Every Jewish woman longed for the chance to bear the Messiah and Mary would have belonged to that crowd. God didn’t choose a flighty person but a young woman of deep faith.
As we think about encountering God, we will turn to the mother of Jesus through the month of December and consider her calling and life with Jesus her son. 700 years after Isaiah penned this prophecy, Luke records that God sent the angel Gabriel to a young, betrothed virgin in Nazareth named Mary.
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14
As we think about encountering God, we will turn to the mother of Jesus through the month of December and consider her calling and life with Jesus her son. 700 years after Isaiah penned this prophecy, Luke records that God sent the angel Gabriel to a young, betrothed virgin in Nazareth named Mary. Remember that Luke was a physician – he had delivered many babies and he certainly knew where they come from! The mother of the Messiah had to be a virgin so that the sinful line from Adam would not be carried through to the Son. If God can create the solar system with a word, I suppose this was not a big deal biologically for Him to do!
The virginity of Mary made this possible. Every Jewish woman longed for the chance to bear the Messiah and Mary would have belonged to that crowd. God didn’t choose a flighty person but a young woman of deep faith. When the calling came to her, she could only imagine what this would mean to her family, her tight community and to her loving fiancé. She retained her core qualification of virginity, but the weight of the calling was great.
How are you doing with retaining your core Christian qualifications? Are you in a place for God to use or is there a lot of junk floating around in your life that needs to be cleaned up first? Somebody has said, “keep your tools ready and God will find you work.” Don’t give up on doing the right thing and being the available person! If God can work so powerfully through a young teenager, he can work powerfully through you as well!
Let me encourage you to give a listen to my recent podcast with Henry Peters from our church. You will hear vibrant faith from him even as he is in his mid-90’s.
Also, for all of you who are reading through the bible this year – we will read the last chapter of Revelation together in the January 1 service. Keep pressing on!
Pastor Leon Throness
