Introduction/orientation

Lydia and Peter:

Long distance relationships are simply tricky; there is no way around it. Long distance discipleship is even trickier, but with some creativity and determination, I think we can still get some good work done.

Luke's gospel is rich with detail because he was trained as a doctor, and understood the value of getting the details right. As a doctor, he understood that it was important to carefully mix medicines to get the right cure for a patient, and that skill helped him understand how important it was to carefully include some details that would help tell his story, while excluding others that might be interesting, but would probably amount to a distraction from his stories primary points.

Our temptation, then, is to read through a passage of the bible and render personal judgments about what part of the bible is important and what part is obscure or unimportant. If God decided to include a detail in his Word, however, then we have to conclude that there really isn't such a thing as an "obscure" detail in the bible or something "unimportant." Is everything in the bible equally important? No, I think there are things that deserve more study than others, but it is equally true that we dare not dismiss something as "unimportant." We're talking about God's word, not some book written by ordinary men.

I can appreciate how you might struggle to stay focused and pay attention, especially at an early hour. However, all I ask is that you give your best effort to pay close attention; I wouldn't pursue this if I was not absolutely convinced that this exercise is very important for us all. I understand the temptation to glaze over Mary's song in Luke 1:46, but at times like this, we need to ask ourselves, "why did God include this in his word? What does he want me to teach him about himself through this passage?"

Over the next week or so, we're going to read through chapter 1, and carefully study what Luke carefully wrote so that we would have good understanding about the events that preceded the birth of Jesus. Without these preceding events, one can't fully understand the significance of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

I will pose questions and expect you to reply back by way of the comments button.

To Micah, Gretchen, and Colette: you're welcome to read along too and post comments as well, but I am primarily addressing this forum for Lydia and Peter, for my own private reasons. Don't worry, I will be doing this with you as well in the near future, but for this present season, I am focusing on Lydia and Peter for now.

I love you all tremendously.