Hello Pastor Dave.
IN Colossians - Chapter 4:14 it tells us that Luke was a physician. Although the doctors of that day would not have been like they are now. They probably had to rely on natural pain persons, medicines, philosophy and psychology.
I don't suppose medicine is mentioned much at all in the Bible because it's irrelevant when Jesus is healing. In fact feasting is mentioned as more of an importance to people's general spiritual well being and to mark events. So, in that context Luke must have felt a little inadequate, but fascinated by how Jesus gives people back their lives. He must have been witnessing miracle upon miracle at worship meetings as lives turned around. It's little wonder that early Christianity spread quickly and that there are more Christian's alive in the world today than there has been in the whole of history.
I suppose deep down it's something all men know, but don't want to hear as examination of one's soul is uncomfortable. We are all sinners in varying degrees, but compared to God's glory and the distance we fall away from it, the actual depth of the sinning is irrelevant really. Although to the individual the sins feel unique and sometimes unforgivable. Once it has all been wiped away by Christ's salvation it is gone for good and we can start a fresh in Him. ( 'born again', a term which is truth to all new Christians )
I don't think that people consider the wider implication of collecting sacred scripts together, even the O-T is a compilation of Holy Scrolls from different times, blessed hands and places. Many people don't even realise that there are thousands of years between some of the older O-T texts and the later ones, and that it is over 2,000 years since Jesus was born. I have discovered that even Muslims don't realise that the Moses they speak of in the Koran wrote of God 2,200+ years before Mohammed was even born, and so ignore the fact that Mohammed could only have learned of Moses from hearing verses of The Jewish Bible recited off by heart.
Sometimes in the desperate attempt to prove or disprove The Bible people miss the obvious things such as the range of language, distance, the different books, outside evidence, that there were dedicated historians around. They forget that The Bible is precious for the lives lost to keep it so, and to translate it, the experiences endured by the prophets, mbutt suffering and the lessons learned for the whole of humanity. They don't see things such as the Proverbs and Psalms being freely available in the courts of kings via the trading routes, thousands of years before Jesus' birth.
I see a people's who could have been a bitter crowd after an unjust captivity, but God wanted them to glorify Him and teach the world how to rise above all others in His righteousness. I see a wisdom that surpbuttes all other wisdoms written in a language of all times, for all people. I see salvation born out of an extreme love which went to extreme ends for all men who accept it.
It is quite simply a beautiful book lovingly kept in obedience and reverence to the Lord God Almighty. It is also a tool for our very existence, a speaking spiritual guide book through life's joys, trials and tribulation. It is The Word of God.
In Christ's love Carol T
