SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/18/2017
7:42 PM
Bible Reading & Meditation Focus:
The Man With A Specialized Talent
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
4:14a
Message of the
verse: “Luke, the beloved physician,
sends you his greetings,”
Luke it the author of both the gospel of Luke and also
the author of the book of Acts, and when you read the last portions of book of
Acts you will see the word “we,” which tells you that in certain places that
Luke was with Paul. For example Luke was
with Paul as they went through the awful storm where if it were not for the
grace of God, and for the promise of God that He gave to Paul that he had to
talk in Rome about the salvation of Jesus Christ, then all would have been lost
at sea.
Remember what we are writing here is just a short couple
of paragraphs that give only a bit of information about the people that Paul
lists at the end of his letter to the Colossians, as will be the case with
Luke.
We know that Luke was a very good friend of Paul’s and
also Luke was a personal physician, something I am sure that Paul needed while
on his missionary journeys. Paul had
some kind of reoccurring ailment while on his first missionary trip, and this
may have been the reason that he wanted Paul to accompany him on future
missionary trips. MacArthur adds “Like
Paul, he [Luke] was an educated, cultured man, as evidenced by the literary
quality of his Greek in his gospel and the book of Acts. His conversations with Paul were undoubtedly
stimulating.”
You may find this somewhat of a surprise but Luke is
mentioned by name only two other times in the New Testament. The other two times are similar to this one
in that they were all mentioned by Paul while he was in prison (Philemon 24 and
2 Timothy 4:11. Now we mentioned that
Luke was with Paul on the memorable voyage as seen in the book of Acts, and
after that Luke pretty much stayed with Paul the rest of his life.
John MacArthur writes “Nothing definite is known about
Luke’s background. According to the
church Fathers Eusebius and Jerome, he was born in Syrian Antioch. Some have speculated that he was “Titus’s
brother, that he knew Paul when Paul was a student at Tarsus, and that he was a
freed slave from the household of Theophilus (mentioned in the prologue to Acts). Those speculations, however, cannot be
proved.”
One of my heroes in the faith is a Medical doctor and her
husband who teaches in different Bible schools around the world. When we look at Dr. Luke we can say that he
was the very first medical missionary and many others have followed suit. Like
Medical missionaries today they all give up careers where they could make much more
money, but chose to surrender their talents to the Lord for the cause of
Christ. Many medical missionaries go to
places where they are much needed to help people get over some terrible medical
problems, and as they do this to people who are not followers of Christ they
then have a perfect opportunity of telling them how they can be saved from
their sins and spend eternity with the Lord.
I am sure that Luke had opportunities to do this as the first medical
missionary.
6/18/2017 8:43 PM
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