Without Fear

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

WITHOUT FEAR 

Luke 1:67-80

67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

 68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),  71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— 72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

NIV

 

Salvation is from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us. We would think the only true enemy we have is the devil, although it goes beyond just him, as we see in the letter to the Ephesians when we are told the battle is not about flesh and blood it is against the rulers, the authorities, the forces of this dark world and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly, or spiritual realm. Of course, it is the devil who schemes against us, and in whose hand, we once were held captive. However, salvation frees us from the devil’s hand, or his grip upon us. The devil surely hates Jesus, and thus because we are in Christ, he hates us too. However, we are free of his grip on our lives because of God's salvation through Jesus Christ. We remember the great fear we once felt as we served the purpose of the devil as his grip was firmly upon us. We were living in this world without hope, our future was grim at best, for death held us captive with fear. Praise God, all the fear is gone, for we are now free to serve the Lord without any fear. When Jesus told us that he gives us His peace, not as the world does, He gives us peace with God. We know this distinct meaning of peace, which is particular for us as believers is the tranquil state of our soul, assured of our salvation through Jesus Christ and thus fearing nothing from God and living content in our lives no matter what situation or condition is our lot in this life. All fear is gone because He has both declared us holy and blameless in his sight and enabled us to serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives. Getting this deep down in our very being, we can genuinely rejoice forever, and if our heart is full of rejoicing because of our freedom through our salvation, and without fear, then we would think our whole continence would show it. We would walk and talk with gladness in our voice, and our glow, our radiance, our reflection of God could not be contained, for unlike Moses who had to veil his face until the glow diminished, we live with unveiled faces so that we can fully reflect the glory of God because of our salvation. 

Redeemed

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

REDEEMED

Luke 1:67-80

67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

 68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),  71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— 72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

NIV

The reason that Zechariah prophesied was because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and as he praised the God of Israel, he continued to prophesy why. God has come to redeem his people, raising up a horn of salvation. We need to stop here for our thoughts are turning to our redemption through Jesus Christ who went to the cross for us. Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Galatians that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law, becoming a curse himself, as it is said. “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”. Our redemption has given us the blessing given to Abraham. This is the blessing that came to Abraham as he was a man of faith and his faith was counted to him as righteousness. Because we live by faith in Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness, we are righteous because of our faith, and not by anything we can do, as works just don’t cut it went it comes to our salvation. It is interesting that we seem to hear the word redemption or redeemed but we think it does not invoke the true meaning within us. Let us consider that in the form Luke used, redeemed in Greek is a combined word meaning to make, redeemed. The word redeemed carries this meaning of ransom, thus Jesus paid the ransom to buy us from the clutches of Satan. We were in the devil’s grip, imprisoned, bound for execution, dead men walking. However, Jesus redeemed us all by paying the price. When we think of paying a ransom, it brings the idea of a wealthy family whose child has been kidnapped, they are willing to pay the child’s capturers price to buy their own child back. This is our story, for we have always been God’s children, but we went astray and were kidnapped by the devil. God sent Jesus to pay the ransom to buy back his own children. How wonderful it is to be back in the family we always have been in. The problem is that when we are being held captive to sin, by the devil, we embrace our sin, it is sort of like captives developing Stockholm syndrome. We identified with our capture, the devil, enjoying our evil works. Praise God, He redeemed us, and now we are back in the family of God, under his influence through the working of the Spirit who dwells within us. We have been redeemed, we have been redeemed, by the blood of the Lamb, we have been redeemed. 

Filled With the Spirit

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

Luke 1:67-80

67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),   71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

NIV

First, we have to deal with the fact that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit way before the Day of Pentecost, as was his wife, Elizabeth when Mary came to visit. It is also interesting that the first words of his prophetic words were “Praise be to the Lord”. This prophecy of Zechariah is all about what will occur because of the son God has for him and Elizabeth. Although, we have often thought that the prophets always spoke for the Lord, in some sense saying, “This is what the Lord God says”. But here the prophesy of Zechariah is not necessarily what the Lord said but is in fact being inspired by the Holy Spirit. This makes us think of the prophets again, and we wonder how they received the word of the Lord. The Prophet Amos said: “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets”. This revelation was either through dreams or visions which is not the case with the prophesying of Zechariah, as he was filled with the Holy Spirit who inspired his words. This was not a dream or a vision, but the words he spoke came directly from the Spirit. Would we also have to believe the Holy Spirit is still at work in the hearts and minds of believers who are willing to be inspired? We have been warned not to quench the Spirit, yet if we are speaking from our own thoughts based on our studies through our educational process, we may well just be speaking as men, or from our flesh, without the Spirit. Yes, we are to study the word of God and hide his words in our hearts, but without the inspiration of the Spirit, we may say good things, but at the same time they might just be empty words because they come from our flesh. Let us always be walking in step with the Spirit hearing His cadence for our lives, always listening for His inspiration so that our words are meaningful and beneficial. This is being filled with the Spirit. 

