Brown's Daily Word 12-13-07

Good Morning.
Praise the Lord for this wonderful season. It is going to be stormy and snowy here in New York today. In anticipation of the heavy snow that has been promised throughout the day today, all of the local and area schools have closed for the day.
Praise the Lord, for it is His season. We are the reason He came. He is the reason that we celebrate. He gives us the reason to live. click HERE to see video
In the bustling and hectic world in which we live, it's easy to forget about Him. As we look at Elizabeth and Mary in Luke chapter one, we see how they were able to give God praise and glory in and through some rather unusual circumstances.
Mary has just had a visit from the angel Gabriel. Beginning in Luke 1, verse 28, He said, “Greetings to you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and ever. Even your relative Elizabeth is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
And Mary responded in verse 38, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” When we read the Bible, God takes the Scripture we have heard and He applies it to our lives. We need to say the same thing that Mary did. We need to say, “I am the Lord’s servant. I am willing to let You have Your way in my life. I am willing to let You do impossible things through me.”
In verses 40-41, Mary arrives at the house. She greets Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice, the baby leaped for joy in her womb. People refer to this verse as evidence that unborn children are able to respond to the presence of God. And they’re probably right.
The big message of Christmas, however, is that the coming of Jesus Christ into our world brings great joy that will be for all people. For unto us is born in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. The presence of Jesus Christ is not something to be taken for granted. It is something that should make us leap for joy It’s something that should make us say, “Amen! Hallelujah!”
The presence of Christ in Mary made the unborn John the Baptist leap for joy. It also made Elizabeth rejoice. Verse 41 says that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. And in a loud voice she said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” In other words, Elizabeth was saying, “Praise God that the mother of my Messiah is paying me a visit! I don’t know what I did to deserve this. I don’t know why I am so favored. But what a blessing it is that the mother of my Lord should come to me.” Notice that the emphasis is on the Lordship of Jesus. Jesus is the One we should be worshipping! Jesus is the One we should be praising!
And then Mary said in verse 45, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” In verses 46-56, Mary gave all the praise and the glory back to God. She said in verse 46, "My soul magnifies the Lord. (We call this section The Magnificat, because it is Mary’s musical magnification of Almighty God.) Then she added, “and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty One has done great things for me, holy is His name.”

Mary’s song is a song of faith. Faith grows out of true worship and adoration of God. Worship takes the attention off of us and focuses it on God – on His might, on His power, on His mercy and grace. That environment is perfect for strengthening and deepening faith because faith keeps its vision focused on the word and promises of God and not on the surrounding or prevailing circumstances.
According to Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen” It is believing that because God has declared something, it is already an accomplished fact even if the tangible and visible evidence is not immediately apparent to our visual, tactile and other senses.
So here we hear Mary proclaiming that God has already scattered the proud and arrogant; pulled down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the poor; satisfied the hungry with good nourishment, and sent the self-sufficiently wealthy away empty-handed. But even as she spoke those words her visible material circumstances were no different; she was still a young peasant girl from Nazareth, the Romans and the Jewish sycophant king Herod still ruled Palestine with an iron fist, taxing the people to the benefit of the Emperor and his lackeys, the rich still had their goods and the poor continued to struggle.
Yet, Mary could sing and praise because she already saw a vision of the changed society God was bringing into being where all wrongs will be righted, where every injustice will be corrected, where the oppressed and downtrodden will be lifted up and those who have elevated and exalted themselves will be humbled. Mary’s song is also a song of hope that is nurtured and strengthened and encouraged by her faith. It is a hope that is based in the promise God made to her ancestor Abraham and to all his descendants.
The believer’s hope is always firmly anchored in the faithful, sure, and certain promises of God. Life’s unpredictable circumstances, sometimes favorable and sometimes chaotic, may come and go, but God’s promises will be fulfilled. Jesus affirmed this promise by saying, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away". [Matthew 24:35]
Again this Advent season, He comes to us, the least likely individuals in the least likely of places. God forces Himself upon no one. He takes the initiative and He makes the invitation
Mary's response was to say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” You and I have a living hope, a steadfast faith, and the experience of God’s eternal and life-transforming love because she said, “Yes”.
Our hurting and broken world awaits our response. May the Lord grant us His grace to make Mary's Magnificat, our own. AMEN.

Brown