Luke 1:5–7

Luke 1:5-7 

English Standard Version 

  It's easy to look at some people and assume that everything is easy, that they don't have scars.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous people, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.  But they carried a deep wound, as they were aged and had no children.  This was a hard thing for them.

  It's a reminder for us that even the strongest Christians carry wounds, even if we cannot see them.  Our faith depends not on our strength, thankfully, but on the strength of Christ.  This is why the Apostle Paul was able to say that even in his weakness, he found strength.  He had wounds, just as Zechariah and Elizabeth did, just as you and I do, and he looked to Christ for his strength.

  God is at work in their lives, just as God is at work in our lives, despite our wounds and fears and weakness.  That is not an obstacle for God.

Luke 1:1-4

Luke 1:1-4 

English Standard Version 

  The Gospel of Luke was written by a companion of Paul who was a physician.  The Gospel of Luke emphasizes God's concern for the poor, the outcast, and the marginalized.  The role of women and the work of the Holy Spirit is emphasized throughout.  We start with the announcement of John the Baptist's birth and move forward.      

  It's easy to assume that earlier people were more likely to believe in magic.  We think of them as less scientific.  But just like us, they wanted to know the truth.  Luke didn't simply take everything he heard about Jesus for granted.  He investigated.  He interviewed.  He wanted to give Theophilus an accurate telling of the Gospel, so he found the eyewitnesses and recorded these things, that Theophilus might have certainty.  People were making life-altering decisions based on what Luke was writing, and Luke didn't want them to be uncertain as to the truth of the matter.  

  It reminds us that our lives of faith are not built on rumors or guesses, but on trustworthy eyewitness testimony.  This was tested.  All of Scripture has been tested.  We can have confidence just as early believers had confidence.  Remember that many of those early believers had a very real life or death decision to make, and based on the evidence, they chose something that led many of them to death.  They didn't choose this lightly, and that gives us comfort in knowing that the faith we share with those early believers was researched and built upon a strong foundation.

Ephesians 6:23–24

Ephesians 6:23-24 

English Standard Version 

  Paul begins the letter to the Ephesians by wishing them grace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Here we are, at the end, and Paul is wishing them... grace.  There is peace and love, but it's all rooted in grace.  When we bask in grace, we realize that we have been given a gift, one that we are not worthy to receive, and so it makes us grateful.  Gratitude binds us together, and the love we have for Christ and one another creates a true community.  Paul lays out his desires for that community in between, but our environment is bounded by grace, bordered with love, and within that, we are surrounded by God.  May we live gratefully in that environment, striving forward in unity, loving one another.

Ephesians 6:21–22

Ephesians 6:21-22 

English Standard Version 

 We do a lot on our own now.  Many of us are glued to a screen, living an independent life.  We are in isolation often, and true community is rare.

  Paul is reminding us how important it is.  Paul is sending Tychicus to encourage hearts.  Community matters.  We're not in this on our own.  

  So whose heart can you encourage today?  Who can you reach out to in love, that they may know how you are and you may know how they are.  Encourage one another, for that ties us together.

Ephesians 6:18-20

Ephesians 6:18-20 

English Standard Version 

  Here is the real key to it all -- it's not the weapons that make Paul successful, but it's the reality that it all hinges on prayer.  He is not the key to success, but rather the Holy Spirit at work in and through him.

  This is such a hard thing to remember.  We put such pressure on ourselves to get things perfectly correct, or we feel like we're not holding up our end of the bargain.  But God is at work in and through you.  God's power and wisdom are the keys to success, not your own.  Trust in God, and lean into the grace that surrounds you, day by day, for the words to speak and the actions to take.  God will never disappoint.

Ephesians 6:17

Ephesians 6:17 

English Standard Version 

  I still remember a knothole baseball game years ago where I took a pitch right in the earhole of my batting helmet.  I didn't feel a thing, as the ball wasn't thrown very hard and those helmets were pretty solid.  But it probably would have hurt quite a bit without that helmet.  

  Helmets protect the head, where the mind sits.  We need our minds to keep us cool and protected, especially in times of conflict when we are under attack.  We need to know how to use our swords, offensively and defensively, which in our case is Scripture.  How do we rely upon the Word of God for guidance?  If we rely on our own words and wisdom, we'll likely fall short.  But trusting in God... that is a battle plan to win the day.