ J.C. Ryle, Holiness

We Are The Reason, David Meece,

As little children we would dream of Christmas morn

Of all the gifts and toys we knew we'd find

But we never realized a baby born one blessed night

Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

We are the reason that He gave His life

We are the reason that He suffered and died

To a world that was lost He gave all He could give

To show us the reason to live

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible