The Wierdness of it All

Dear Readers,

God is a little strange. He sent the angel Gabriel to a young lady named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man who was Joseph. Joseph's ancestor was King David of Israel. This is the same David who defeated Goliath in battle. That seems a little weird to me. Have you ever been visited by angel? Gabriel greeted Mary, "Greetings to you who are highly favored by God." That is a strange greeting. Most people greet each other with words like, "Hello" or "How do you do?" Mary even thought the greeting was a little strange. She pondered the words and tried to figure out what Gabriel was saying. Gabriel had a message for Mary. She was going to have a child and she was to give to the child the name, "Jesus." Jesus' life path was to be the King who reigned from the throne of David. Jesus is to rule forever. Now, we've crossed over into the crazy side. Jesus, a child of Mary, ruling forever? That's crazy. Yet now it's going to get even more bizarre. Mary asks Gabriel a very good question, "How is this going to happen? I'm a virgin." Gabriel has an equally great answer to Mary's question. It just goes to show, God is a little weird. The answer is, "The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High God will come upon you and cause you to become pregnant. Because of this, the child that you will be carried will be called "Holy," "the Child of God."

Now what Gabriel is describing is impossible according all human works and understanding. It physically cannot happen. At this moment in time, Mary easily could have said to Gabriel, "This is nuts. This is crazy stuff. I can't handle it. I won't handle it. Forget about it." Yet we know that, that didn't happen. Gabriel, in order to show that power of God through weirdness, tells Mary about her relative, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is six months pregnant. That sounds okay until you add in Elizabeth is well past the age of being able to bear children AND when she was of age, Elizabeth could not and did not have any children. Now Elizabeth is pregnant. Strange things are happening with God.

Then Gabriel told Mary, and he tells us too, "That nothing is impossible with God." All the weird things that Gabriel was describing were not impossible for God to do. And God did them. All the crazy things that God did were for our benefit. Jesus' name is a very special name. It's "Yeshua" in the Hebrew language which means, "Savior." The child Jesus grew up and gave to us salvation from our sins by means of His death upon the cross. The "throne of David" was a cross for Jesus. The King of kings and Lord of lords was THE ONE who God sent to free God's people from their sins and sinfulness. So this is a story that tells us nothing is impossible with God.

It is also a story about one thing that Mary possessed. Mary possessed, "Faith." After all of what Gabriel told her, she responded saying, "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be to me as you have said." Mary possessed a faith to believe the impossible. Her faith guided her as she later travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, just before giving birth to Jesus. Her faith comforted her when she watched her son die at the hands of sinful men. Her faith rejoiced when she saw her resurrected son as He gave the promise of a resurrection to all people. And Mary is an example of faith in action to us as well. We believe in the truth of Jesus, conceived in the Virgin Mary, born, and died at the hands of Pontius Pilate, and on the third day rose to life. We believe and base our lives and actions upon the reality of Jesus Christ. So no matter what happens in our lives, the ups and the downs, we are guided in the crazy weirdness of it all. That nothing is impossible with God.

Next Post: The Birth of Jesus

Who Told You about Jesus?

Greetings readers,

I know that I have taken a hiatus from blogging. Now, I have a renewed zeal to enter my thoughts on life and how God impacts that life. My motivation was caused by the re-design of our website. Now, on the website, there's a link to this blog. Now I have to keep it up to date. Yet that isn't my motivation. My motivation is you, who is reading my blog. Whether you're a first time reader, or someone who has read it before, I want to bring the reality of Jesus and His impact upon your life.

So I have a question for you. "Who told you about Jesus?" In my life, it was my parents. You see I am a "lifer Lutheran Christian." I was baptized at one month old, and I've been a Christian ever since. My life, was by no means, "Perfect." It wasn't and still isn't. But it was perfected by God the Father, through the total person and God, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. I don't ever recall a time that I was outside the grasp of Christ or His Church. Some of you who are reading this, didn't start your Christian life the way I did. You became a believer by God through someone later in your life. Some of you who are reading this, haven't yet come to faith. If so, I pray that my witness to you will propel you into a desire for more of God through me.

God chose, and continues to choose people in order to bring the reality of Jesus to other people. God chose prophets, historians, and apostles to bear witness to the reality of God. God chose ordinary people, who are believers, to share God's great and powerful love with those who did not know Him. It is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who empowers us to tell the story of Jesus to others.

So what does God want believers, like myself, to say? One of the great examples of what do we say is from Isaiah 40:1-2. God says, "'Comfort, comfort My people' says Your God. Speaking tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of servitude is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. " (Christian Standard Bible translation)

God tells us through the prophet Isaiah, that we who are His people, are to be comforted and at peace. God has saved us from our sins, and sinfulness. We know this to be true because of Jesus. The reality of Jesus and what He did, is the pardon for our sins. Through Jesus, our lives are smoothed out. The peaks and valleys of daily living were lowered and raised by Jesus. The bumpy roads of life were smoothed out. I know what you're thinking. You still struggle with highs and lows, your life isn't any where close to being smooth. Yet, as one who knows the reality of Jesus, I know that my life is so much smoother and level with Jesus in my life. I know that He forgave me of my sins and gave me a focus on His new life. I can't imagine living my life without Jesus. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I didn't know Jesus. God is using me to bring the reality of Jesus to you. God is using me to tell you about Jesus and what He did for you and me.

There is much more to tell. I pray that I will be consistent in bringing to you the reality of Jesus. And the truth will set you free.