“Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! 

Let it be to me according to your word.” 

And the angel departed from her.”

my twocents…

as we take a deep dive into the story of Jesus this month, let us take this moment to reflect on mary’s perspective and her miraculous conception. mary was a young woman who never had known a man. she had no clue what she was about to take on - the good and the difficult. she had no clue that she was a vessel to bring the savior of the world here to us. to be a mother to the son of God. she had no clue of the persecution that He would face and the heartbreak she would feel for worldly sin. she had no clue how God would make her story so amazing, exponentially beyond her dreams. she was just a young woman, and when the angel first appeared, she was afraid. that is normal and human. the angel can only provide so much information at this point and as the conversation finishes, mary responds in the most graceful way- that she is the Lord’s servant and she asks that His Word may simply be. its okay to be afraid and even question the direction that the Lord wants you to take, but by the end of the conversation, let it finish with acceptance of His request. know that sometimes the Lord won’t spell out everything that is about to come upon acceptance of a new direction. i pray that we all have the ability to handle tasks and challenges with this same gracefulness as mary. we all know how amazing the story of Jesus is. so, see that by being obedient to the Lord, by hearing and abiding by His Word, only good can come from it. we can have amazing stories too. this goodness is always beyond our imagination’s capabilities in the moment that we accept it. this, my friend, is faith. this is trusting the Lord, and that His ways alone are good, despite not understanding the mission until we are practically done with it (and sometimes never understanding the complete impact of that mission). may we take moment by moment, just starting with today, to live in faith like mary did, by accepting the Lord’s direction and opportunities with eagerness and obedience. 

12/5/22

“And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

my twocents… 

i can’t help but smile thinking about baby john inside elizabeth’s womb ‘leaping in joy’ upon the Spirit’s presence. its absolutely amazing - its a miracle - and the first of many to happen upon the entrance of Jesus onto earth. elizabeth actually received the Holy Spirit as mary spoke! the Holy Spirit brings us joy and peace. it is the Spirit of God which dwells within us upon our acceptance and belief of Jesus as our savior. this passage also goes to show the impact and power of the Spirit. so often we may find ourselves thinking, “how can i change this person?” “how can i influence them or say the right things to them?”. often, we are caught in the habit of trying to solve problems on our own and we forget just how powerful the Spirit within us is. the Spirit’s presence alone is enough to influence someone, just as it did with elizabeth. and the influence is always positive. our emotions can get in the way and prompt us to act out of anxiety, nervousness, defensiveness, fear, and anger. this is not the way. our reactions should be tamed, and as we develop patience with the Lord’s guidance, we can take each moment more consciously and react as the Word directs us, instead of our emotions and minds. as believers, remember to take each day with eager desire to please and glorify the Lord and know the power of the Spirit. instead of overcomplicating a scenario, often it is enough to just be present with someone you love or care for who may not be saved. and they can be influenced in the direction of love and salvation. i must say again - how amazing is this?! this stresses even more the importance of our need to be physically near those we care for. don’t postpone that visit, don’t opt for the video call. although God can still work within any of those means, especially through prayer, there’s something special about the physical presence of those blessed with the Spirit. there is an exciting vibration that you can truly feel! so be joyous today in the Spirit and share that joy with everyone who comes near. share it even with strangers - this can go such an unfathomably long way. use the wisdom of the Spirit to sense who needs upliftings. lend a hand to your friends and rejoice in the generosity of love from our Lord. 

12/6/22

“Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph … the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

my twocents…

i’m sparing you the lengthiness of the complete genealogy list of Jesus, but there is good substance here when reflected upon this section in Luke. first point to make: isn’t it quite impressive that the culture at this time took such care in keeping records of the family ancestry? the jewish culture especially identifies each other with the genealogy of their families. it had been prophesied multiple times that Jesus, the Messiah, would come from a royal jewish lineage- and here it is... but to us, did it really matter? he was a supernatural gift laid unto a virgin from God Himself. we can summarize that His lineage didn’t make a difference as to the level of His holiness because we also know that He was there at the beginning and that He is God. regardless, the importance of this fact to the jewish people is why it mattered of His lineage; therefore, it was yet another way for Him to connect and reveal Himself as the Messiah to His people. if you look at the lineage, you see it going all the way back to adam, back to God. and it can be supposed that we are all children of God. we all came from this single source. its amazing to think of Jesus on this level of closeness. He is our relative in the flesh. His lineage can be traced just as ours can be. he came to earth and joined us side by side. he got to experience the wonders of humanity and the worst of humanity. and although He is God and it can be assumed that he already knew and understood what it was like to be human, this whole story and everything He did wasn’t for His knowledge, it was for us. reading a section like this one in Luke might seem boring, but can you fathom the number of years it took to get from the start of the paragraph to the finish? can you fathom the toil, the war, the sacrifice and death upon our forefathers that made this story what it was today? we have this amazing privilege to go into this Word and read all of these stories for ourselves. many can’t say that they can even access the stories of their immediate great-grandparents. but here we are with the gift of the Word, the Word that is Life. and everything that our Father God wants us to know is here in the Bible. the sheer volume of history contained in this book is breathtaking. don’t take sections like this for granted. we are so blessed to be able to know and share this information that has been preserved for thousands of years. this fact alone proves yet again the miraculous works of God. God has many sides to His character, but today, He is our Father, and He is lovingly sharing the family story with us.

12/4/22