Luke Day #1

From J.C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke

Christianity is a religion built upon facts. Let us never lose sight of this.

They made it their first business to tell men great plain facts. They went about telling a sin-laden world, that the Son of God had come down to earth, and lived for us, and died for us, and risen again. The Gospel, at its first publication, was far more simple than many make it now. It was neither more nor less than the history of Christ.

Let it be a settled principle with us in reading the Bible, that when we cannot understand a passage, or reconcile it with some other passage, the fault is not in the Book, but in ourselves.

Let us bless God, that we have a mighty Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Believing on Him, we may draw near to God with boldness, and look forward to the day of judgment without fear. When the mighty angels shall go forth to gather together God's elect, the elect will have no cause to be afraid. To them the angels are fellow-servants and friends. (Rev. 22:9.)

He who knows best the time for people to be born, knows also the time for them to be born again.

Grace is the principal portion that we should desire for our children.

Whatever we seek for our sons and daughters, let us first seek that they may have a place in the covenant, and a name in the book of life.

There is no greater mistake than to suppose that infants, by reason of their tender age, are incapable of being operated upon by the Holy Spirit. The manner of His work upon a little child's heart, is undoubtedly mysterious and incomprehensible. But so also are all His works upon the sons of men. Let us beware of limiting God's power and compassion.

Let us take heed that we give the Holy Spirit the same place in our personal religion, which we find Him occupying in God's word. Let us remember, that all that believers have, and are, and enjoy under the Gospel, they owe to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit. The work of each of the three Persons of the Trinity is equally and entirely needful to the salvation of every saved soul.

The ELECTION of God the Father, the REDEMPTION of God the Son, and the SANCTIFICATION of God the Spirit, ought never to be separated in our Christianity.

Faith never rests so calmly and peacefully as when it lays its head on the pillow of God's omnipotence.

Let us strive, every year we live, to become more deeply acquainted with Scripture. Let us study it, search into it, dig into it, meditate on it, until it dwell in us richly. (Colossians 3:16.) In particular, let us labor to make ourselves familiar with those parts of the Bible which, like the book of Psalms, describe the experience of the saints of old. We shall find it most helpful to us in all our approaches to God. It will supply us with the best and most suitable language both for the expression of our needs and thanksgivings. Such knowledge of the Bible can doubtless never be attained without regular, daily study. But the time spent on such study is never misspent. It will bear fruit after many days.

It is a true saying of an old divine, that "a man has just so much Christianity as he has humility." It is the grace, which of all is most suiting to human nature. Above all, it is the grace which is within the reach of every converted person. All are not rich. All are not learned. All are not highly gifted. All are not preachers. But all children of God may be clothed with humility.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible