Luke 1 ~ Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

 

Luke 1

1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us

Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us

It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 

that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.


5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. 

And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.  And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 

according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 

13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 

19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 

And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 

21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they wondered at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God 

to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, 

of the house of David. 

And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, 

“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 3

0 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 

And  He will Reign 

over the house of Jacob forever, 

and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. 

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed; 49
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.



Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 

And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 

And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” 

And they all wondered. 

64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.

And fear came on all their neighbors. 

And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?”

For the hand of the Lord was with him.


67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;

To show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,  in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,

Because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Bringing the first sentence of Luke's Gospel of Jesus Christ to us through the sweep of time.

Revelation 14:6

I saw another angel flying in midair, 

and he had the Eternal Gospel to Proclaim 

to those who live on the earth

--to every nation, tribe, language and people.

We know Jesus followers called Christians in the Book of Acts were persecuted in Rome within 16 years of Jesus being crucified and Resurrected. 

We know the Temple persecuted the followers as soon as multitudes when home and only daily thousands remained, making the letters of the Rabbis' showing outrage for the continued daily miracles in the Highest Name of Jesus.

Josephus tells us multitudes would be around 1.5 million to 2 million believers Jesus brought together as the multitude.

What Are These Narratives Luke Speaks Of?

We can read many authors claiming to be Lost Books of the Bible and suddenly Jesus does something so un-Jesus, you know and know and know this Lost Book of the Bible is fable. One Lost Book of the Bible has Jesus make mud, clay pigeons fly and immediately sets fire to His fellow children in the Village. Not Jesus. Not God. Not Holy Spirit. Not Bible. Not Word of God.

Luke is Not Telling us of Lost Books of the Bible.

Didache Greek: Διδαχή or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 

Go back, look at the Church Histories of the early 1st Century -  to the beginning of the 2nd - Find Cohesion on 27 books of the New Testament. These are the Proclaimed Good News of the Church of Jesus Christ.  The Church in Alexandria, home to the world's most famous library is the rare Church outside accepting more than the 27 books. The message of Jesus Christ standings strong.

In fact, the first article coordinating this is the Didache Greek: Διδαχή  

or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 

A brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the mid to late first century. The first line of this treatise is "Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles (or Nations) by the Twelve Apostles".

The text has three main sections dealing with Christian ethics

 Rituals such as Baptism and Eucharist

And Church organization. 

Didache Greek: Διδαχή  

or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 

Is considered the first example of the Church Orders.

However, The Didache is second-generation Christian writings

Compiled what the Church should believe, following most closely 

The First Generation Christian Writings is the Gospel of Matthew because Jews converting to Christianity happened the most at first.

Like today, the news and events of the First Century world - seemed uncertain.

People were especially looking for a belief system with solace and direction for "bad events" happening around them. Death and trouble could erupt at any time.

Never before was God the Father shown to be a Father 

~ Civilized, kind, and a gentle way of looking at the world. 

God our Father offered a promise of salvation and forgiveness. Father God, who could be found, One who would run to His Child. Not one that had to be appeased or sacrificed to. No other religion or belief system has offered this type of special support for beliefs or personal salvation. 

Did this make a vast left turn? God never, ever asked for Child Sacrifice. In fact, God asked His Children to be separate from Child Sacrifice.

Jesus Christ was readily accepted by many wherever His mercy was taught. 

Letters tell of the miracles resulting in belief. Changing lives and the world.

Paul and the Twelve Apostles traveled extensively establishing Jesus Christ in major cities throughout the Empire. The first Christian communities outside of Jerusalem appeared in Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and the political center of Rome. The Church would begin to draw city states from behind their walls.  The original Church communities were founded by apostles and numerous other Christians, soldiers, merchants, and preachers in northern Africa, Asia Minor, Arabia, Greece, and other places.

Paul was Responsible 

Paul was bringing the Christianity to Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica.

 By the end of the 1st century, Christianity had already spread to Rome and Greece, Asia Minor and Syria. Long past the life of Paul, major cities of Rome, Ephesus, Antioch and Corinth served as foundations for the expansive spread of Christianity in the post-apostolic period. 

Why? Due to its Love shown in civilized, kind, and gentle ways, Christianity spread very quickly throughout Asia Minor.

Thesseloniki Church of David - House Church - 4th Century A.D.

An actual House Church of The Book of Acts, found working Today.

We know from John's Gospel Chapter 16, Jesus came to this life with Joy. 

We wonder if Jesus laughed. There is no question. Joy is filled with only Joy and Love. 

Numbers 6 says God Lifts His Countenance. Shines. God is Smiling.

God still sees this troubled planet as His Creation - good - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

We look with anticipation ~ Christmas Lights! 

Believing the Light in all mankind is Shining.

We are welcoming Christmas! 

 The same as Jesus, welcoming His time with us as Grace upon Grace. The Light shines in the darkness and the Light is not overcome.

Abba, Father God,

By You all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

All things were created by You and for You.

What are we, that You are mindful of us, 

mankind for millenniums that You care for us?

