Wednesday, April 6, 2011

New Beginnings

Today we begin Luke.  My Bible says that Luke was written sort of as a letter to a new convert.  That may be why I like it so much.  It was written to teach someone new to the faith, so it is easier to read.   Luke was a doctor, so he describes his observations carefully and from a caring point of view.  It seems that there is a lot of disagreement over when this book was written.  My Bible says anywhere from AD 50 to AD 80.

Luke begins with Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist.  He explains the appearance of Gabriel and the miracle birth.  Then he turns to Mary and her own miracle conception.  My bible mentions in a sidebar that we can guess Luke could not explain the conception of Jesus  in medical terms because he is vague.  He kind of says the Holy Spirit over shadowed Mary, causing her to be pregnant.  Basically, I guess, the Holy Spirit consumed her body and left behind the human form of God.

When I moved to the Old Testament, I read of the Israelites settling in Egypt.  Genesis 47 shows Joseph gathering great wealth for Pharoah during the famine to save the lives of the Egyptians.  This allows Joseph's family to settle and prosper, thus extending the lineage of Abraham.

I hope everyone is able to feel new beginnings somewhere in your lives today!

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