Category: Faith (Page 2 of 3)

December 12^th

Luke 1:46-56

Today’s reading is called the Magnificat and we can divide it into three sections.

Firstly in verses 46-49 Mary declares what it is that God has done for her; he has saved her (‘God my Saviour’), noticed her and chosen her. She is in awe and worships God for his grace towards her. If you are reading in a cross referenced Bible you will see how much Mary is drawing on what she knows of the Old Testament – the story of Hannah (1 Sam. 2), the Psalms, Isaiah and Genesis. All these familiar passages are now coming together for her in this event.

Secondly in verses 50-53 she speaks of what God will do for others, but she speaks prophetically as though it has all already happened, as if the future is here. It is sometimes referred to as the prophetic past. She talks of the social revolution that is to come where there is mercy for those who fear God, the lifting up of the humble and the satisfying of the hungry. Those who are proud, mighty or rich will not find what they are looking for. The poor, probably most of the population, are the ones to whom Jesus will go; the ordinary citizens who have no rights. In choosing Mary and Joseph God has bypassed the well-to -do to fulfil his purposes. Jesus first revolution was to deal with sin not the injustices created by wealth, but changed hearts change their attitudes and priorities.

Finally, in verses 54-55, she speaks of what God will do for Israel and that he has remembered his promise to their forbears. In spite of Israel’s spiritual state God has not forgotten.

Reflection

God chooses nobodies to fulfil his purposes. Have there been or are there times when you have considered yourself unworthy, not good enough or not talented enough for God to choose you? Mary’s example teaches us that God chooses according to the heart. We are not nobodies when Christ has died for us!

December 11^th

Luke 1:39-45

Today’s reading is much shorter, but it gives us an insight into the relationship between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. Mary visits Elizabeth a few days after the angel Gabriel’s visit, when Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant. Mary’s presence causes Elizabeth’s unborn child to respond, ‘to leap’. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and perhaps it is at this moment that the angel’s prophecy that John will be filled with the Spirit from before birth comes true. She is speaking prophetically when she says that the mother of my Lord has visited me! She knows Mary’s baby will be the more important of the two, and she tells Mary ‘you are blessed because you believed’. Elizabeth’s response confirms what the angel has said about her own child, that he will prepare the way for the Lord, and she is the first to call Jesus ‘Lord’.

Mary needs the friendship of her cousin, someone who has experienced her own extraordinary miracle. She needs community, strength and the care of those who will understand her and not judge her. Elizabeth is older, wiser and has walked with God a long time. Both women demonstrate a humility and yieldedness to the Lord that is expressed in their care of each other. Verse 56 tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months until just before John is born.

Mary and Elizabeth are true disciples, they hear, believe and give themselves to God’s purposes. They are women of faith.

Reflection 

Being a friend and needing friends are important parts of our lives. We are made to live in community, and a community of faith can be crucial to us remaining faithful worshippers of the Lord. Do you need a friend or to be a friend at this time? Is there someone you can call on, or someone to whom you could offer a listening ear? Consider how you might put this into action.

December 10^th

Luke 1:26-38

Six months later and the next stage of the plan unfolds. Gabriel is on another mission, this time to Mary. We are told she is engaged to a man who is a descendant of King David, which Luke knows is important. In Mary’s day betrothal was a serious commitment, vows have been made which could not easily be broken except by divorce or death. After a betrothal the couple would stay with their parents for a year before being married and living together. Mary would have been a very young teenager at this time. It seems strange in our culture but was the norm then. Mary has been chosen, she is highly favoured. We are not told why, but it is an act of grace i.e. it has not been earned. Given the cultural view of unmarried mothers and harsh treatment of those guilty of adultery, which is how this would be seen, it is unlikely that it will feel like an honour to her, or Joseph, or their families.

Mary’s ‘yes’ to God’s choice is going to lead to shame and disgrace, an awful lot of misunderstandings and ultimately pain for her as a mother. Yet, she quietly accepts God’ scall on her life and bows to his will.

Reflection

What can we learn from Mary’s response about our own response to God as his disciples ? Are there areas of life where you need to yield as she did?

December 9^th

Luke 1:1-25

We will come back to Matthew’s gospel in a few days’ time, but for now we go from the Jewish witness to Jesus’ birth to Luke, the Gentile physician and the writer of our other account of Jesus’ birth. Luke is a second-generation believer, not an eyewitness, and has taken on the role of an investigative reporter in order to convey a clear report to Theophilus. We do not know who he is other than that he seems to be a new believer and anxious to learn. His name means ‘lover of God’, as such we could say it is addressed to anyone who will believe.