You made Jesus and made Him a little lower than the angels; You crowned Jesus with glory and honor and put everything under His feet. Now crowned with glory and honor because Jesus suffered death, and in His Grace, Jesus might taste death for everyone.

Jesus brings many sons to glory. 

For Jesus is come to our Father's glory with His angels, 

and He will reward each person according to what he has done.

But Not Today:

Jesus Christ will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. We will see with our own eyes, God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him. The city of the living God. 

Today:

We are praying for Dee and Wayne. Like Hebrews 11. For 20 years, we have seen Wayne donate 40 hours a week to Church Office difficult and demanding work for Volunteer Time. Wayne's Gracious Gift. We have seen Dee run Altar Guild. Bible Study and Daughter's of the Cross.  We have seen Dee study St. Stephen's Ministry, work Pro-Life and take Amazing Father Francis and Judith MacNutt Prayer  Ministry Class. And in this Ministry Class we prayed and found our group alone prayed for a 2nd time mouth cancer patient, who graciously accepted prayer for the first time and arrived at surgery to find no oral cancer. Healed. Completely. We prayed for an 89-year-old Priest to stay forever in bed dying of heart failure, who got up and began to go 2 miles a day in exercise and make trips to Texas and the grocery store. We prayed Hurricane Ike wouldn't crush our houses with trees and found this last summer, our answered prayers held as I lost a Magnolia without damage and Dee lost her two huge Oaks without damage. Hurricane Ike saw a tornado in our backyard, trees flung East, South and West and didn't damage our home. Our friend lost the stairs to her home's garage apartment and no damage to their home. 

We prayed over knitted blankets and heard the comfort and healing the hospital patients found in the Lord Jesus and in our group's prayers. We prayed for Elliott to live and Elliott found remission, we pray for total healing. Jesus heard us pray twice for financial restitution and found this 3 times. We prayed for Wayne to survive a botched pacemaker and he did. Jesus heard us pray for Wayne to survive his trauma for the hip operation and Wayne did well. Jesus heard us pray for Wayne's sudden bleeding eye and Jesus healed Wayne. Dee had a no big deal nose skin cancer and literally had half of her nose shaved off two summers ago like a skeleton. Dee's next two surgeries Jesus heard us all pray again 

and Jesus restored Dee's nose to a hundred percent of normal.

Jesus has been hearing us pray in Amazing and Wondrous Ways. We ask Jesus today for Wayne to be healed of the Covid he tested Positive for. Dee is coughing up a storm and we pray for her Healing as well. We ask Jesus to allow Dee and Wayne to heal from this as easily as we have seen all His Prayers answered. 

Lord Jesus please heal, love, forgive, and heal them all

 in Your Love and Mercy. Amen.

We lift up Jesus to all His Glory

and ask for Elliott to be completely healed.

In the same way, I tell you, 

there is 

Rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God 

over each one of us in God's Love.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among

 those with whom He is pleased!”

Father God, help us to do the Good Works You have prepared us to walk in. 

For the ones we Love and the People You have given us. 

For our Churches, places of work, our states and Nation. 

The People who are Your Beloved, to ALL

cover them with Your Name in strength and mercy. 

We live abundantly on the Word of God, You have provided.

We Pray for the Republic.

We the People all have Family and Loved Ones 

we have fought and lived and died

for our Freedoms.

We the People pray for the Election not to be allowed to be feared to be dishonest.

We pray for the signatures and times to be valid.

We pray for the observations to be valid and up close and bipartisan.

We pray for the Legislature Laws of this Nation to be Upheld

and not rigged with pandemic miseries.

One Nation Under God

with

Liberty and Justice for All.

We pray for Truth.

Knowing in the Truth is where Peace and Integrity 

with Love and Courtesy Dwell.

Jesus, please dwell in us.

Jesus, please dwell in those we Love.

Favor our Nation, dwell in us. Please.

We ask to know to seek You first in all aspects of Life.

Knowing we will see and be more of Heaven on earth.

We ask the Vaccine to be delivered smoothly 

and THANK GOD 

for the Vaccine.

  

 Proverbs 16:9 

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, 

plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

James 4:13-15 

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. 

What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Isaiah 40:31 

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; 

they shall walk and not faint.

Abba, Father God,

You have told us to always pray with Hope.

Revelation 1:6 

 Made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father

--to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! 

Amen.

Jesus help us in this Nation to be in Your Word and see more Joy.

Covered in God's Love,

President Donald Trump, the First Lady and Their Family

Vice President Mike Pence, the Second Lady and Their Family.
All of Our Families.

The Presidential Team.

Dr. Robert Redfield, Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci

Governor Abbott and all 50 Governors and Legislatures.

Senator Tim Scott

The end of Trouble.

Help this Virus end quickly, safely

We rest in the Hands of Our Good Father.

In Jesus Christ. Amen.

Poodle Puppies and our dry ice fun.

John 21:25

Jesus did many other things as well. 

If every one of them were written down, 

I suppose that even the whole world 

would not have room for the books that would be written.

 In Jesus. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †  

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