Luke 1:1-4 (CEV)
1 Many people have tried to tell the story of what God has done among us. 2 They wrote what we had been told by the ones who were there in the beginning and saw what happened. 3 So I made a careful study of everything and then decided to write and tell you exactly what took place. Honorable Theophilus, 4 I have done this to let you know the truth about what you have heard.
How Do You Decide Whether Something Is Trustworthy To Listen To Or Not?
Deciding whether to trust something or not is a tricky thing. Sometimes it comes down to authority – does the source of the information have the right credentials to be allowed to say this. (An oncologist, for example, giving a diagnosis of cancer.) Sometimes its about relationship – do I have a relationship with the person who is telling me this information. (I’m going to trust my husband’s opinion of how I’m doing as a mom, for example, more than a random individual I meet on the street.) And sometimes nothing beats experience – have I experienced these things to be true in my own life? (I know I am physically capable of completing a triathlon because I’ve actually done it … three times!)
As each of us approaches the book of Luke we are going to have times when we simply have to start by accepting that there is something authoritative to this book. It’s been checked by Christians for close to 2000 years, and hasn’t yet been cut from the Bible. But as it challenges us to rethink who we are and how we live and how we think about Jesus and understand God, my hope is that you can add to it’s authoritative claims a deepening relationship with Jesus that increases your trust, as well as a growing set of experiences that you can look back on when you stepped out and trusted Jesus – taking Him at His word – and found that He was faithful to follow through.
The Plan
The plan is pretty simple. We’re going to work our way through Luke a few verses at a time. If you decide you want to be a part of this process, I’m going to send you an email that looks pretty similar to this each day. I may fill in some basic details or point out something I found interesting in the passage each day. I’m going to ask you some questions, which you might want to write down the answers for in a journal or on a digital device. From time to time there will be an optional activity or exercise included that you can use if you want to ‘go deeper’ into the text, and the bravest of us might even have opportunities to share what we’re learning with each other from time to time.
The first question is simple: will you join us?
