Luke 9-12

Here we are in the middle of Luke’s Gospel and I have not offered you an outline of the book! Well, here is an outline from I. Howard Marshall’s commentary….

Preface 1:1-4
The Birth and Childhood of Jesus 1:5-2:52
John the Baptist and Jesus 3:1-4:13
The Ministry in Galilee 4:14-9:50
Progress towards Jerusalem 9:51-19:10
The Ministry in Jerusalem 19:11-21:38
The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus 22:1-24:53

There is so much in this section of Luke, whole books could and have been written about the material here. However, there are a couple of verses I especially underlined from today’s reading. One was Luke 11:9 where Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” This suggests to me that God cares about those things that are important to us. God wants us to share with him those things that are of concern to us. One thing to note though, is that the verbs in this verse indicate a present and continuing action: ask and keep on asking, search and keep on searching, knock and keep on knocking. If we are persistent in prayer, in our search for God, persistent in knocking on doors until we find the open one that God wants us to go through, we will have our prayers answered, our search rewarded, the open door provided, in the end. It may take a while. In some cases, it may take a lifetime. However, we will reach the goal God has for us.

The reason I think this is true is simply because God loves us, all of us, whoever we are, wherever we are, whatever we have done or not done. As Jesus says in Luke 12:6-7, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Got that? You are known by God…intimately. You are valued by God…deeply. You are treasured by God…immensely. Because that is true, though God may seem hidden from you at present, God will not always remain so. God will reveal himself to you and bring your life to the full fruition that he intended when he created you and redeemed you through Christ.

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