by Pastor Don Elmore
March 29, 2015
Scripture Reading: Luke 1:1-4
Introduction
Sometimes I go back and look at the old New Covenant Messengers and read articles that were written years ago. I did so last Saturday morning and immediately found three articles. I turned right to them. It was three articles written by our own Dan and Cory. It is in NCM #26.
The third article, written by Cory, was very interesting. It told of the origin of Valentine’s Day. Valentine was the Roman Catholic priest who defied the Emperor’s order to ban marriages; and as a result married many couples. The Roman Catholic Church merged the worship of Lupercalia and the death of the priest Valentine. Lupercalia was the she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus when they were orphaned. The two boys grew up and are credited with the founding of Rome.
In her second article, Cory said the following about why they were home schooling:
“As I said, that was seven or eight years ago and now our oldest [Hannah] is doing sixth and seventh grade work, our second daughter [Katie] is in third grade, our third daughter [Rebecca] is in second grade and we’re going to be starting kindergarten with our fourth daughter [Emily] in the fall Not to leave any one out, God has also given us a son [Abel] who will be two this month.”
That means that the NCM that I was reading was about 18 years old! My, how time flies.
But the first article that I saw was the article written by Dan titled: “Listen! When A Dumb Man Speaks.” It was an article that dealt with a favorite portion of scripture for Dan: Luke, Chapter One. I thought, “What a fine article. It needs to be done again so our people don’t forget what happened.”
The Addressee
Do you know who Luke wrote the book of Luke to; and not just this book but his next: the book of Acts? Theophilus. Who was he? All we know for sure is that he was a man “instructed” in the life of Christ. That is all.
I liked how Dan started out his article: “Several times in the Bible, God used strange or unusual events to precede the delivery of an important truth or prophecy.” Dan gave examples of what happened in several Bible stories: the talking mule; the hungry lions that did not eat Daniel; and the fish that swallowed Jonah. These events certainly set the stage for what was coming. But what Dan was alleging was the strange or unusual event that preceded the birth of our Savior. It was the birth of another Isaac!