Week 7- parts of Luke 8
Do you remember way back when, when we started? I said we would be using the book of Luke for our study, but since the Sermon on the Mount was covered in more detail in Matthew, I decided to go there for that portion of Jesus’ teachings.
Now we go back to Luke to continue on. Jesus spoke many times, sometimes to His disciples and sometimes to the crowd, or the Pharisees or others. I don’t want to make the study a long one, so we will limit our studying of Jesus’ teachings to those times He was talking to the disciples.
So here are the passages we will be studying for the next few weeks (just
in case you want to read ahead):
Luke 8:4-18 Luke 8:22-25 Luke 9:1-6
Luke 9:18-27 Luke 10:1-24 Luke 10:25-37
Luke 11:1-13 Luke 12:22-34 Luke 12:35-49
Luke 14:25-33 Luke 16:1-13 Luke 17:1-10
Luke 18:1-14 Luke 22:1-38
Today let us talk about those versus in Luke 8.
Luke 8:4-18
The story of a farmer who sowed some seeds. The farmer sowed the seeds and
some didn’t fall where he expected – 1) some on the road (tramped
on and died), 2) some on the gravel beside the road (sprouted but died),
3) some in the weeds (where they were overrun by the weeds) and 4) some
in the farm field (which grew and produced a great crop). Isn’t it
a great story? How many of you get it? Jesus’ disciples didn’t.
They asked for an explanation and Jesus proceeds to explain it. So Jesus
shares the following explanation on how people will respond to God’s
Word: 1) the road - they fall on deaf ears – they heard but don’t
understand or take action to acknowledge it 2) the gravel – we hear
and are enthusiastic until we are distracted and forget; 3) the weeds –
we hear but the world gets in our way (making money, having fun, etc); 4)
the good soil – finds God’s love and seeks to understand God’s
purpose, becoming a disciple and growing in the knowledge and acceptance
of God’s unconditional love and the Spirit’s guidance.
SO – how do you feel about this parable? Which of the 4 options is where you are? If you are a disciple – do you have a mentor? Mentor – what do I mean by that? Well, Jesus was the mentor of His disciples, it seems only right that we too need mentors – you know someone more experienced that can help us along? So do you have a mentor? Do you want a mentor is another good question that we each should ask ourselves.
Luke 8:22-25
Here we have everyone in a boat crossing over a body of water. Jesus is
tired so he falls to sleep. Unfortunately a storm develops and everyone
is worried that they will sink. Hey – why is Jesus still asleep? So
they wake Him and say “we are sinking!” So Jesus gets up, quiets
the storm and goes back to sleep. What happened here? Well, Jesus told them
they were going to the other side, but the world’s “happenings”
got in the way and the disciples forgot that Jesus said – we are going
to the other side. They lost faith site of the path of God.
How many of us lose site of God and God’s promise of unconditional love for us? How many of us let all that is happening around us distract us from God?
I don’t know about all of you, but I had the world try to distract me the last 2 days. My kitchen sink sprung a leak – the drainage pipes fell apart. I went to the supply store and bought 2 new drains and the connector between the two. But I didn’t have the tool to tighten down the drains. A friend lent me the tool today. So I try to get it fixed during lunchtime, but guess what? It didn’t all fit together so back to the store to get an extension. I also decided to replace a sticky the sprayer, BUT another problem arose. Well, it is all fixed now; mind you it only took 3 trips to the store and a few hours over 2 days. I would call this a storm of sorts that definitely distracted me from my goal last night – writing this night early. At least I am back on track tonight.
So what distract you this week from doing that which God called you to do?
More next week!
Yours in Christ,
alyce