We start with this wonderful story of two older godly people who would never have imagined what was about to happen to them. That they would have a child would be enough, but this of course is not just any child. This child will be the herald for a king.

The last verse of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:5, prophesies that Elijah will come to turn people’s hearts to God before the Messiah comes. For centuries generations have waited for this event and now the angel explains to a terrified Zechariah how this will happen. It’s hardly surprising he found it hard to believe that he is now caught up in the story of the coming Messiah. Zechariah would have known the scriptures and what was said about the Lord’s herald, to hear that it will be his son who will accomplish this is more than he can take in. The angel is clear that John is not Elijah reborn, he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah

Zechariah is struck dumb, literally.  No more words of doubt from him. Elizabeth is just simply grateful that her prayers have been heard and the longed-for child is to come.

Remember – there is a plan.

Reflection

Zechariah and Elizabeth are the right people for the job, the ones who will raise John in the faith, ready for his ministry. They have experienced great disappointment in not having a child and must have wondered why God had not answered them, and now they know. Trust involves not just believing in God’s ways but also his timings. Their disappointment had not stopped them walking in God’s ways although it clearly effected Zechariahs ability to believe the angel Gabriel. Whilst he is kept silent, he, like us, is not excluded from being part of the divine plan.

December 8^th

Matthew 1:1-17

Biblical genealogies might not be your favourite part of the Bible to read! They can be seen as boring and not very relevant to us or the story we are reading, however this one is crucial. There will be many names in this genealogy that you may recognise, like Abraham, David, Jacob, Solomon, Hezekiah, Zerubbabel. Discovering our family tree has become a bit of an obsession in modern times perhaps linked to a sense of needing to find our identity, but in past times your lineage would have been critical to your place in society.

Matthew divides Jesus’ lineage up in 3 groups of fourteen generations, or six groups of seven making Jesus the beginning of the seventh group of seven. Seven was a highly symbolic number to Matthew’s readers. This is what the nation has been waiting for through four hundred years. The promises to Abrahm and David are to be fulfilled in this baby.

Surprisingly Matthew also lists four women who played a significant role in the Old Testament story: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. This is very unusual for a Jewish genealogy, even more so since three of them are Gentiles and of questionable morality. Yet they have all been forgiven and received into this family: a lineage of grace.

This is no ordinary birth, but it is an ordinary family. Yet God has done extraordinary things in the past through ordinary people (Matthw has just listed four of them). Perhaps he is reminding his readers that the extraordinary story he is telling them has a precedent. The story of Christianity is rooted in history, it is a salvation story that can be traces back to the beginning of time.

Matthew both roots his story in Jewish tradition but also reminds us of how God can surprise us. He chooses who he wills to do his purposes, and it may not always be what we might have expected.

Reflection

Scripture tells us that God’s ways are not our ways, his ways are higher than ours. Acknowledgement of that means we must come to this story with humility and, as we give our lives to Christ, present our own story to him in humility and thankfulness for his grace.

Have you experienced a moment when God has answered your prayer but in a surprising way?

December 7^th

John 1:10-14

Today’s reading begins with the sad acknowledgement that the world did not recognise Jesus for who he was, and his own people (the Jews) rejected him.  The Word was the agent of creation, and so the world was made by him yet, tragically, it did not receive him. That creation has come through the Son of God is an idea that appears in other places such as 1 Cor. 8:6, Col.1:16 and Heb. 1:2.

This is contrasted with the good news that those who did accept him received new life as children of God. Verse 12 tells us they were given the right or the power to become a child of God. The power to do this comes from God, we are not born again by our own initiative or resources, it is a gift.

John doesn’t bother to tell us anything about how the ‘Word’ became flesh but that he does become flesh, that is what matters, and it has huge consequences. We have beheld the glory of the one and only Son, sometimes translated as the ‘only begotten’ but the emphasis is on the fact that there is only one. John uses the same word (monogenes) in several places (Jn. 1:18, 3:!6, 3:18, 1 Jn 4:9). The same glory that once filled the temple in the Old Testament now lives in the Son, and we have seen him John says. We have also seen his glory expressed in his grace and truth. This is sometimes translated as love and faithfulness, an echo of Ex. 34:6-7. When Moses witnesses God’s glory he is proclaimed as ‘abounding in love and faithfulness’, that glory now dwells in the Son.

The story of Christmas is that of the ‘word become flesh’.  This is astonishing news – good news. The Word, there at the beginning of time has come and inhabited our times. The presence and power of God have been contained in human flesh. The creator has become the created.

Reflection

The hymn writer Charles Wesley wrote these lines:

 Our God contracted to a span,

Incomprehensibly made man.

