Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Luke 8

Please forgive me for being behind in posting my daily advent devotionals here, but it’s been amazing to see God’s perfect timing in my lateness.

I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke 7.

Today’s advent devotional was about God calling Moses to lead the Passover.

This morning when I checked my phone I was dismayed to see a message from a precious sister in Asia saying that her church’s Sunday worship service had been interrupted by police, and her husband, along with several other leaders in the church, had been arrested. Please, friends, pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

One of the best ways we can encourage our faith family is to be faithful to share the gospel ourselves. If they are faithfully worshipping God under such constraints, why are we so remiss when we enjoy such freedom?

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, [Jesus] said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.”

As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Luke 8:4-16 ESV