Thoughts From Luke - Day 3

                                                      Luke 1:26-45

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”
³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
³⁹ Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ 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. ⁴² Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

        Being an OB/Gyn I get to see the miracle of life on a daily basis and it never gets old. I bet you didn't know that if Jesus was born on 12/25 (which He probably wasn't they say but then again how does anyone mess up a birthday?) he was conceived on 4/2. What did it take for that conception, that beginning of life to occur? Certainly she didn't have to understand it all. I don't understand it all. What she did have to do is say yes, and believe, or have faith, that it was going to happen.

       What day did life begin in you? Was it your birthday? Actually, growing up, I remember Wausau Bible Church having a second verse to "Happy Birthday Song". It went, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, it takes two for salvation, how many have you? Pretty corny huh? Yet, I don't regret those corny things because they were all instrumental in my spiritual journey. We are all born once, John 3 says, but there is a second birth which very few experience. It is spiritual birth. When God said to Adam and Eve, "The day you eat of it you will surely die", they didn't physically die but that inner spirit died. They became spiritually dead and since that time, all mankind has been born spiritually dead. We need to be born again. We need a new life put inside of us. We need the life of God in the Holy Spirit to regenerate us. How does that happen? At some point in our life we have to say "yes" to Him and by faith believe that He can accomplish what He said He will do.

      To continue to press this illustration too far, notice Mary was highly favored. She was probably a very devout, good girl and very religious. Yet she did not have this life inside her. Cornelius, in Acts 10 was a very good person yet Peter had to tell him about Jesus so he could receive life. We can be the best person in the world compared to others, yet we are all spiritually dead and need to be born again. Once we by faith believe and receive this new life (the name of my practice), it begins to change us from the inside out. We start glowing. We start showing. Pretty soon everyone notices. We feed this life inside of us with prayer, reading God's word,witnessing, fellowship, (visiting Elizabeth and the mutual excitement, encouragement, and filling of the Holy Spirit with resulting praise and worship), and we continue to grow until we reach the culmination which is the deliverance of us into the presence of Christ at death. The Holy Spirit is said to be our down payment of eternal life. It's like we die and stand before the angels who are harvesting the righteous from the unrighteous and they walk down the line of souls standing before them and pick out all the ones who are nine months pregnant. I mean, it's pretty obvious.

     I know I'm pushing this analogy but I think in a lot of ways, this is valid. Peter says,"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." The Word of God has come to us, it has germinated, and we are growing. Have you received Him by faith. Are you feeding this life. Is He changing you? Are people seeing a difference?