Spend a moment reflecting on those lines. Jesus became the God/man. He was human, he experienced all that we do and there is comfort for us in that. At the same time, when we see Jesus, we are seeing the glory of God.

December 6^th

John 1:1-9

So, now we come to the gospel accounts of Jesus birth and, as with all witnesses to an event, their stories are both similar and different. Mark contains no birth stories and starts with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Matthew and Luke are our sources for how the nativity unfolded, but John does something very different. He writes a prologue starting before creation to explain Jesus’ eternal significance, and echoes the start of Genesis, ‘In the beginning’. John’s aim for his gospel (Jn. 20:31) is to show us that ‘Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that believing in him you will have life’. Hence, Jesus’ eternal beginning matters, he has come from God and is himself God (Jn 1:1). He is God become human – a mystery. He has come to bring light into our darkness and that light will never be put out (Jn. 1:15), not even death will do that. One of Jesus ‘I am’ sayings in this gospel will be ‘I am the light of the word’ (Jn 8:12).

Darkness will not have the final word, the upper hand. One has come in whom there is no darkness, so that not even crucifixion can put out the light. Jesus was born into a world that was as evil and dark as ours is, yet he was not overcome by it. These days we are aware of the evil in our world well beyond our immediate community and it can be overwhelming. When we celebrate Christmas, we remind ourselves that there is light and hope even in our darkness, whatever that might be.

These days we can take being able to turn on a light for granted, it will be rare to be in a place where there is no light at all. Once when visiting an old mine, as we got close to the bottom of the mine, our guide turned off the lights and we experienced total darkness. It is disorienting, alarming and feels quite unsafe. In that moment you can understand just how important light is to life.

John describes Jesus as ‘the Word’ ( the logos) which was a very important and significant concept in Jesus’ time amongst many cultures. Those who read this when it was first written would have had some idea that the Word was to do with God. In the OT God’s word is creative and sustaining, in other cultures it would refer to divine reason or to the mind of God, sometimes in Jewish thinking it was also the Wisdom of God. It is a concept unfamiliar to us now but would have had a powerful impact at the time. For John it matters because the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us. In Jesus we meet the Father.

Jesus is distinct from God, yet one with him. Jesus is the mediator through which all things were created, and the one through whom our ‘re-creation’ will come.

Reflection

How has the gospel of Jesus Christ brought light and hope to you? How might you share that with others this Christmas?

If there is something in your world that brings a sense of darkness at this time then ask God to show you where he is in this, and how he is at work on your behalf.

December 5^th

Micah 5:2

Old Testament prophecies made it clear that the Messiah would come from the lineage of King David and be born in the town that David came from which was Bethlehem Ephrathah in Judah (as distinct from the Bethlehem of Zebulun). The name means ‘house of bread’ and it was a fertile agricultural land. Ephrathah is the name of a clan who were allies of Caleb, it is the birthplace of Naomi and Elimelech (Ruth 1:2). It was a small insignificant town until David’s birth there.

In Matthew 2:3-6 this scripture is quoted when Herod starts to enquire about where the Messiah is to be born, and the religious rulers tell him it is in Bethlehem. Jesus’ birthplace causes some confusion later in his ministry as people question if he can be the Messiah; they are assuming he was born in Nazareth and no Messiah comes from there (Jn 7:41-42). However, as we know, a Roman edict means that Mary and Joseph must return to Bethlehem for a census since they are both of the lineage of David, and that is where Jesus is born. Sadly, the families of Bethlehem are going to pay a high price for this honour as Herod kills all the infants in the town once he realises the wise men have given him the slip (Jer.31:15, Matt.2:16-18). The kingdom of peace has not yet arrived, but it will.

What can we take from this part of the story? Perhaps firstly that God kept his promise to King David and Jesus is born there after all, despite Mary’s hometown being elsewhere.

Secondly, God is happy to choose the small and insignificant. When Jesus is born the shepherds will be invited to the birth celebrations, his ministry will focus on the weak, sick, oppressed and poor much more than the ‘significant’ people of the day. Jesus is going to open up the Kingdom of heaven to all who choose to believe, whoever they may be.

Both Micah and Isaiah are prophets of judgement, but also of hope. They both have a dream of a future where peace will reign, and oppression will end. They are both looking into the future when the Messiah will come.

Reflection

God is not a respecter of status or place. He is happy to use the nobodies and the disregarded places to fulfil his plans. We can easily feel like our lives and the place we live in is insignificant to God. If that is the case then I’d encourage you to ask God to help you see your life as he sees it. Every life has enormous value and importance to him, in Jesus he has given part of himself for us and filled us with his Spirit. You and your world matter to God.

