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| By Jastrow [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Prologue of the gospel of St. John from the Clementine Vulgate, |
I wanted to give a "heads-up" that you can also read each Gospel account separately on the Bible Book Club blog.
January 1 or December 21
BIBLE STORYTELLING
I am including links to 3-5 minute stories that I made that relate to these stories. They are great to tell everyone!
Prophet Bridge from Old to the New Testament
BACKGROUND
1. Luke's purpose in writing: Luke 1:1-4
If you click on "The Four Gospels" above, you can read background about Luke. Luke took the things orally handed down by eyewitnesses of Jesus and compiled them together after careful investigation and research of the life of Christ. We do not know who "Theophilus" was, but we know that his name means "lover of God" so maybe it was written for all of us who love Him!
2. God became a human: John 1:1-18
Matthew begins his gospel account with a genealogy connecting Jesus to David and Abraham. Mark starts out with the preaching of John the Baptist. Luke starts with a prediction of John the Baptist's birth. But John begins very differently from the other four gospels with a theological prologue.
He wastes no time in stating who Jesus was (and still is): The Word that was God from the beginning and became flesh so that we could behold His glory! This is so important. I recommend that you memorize John 1:1, 14 today!
The term "Word" in Greek is logos. It was used in Greek philosophical teaching as well as Jewish wisdom literature and philosophy. In Hebrew Scripture, the Word was an agent of creation (Psalm 33:6), the source of God's message to His people through the prophets (Hosea 1:2), and God's Law, the standard of holiness (Psalm 119:11). In the Greek world, it was the principle of reason that governed the world. Jesus was a human being, but He was also the creator God, the ultimate revelation of God, a living picture of God's holiness, and the promised One in which "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).
REFLECTION
I still have notes from that life-changing quiet time in 1982 when I meditated deeply in John 1:1-18 in the spare bedroom of my campus leader's home. Even though it was over 30 years ago (now over 40), the memory is still vivid in my mind. For the first time, the full import of this passage poured over me like a flood. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh (or "God in a bod")! He was life, light (contrasted with man's darkness), and the living Word! Until I grasped that, I had not grasped anything.
BIBLE STORYTELLING
I am including links to 3-5 minute stories that I made that relate to these stories. They are great to tell everyone!
Prophet Bridge from Old to the New Testament
1. Luke's purpose in writing: Luke 1:1-4
If you click on "The Four Gospels" above, you can read background about Luke. Luke took the things orally handed down by eyewitnesses of Jesus and compiled them together after careful investigation and research of the life of Christ. We do not know who "Theophilus" was, but we know that his name means "lover of God" so maybe it was written for all of us who love Him!
2. God became a human: John 1:1-18
Matthew begins his gospel account with a genealogy connecting Jesus to David and Abraham. Mark starts out with the preaching of John the Baptist. Luke starts with a prediction of John the Baptist's birth. But John begins very differently from the other four gospels with a theological prologue.
He wastes no time in stating who Jesus was (and still is): The Word that was God from the beginning and became flesh so that we could behold His glory! This is so important. I recommend that you memorize John 1:1, 14 today!
The term "Word" in Greek is logos. It was used in Greek philosophical teaching as well as Jewish wisdom literature and philosophy. In Hebrew Scripture, the Word was an agent of creation (Psalm 33:6), the source of God's message to His people through the prophets (Hosea 1:2), and God's Law, the standard of holiness (Psalm 119:11). In the Greek world, it was the principle of reason that governed the world. Jesus was a human being, but He was also the creator God, the ultimate revelation of God, a living picture of God's holiness, and the promised One in which "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).
REFLECTION
I still have notes from that life-changing quiet time in 1982 when I meditated deeply in John 1:1-18 in the spare bedroom of my campus leader's home. Even though it was over 30 years ago (now over 40), the memory is still vivid in my mind. For the first time, the full import of this passage poured over me like a flood. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh (or "God in a bod")! He was life, light (contrasted with man's darkness), and the living Word! Until I grasped that, I had not grasped anything.
Here is a step-by-step Lectio Divina in this passage.
I pray you can fully grasp it today.
APPLICATION
Scene 3 in the "Christmas" part of Handel's Messiah helps you better understand that Jesus is the light contrasted with man's darkness. It contains Scripture prophecy of the virgin birth and the light that would arise out of the darkness.
Listen to these movements as you meditate on the words. Here is a post from Messiah Meditations with the words from the songs in the Old Testament, music, and an explanation of the prophecies in the Old Testament.
He is truly GOD WITH US.
PRAYER
You are God in the flesh, Jesus. Thank You for coming to be our EMMANUEL.
I pray you can fully grasp it today.
APPLICATION
Scene 3 in the "Christmas" part of Handel's Messiah helps you better understand that Jesus is the light contrasted with man's darkness. It contains Scripture prophecy of the virgin birth and the light that would arise out of the darkness.
Listen to these movements as you meditate on the words. Here is a post from Messiah Meditations with the words from the songs in the Old Testament, music, and an explanation of the prophecies in the Old Testament.
He is truly GOD WITH US.
PRAYER
You are God in the flesh, Jesus. Thank You for coming to be our EMMANUEL.
Just read it for January 1, 2016! Oh how I love reading these words. I never get weary of reading through the Gospels every year!
ReplyDeleteJune/July 2023 Reading of Gospel Harmony. I prayed a Lectio Divina of John 1:1-14. "From the overflow of His fullness, we received grace heaped upon grace." I imagined what that looks like.
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