In the same letter that my relative wrote of the 'tablet' of the heart, they also asked if I might could pick out a random verse from Luke. Do they have any idea what they asked? That's like asking someone to go to the beach and pick just a single grain of sand. Or to pick just one leaf off a tree. I could have just picked a verse, any verse, I suppose but that's not what I did. I told my husband I was going to have to read the whole book of Luke to figure out what I wanted to share. I didn't wind up doing that but I did do some reading in Luke. I also discovered it was impossible to give just one verse and although I narrowed it down to two of my choosing and one of my husbands I could not, in the end, give just one passage. I am sure if I had actually read Luke all the way through again I would have had many more passages to share.
The first one I shared was Luke 12:15-20:
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
I recommended my relative keep reading after that because 'That whole passage is good." I didn't elaborate much on it there although I did so later.
"I told my husband you wanted me to give you a passage from Luke. He suggested Luke 11:11-13."
What father among you, if his son asks for[a] a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
I think this must be one of my husbands favorite verses. He uses it as the support for the evilness of people. If Romans 9 falls into my favor for the explanation of how some are predestined to reprobation then this one falls into my husbands favor on showing that all of mankind is evil.
This is where I began to elaborate in my letter. To explain. To point to the things that stand out to me.
"In those verses note how Jesus says 'you being evil'. He is speaking of the condition of all mankind before God. We are evil in His sight. It's only through being born again (by God's choosing us and giving us His salvation-you have not chosen me but I have chosen you)That we lose our evil condition before God).
In the first set of verses I gave you, I like them because they are a reminder that our life here is short, fleeting. Here and gone in what seems like an instant. Life is but a vapor. A flower quickly fading. Scripture tells us that yesterday is gone and we are not promised tomorrow. Today is all we have. The day and hour of our death is already appointed. God has given us so many moments on earth and no more. As Grandmother used to tell me, "When it's your time to die, it's your time to die. You can't change it. If you would have died in a car accident but you stay home that day an airplane will fall out of the sky and land on you." I used to be afraid of airplanes falling on me...
I also like Luke 10:21-22:
In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.[a] 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Ahh...so much said in only two short verses. The little children spoken of aren't kids but God's people-the called out ones. The 'you have not chosen me but I have chosen you' ones. And here we see that these things (Scripture, Christ, the story of God, His creation, His people, His plan) have been 'hidden' from 'the wise and understanding' or smart, educated people, and 'revealed' or shown to the 'little children'. Elsewhere Scripture talks of how earthly knowledge leads to death (hell) and Godly wisdom leads to Christ (heaven).
And now I've given you much more than you asked for. You wanted a verse from Luke. I gave you three and study notes too."
There is nothing special in any of what I wrote and there is everything special in what I wrote. I am not sharing it here because of any great revelation or because I was learning as I wrote, I am only sharing it because I already wrote it and it sounded like it would make a good blog post.
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