December 4^th

Isaiah 9:1-7

Following on from yesterday’s readings here we find Isaiah speaking to the situation where the north of Israel which includes Zebulun and Naphtali have been conquered by Assyria and the people are in darkness. But Isaiah’s prophesy speaks  hope to them, and he is so confident he speaks as though it has already happened. The Messiah will come like light bursting out in Galilee. Matthew in his gospel draws attention to the fact that the start of Jesus ministry is in this very region Matt. 4 :12-17.

The pain of verses four and five will resonate for many in our world right now; slavery, oppression and bloodshed were their experience. Jesus came to defeat our most awful enemy and destroy the forces of evil forever. The people of Israel are to be released from oppression, war will cease and the perfect ruler will arrive. Where darkness has fallen light has come.

In our times of distress we have to choose what we will believe in. Do we remember God’s past action on our behalf, or do we forget? The references in verse four are to the yoke of slavery in Egypt, and the day of Midian to their defeat of the enemy under Gideon’s leadership. These two events were the result of acts of faith and trust in God; something we saw yesterday that Ahaz didn’t want to do. The darkness and distress that we may experience in life are real, but they are not the whole story. Isaiah goes on to tell us that the answer to all of this is going to be a child, a son who is born of a woman but given to us by God.

This child is to be a wonderful counsellor, literally wonder-counsellor, wonder being akin to supernatural or out of the ordinary.

He is the mighty God, a hero come as the one who will defeat the enemy.

He is the everlasting Father. This may seem strange in reference to Jesus but we know that he comes to represent the Father to us, but also to act as a father to his children.

He is the Prince of peace, making peace through his blood

There will be no end to the increase of his government and peace, there will be order, there will be fairness and justice in this Kingdom forever.

And finally, we are told that it is the zeal of the Lord or his passionate commitment that will achieve these things. God’s plan in action.

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect on the four different titles Isaiah gives to Jesus. How have you experienced these in the past, and what might you need to experience at this time? Pray for yourself and others that you may know Jesus in all his fulness.

December 3^rd

Isaiah 7:14

There are a few Old Testament passages that are important to us as believers as they point us to Jesus. As we look at these verses we are in good company, even Jesus on the Emmaus Road started with Moses and the prophets to explain himself to his disciples!

In this passage Isaiah is speaking into his current context but in doing so, as a prophet, he also speaks into the future. So, let’s look for a moment at Isaiah’s situation. Syria and Israel have joined forces against Assyria’s empire building (735BC). They invite Ahaz, king of Judah, to join them but he refuses so they turn against him. Ahaz thinks he’s going to try and buy an alliance with Assyria, but Isaiah offers an alternative solution that Ahaz should trust the Lord and be firm in the faith. He is invited to ask for a sign from the Lord, but he doesn’t want to put his faith in God so he refuses in a rather sanctimonious fashion (Is. 7:11-12).

[We should note here that whether or not testing the Lord is OK depends on the heart. Israel in the wilderness tested the Lord out of unbelief and were judged for it. Gideon tested to be sure he heard right and was given his answer. Here Ahaz is being invited to trust but will not.]

So, Isaiah prophesies that God will give a sign. For Ahaz it means that by the time a young woman (we don’t know who) gives birth and the child reaches the age of discretion (13yrs) the two kingdoms against him will have gone (Is. 7:16). He just needs to trust. Syria was destroyed by 732BC (3 years later), Israel lost part of her territory a year later and in 13 years (722BC) had lost her national existence. Ahaz and Judah were to be overwhelmed by Assyria.

When Matthew was writing his gospel he saw in this passage a clear reference to the coming Messiah – the one who is ‘God with us’ Matt.1:23. The salvation needed here is not earthly but spiritual, our eternal salvation, and it was going to come through the child born of a virgin, the Son of God. There is a lot of dispute among theologians as to whether the word for ‘virgin’ should have been translated as such or as ‘young woman’. As far as I can see there is no reason not to accept the translation that Mathhew knew which referred to the ‘virgin who will conceive and give birth to a son’. This child was God’s son, one who would become the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Matthew knew Mary and Jesus, witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection, and had no doubt who Jesus was and whose Son he was.

The call to us is the same as to Ahaz, to stand in faith, to receive God’s salvation and see his deliverance from sin; to be accepted into God’s Kingdom.

Reflection

There is the thread of a plan running through history so strong that it emerges out of the prophets’ mouth even when he is speaking into another circumstance. That plan for salvation runs through all our lives and we have a choice to respond to it in faith or not. Is there something that you need to respond to in faith today?