Observations from the Doctor, Day 29 Are we being a witness? Read Luke 24:13-53. As we read these verses, Jesus has been raised from the dead, but his disciples have yet to believe or to really understand it. Jesus appears to them. Jesus performs miracles in their sight. Then, they see and believe. As this book comes to a close, we see the incredible witness that they have. This book ends setting the stage for what will be the tremendous explosion of the gospel. These men lived with Jesus, traveled with Jesus, and walked with Jesus for years. Now the disciples were moving from the place where they were simply…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 28 That can’t be true. Read Luke 24:1-12. I remember in high school, we had a friend who would believe anything anyone told her. We also came up with the most far-fetched tales and she would completely believe all of us. We would talk about how gullible she was, compared to the rest of us skeptics. We see this scenario playing out in these first few verses of chapter 24. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He is alive and no one can believe it. The women have been down at the tomb and they have been confronted with the truth of this. They…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 27 Are you getting what you deserve? Reach Luke chapter 23. Most of us complain about wanting to receive what we feel we deserve. We want to get the good things in life that we feel like we have earned. Yet, if we really are honest with ourselves, do we want what we truly deserve? When we consider all the wrongs that we have done and the mistakes, do we really want what we are deserving of? We can get a mistaken impression that we should be held accountable based on our intentions, not on our actual actions. Yet, we hold others accountable based on…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 26 Second chances. Read Luke chapter 22. Reading through Luke chapter 22 is a reminder of the last night Jesus spent before he was crucified. He celebrates the Passover with his disciples as a reminder of the promise and a very poignant example of exactly why Jesus was there in the first place. He goes out and he prays fervently and desperately, begging his disciples to pray with him, but finding that they were too tired and lacked the strength. And then, we see his arrest and mockery of a trial. While so many verses in the chapter stand out to me (and we could…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 24 Authority. Read Luke chapter 20. When it comes to understanding Jesus, we have to understand his authority. You see, he was completely God while also being completely human. So while he walked this Earth, he still walked the Earth with the authority. We saw glimpses of this when we read about Jesus as a boy in the temple back in one of the early chapters of Luke. Here we see and understand it to its fullest extent. Throughout this entire chapter, we see the interplay between the authority of Jesus and the authority of the religious leaders and the rulers of the day. The…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 23 What does it mean to be worthy of worship? Read Luke chapter 19. I grew up singing an old hymn called “Worthy of Worship.” It was a really neat song that talked about the incredibleness of God and how he was worthy of our praise and worship. The lyrics are: “Worthy of worship, worthy of praise. Worthy of honor and glory. Worthy of all the glad songs we can sing. Worthy of all the offerings we bring. You are worthy, Father, Creator. You are worthy, Savior, Sustainer. You are worthy, worthy and wonderful. Worthy of worship and praise.” This incredible song is exactly what…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 22 Persistent Humility. Read Luke chapter 18. As I read through Luke, chapter 18, these 2 words stand out. The stories and parables and lessons that Jesus teaches us about and that Luke shares in this chapter, they can be summed up in those two words: persistence and humility. The question becomes, how do those 2 go together? We can look at the examples of persistence in the chapter and think, “Wow, they were so bold and so arrogant is to think that they would be helped.” They were persistent in calling out to the Lord. Then we see the examples of the importance of…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 21 What do we value? Read Luke 17:20-37. As we read through this second half of the chapter, we get a picture of what the coming of the kingdom of God will look like. It’s interesting to see how many people talk about the coming of the kingdom of God, but are not actually wanting to see the kingdom of God come. Do we focus on the importance of our priorities? If we are a follower of Jesus Christ, there is nothing better for us than to see him face-to-face and for him to return. However, we haven’t seen with heaven looks like, so it’s…

Observations from the Doctor, Day 20 As… such a tiny word with huge implications. Read Luke 17:1-19. Reading through the first half of Luke chapter 19, we see more discussion about faith. What does that mean to truly have faith? And how do we live out faith? We see this demonstrated very clearly in this story of the ten lepers. Ten people afflicted with this horrible disease sought out Jesus and asked him to heal them. Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priest. Now in that day and time, they would have known that you only did that once you had been cleansed from your leprosy. Then,…