“And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
The angel told Mary that she had found favor with God, and then set her on a road that was incredibly difficult. We’d sure like to think that being the recipient of God’s favor is a good thing from start to finish, but given the kinds of things Mary experienced, that’s not such an easy conclusion as we’d like. So, what does it mean to find God’s favor?
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This post and this afternoon’s post of yesterday’s sermon will be the only two posts this week. Enjoy celebrating Christmas with your family tomorrow and see you on Monday of next week! Merry Christmas!
“And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
How did you respond the last time God asked you to do something hard? Were you ready to go, or were you more hesitant in the face of the great unknown stretching out before you? When God calls us on an adventure of some kind, that’s a scary place to be. His adventures tend to go well beyond what we can manage or handle on our own. But in that unease is the promise of life.
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“And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Have you ever regretted anything? Of course you have. You may even have a lengthy list of things you’ve said or done which afterwards you wished you had not. That’s part of sin being loose in the world. If you had known you were going to regret them, you might not have said or done them (okay, you probably still would have done some of them anyway because, sin, but many of them you would have avoided). But, you don’t know everything. God does, though, so what are we supposed to do with Him expressing regret? Read the rest…
“His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Certainly God can help us by working with or even through us. But did you know that He can help us and the people around us by working in spite of us? He can use our character flaws and failings to His glory. Read the rest…
“Then Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Gideon’s fleece has become synonymous with testing God. And that’s exactly what Gideon was doing. But, far from anything praiseworthy or worth imitating, this was an act of faithlessness by a man who was a coward. Read the rest…
The Nexus 