According to Your Word, O Lord

Mary was a young woman, a virgin, who feared the Lord God and who worshipped him with her whole heart. And one day she was visited by an angel of God who came to her with a message from God. He told her not to be afraid, for she had found favor with God. And then he told her that she was about to conceive in her womb and bear a son, and she was to call his name “Jesus.” He said,

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33 ESV)

Now Mary was a virgin so she was confused as to how she could conceive and bear a son if she had not been with a man. So the angel of God explained to her that it would be the Holy Spirit who would come upon her. Jesus was to be conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of man (Luke 1:34-37). So when Jesus walked this earth he was fully God and fully human. For Jesus Christ was/is not only the Son of God, but he was/is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (see John 1:1-36).

And I just love Mary’s response to all of this. She did not question God at all in all of this. For after the angel said to her, “Nothing will be impossible with God,” she said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Amen! 

After this Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby inside of her (John the Baptist) leaped for joy. And Elizabeth then declared to Mary that she was blessed among women, and blessed was the fruit of her womb. And following Elizabeth’s words to Mary (Luke 1:39-45 – not all mentioned here), Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

    For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

    and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him

    from generation to generation.” (Luke 1:46-50 ESV)

And Mary set a wonderful example for all of us to follow in how we should respond to hearing the voice of the Lord guiding us in where he wants us to go and in what he has for us to do. For he speaks to us through the Scriptures, and he speaks to us through the Holy Spirit who is living within those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. We may not hear the voice of the Lord audibly, but we can hear him speaking to us in our spirits. And when he speaks we must listen and we must heed his words to us.

But she also set an example for us in the promptness of her faith and in her child-like faith that she had in the Lord. Although she needed understanding in how she was going to become pregnant, and that is reasonable, she did not question God and his plan and his purpose for her life. But she responded with an immediate submission and acceptance of his plan for her life, knowing full well, I am sure, that this was going to cost her. For her friends and family would assume that she was unfaithful to Joseph.

And when the Lord calls us to his service, and he appoints for us our body parts within the body of Christ, and he gives us the Spiritual gifts he gives to us to be used for his glory and for the encouragement and strengthening of the body of Christ, we are not to resist him. We are not to come up with all kinds of excuses for why we can’t do what he wants us to do, either. We are to willingly submit to him and his calling on our lives, even knowing that it will mean being hated, rejected, abandoned, and falsely accused of wrong.

For Jesus told us and the NT apostles told us that there is a cost to following Jesus Christ with our lives. And the cost is our all on the altar. It is us dying with Christ to sin so that we can be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. It is us emptying ourselves of the flesh in order to now walk by the Spirit. And it is accepting the fact that we will be hated, rejected, persecuted, falsely accused, abandoned, and even thought of as evil.

And Mary knew that accepting God’s call on her life was not only going to get her rejected and shunned, but that she might be put to death, for everyone would naturally assume she had been in relations with a man, for how else would they see it? There is no way most of them could comprehend that her child was conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of man. But she said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” And this needs to be our response to God’s call on our lives, too. 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

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