Loosing the Tongue

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

 LOOSING THE TONGUE

Luke 1:57-66

57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. 59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." 61 They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." 62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

NIV

Seeing all the friends and family sharing the joy Elizabeth had, and how that applies to our lives today, we are looking into the rest of the narrative. We do not know who it was that intended to name the newborn son on the eighth day when he was circumcised in accordance with the law given to Abraham. Why would someone other than the parents get to name the child? We find that among the Jews it was common to name the firstborn son, at the time of circumcision, after his father. We should note that this act of circumcision does not have any bearing on the salvation of the child. We understand why Paul makes the point the circumcision of the flesh does not make a person a Jew, or what we would say, a chosen people, but that it is when God circumcises our hearts, that makes us His chosen people. Nevertheless, at the time of naming the firstborn son, Elizabeth spoke up and said the child’s name is to be John. Although nothing is said about this, it would be uncommon for the mother to have any say in the naming of her son. It does seem the priests that were performing the circumcision were not uncomfortable that Elizabeth spoke up,  but did, in some sense, rebuke her by telling her that no one in their family had that name, so they motioned to the father, He wrote on a tablet, "his name is to be John". Here is where the narrative brings it home for us. Look at the astonishment of all the people who were there when Zachariah wrote, he is to be called John, and as soon as he obeyed the word of the Lord his mouth was opened and the first thing, he did was praise God, and of course, everyone was in awe. Yes, this was a special occasion, the birth of John who would do great things in the name of God, and introduce the Messiah. However, what we see here is that as the first thing the father did as God opened his mouth and loosed his tongue, was to praise God. Perhaps praising God should be the main purpose of our tongue. We think of all the disciples when the Holy Spirit came upon them on the day of Pentecost and they spilled out onto the streets, praising God in many different languages. We would think that as we are also filled with the Spirit, it would be our nature to use our mouth to praise God. Still, we do have to function within our daily activities, and speak words relevant to the performance of our work. However, that also does not, in most cases, forbid us from speaking about our Lord and Savior, bringing our faith into the conversation. What puzzles us, however, is how so many Christians find so much to chatter or banter about that has nothing to do with God. Eleanor Roosevelt coined a phrase that seems to fit here. “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people”. In the case of believers, we would think great minds discuss the things of God, the ideas are theology. That average minds in Christianity might discuss a varied number of events in the world, such as weather, sports, politics, and many other worldly events. And, of course, the small, minded believers simply spend their time gossiping. Let us use our mouth for the purpose God gave it to us, giving him all the praise and glory He deserves. 

Sharing Joy

 DEVOTION

                                                          THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE           

SHARING JOY

 

Luke 1:57-66

57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. 59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." 61 They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." 62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

NIV

This is the beginning of the man who was to introduce the Savior to the world. It would not be right to parse this narrative into bits and pieces, yet within there are truths we should explore. First, is the response of the neighbors and relatives to the mercy of God shown to Elizabeth. It is not uncommon for the women friends and family of a young lady who has given birth to her firstborn to celebrate with a baby shower. But Elizabeth was not a young lady although this was her firstborn due to the hand of God. We are already told that Elizabeth and Zechariah were well along in years. Still, celebrating the mercy of God would still be an appropriate response for everyone. Surely Elizabeth told people of the experience her husband had with an angel while he was serving in the temple. We would think she would want people to know why in her being well along in years, she still became pregnant. We also remember the angel Gabrial told Zechariah that many would rejoice because of the birth of John. Gabrial also said that John would be a joy and delight to both Zechariah and Elizabeth. Great things are going to happen in the world, but now we simply see the response of all who knew Elizabeth because of the blessings of the Lord. Should we not also rejoice with others when they experience a blessing from the Lord? Of course, we are all blessed because of Jesus, in fact, that is the greatest blessing all can have if they believe. However, this is about rejoicing with a friend or neighbor because God is doing something special in their lives. It can be easy to become jealous or envious when we see someone being blessed by God. Then again, it might depend on what kind of blessing they receive. The birth of a child is always a blessing that many can celebrate. But what about some other physical blessing? How do we react when someone is blessed financially? How do we respond when someone is lifted up and given a special position, or an advancement? It seems fitting to always be ready to rejoice and be glad when someone we know, especially a fellow believer is blessed by God in a visible way. Still, because all believers are blessed because of Jesus, we would think all of us would spend our entire lives rejoicing, and then we think of that little chorus, “If you’re happy and you know it” with one of the lines being. “if you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it". Of course, we would clap our hands, stomp our feet, and shout, Hurray and how can we do all that and not have our face show that fact that we are happy in the Lord and always rejoicing and being glad, when we share in the joy of others being  blessed of God. 

Helping and Merciful

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

HELPING AND MERCIFUL

Luke 1:54-56

54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers." 56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

NIV

We just wanted to finish up with Mary’s song her final words about Jehovah helping his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful. What exactly does it mean that God has helped Israel? When we look into the Greek word, antilambanomai, it is only used three times in the entire New Testament, once as helped, or holpen as the KJV translates it, and once as ‘to support’ and lastly, as ‘partakers’. This gives us a full picture of what it means when God helped his servant, Israel. Considering that we have become servants of God we would also believe that God has helped us, for we are also a descendant of Abraham through the promise. He supports us, and He partakes with us, as He lives within us, being a partaker in our lives, as we then would also partake in the life of Christ, who is the mercy of God. This is what Mary is prophesying that the Son of God who is within her womb is God reminding himself to be merciful to Israel. However, the mercy of God, who is Jesus, was not just for Israel, unless we take that which Paul spoke, through the power of the Spirit, regarding the circumcision of the heart and it is those whom God has circumcised their hearts are true Israel. However, even if that is not fully the case, we are still descendants of the promise, for we have surely experienced the mercy of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Without God displaying his mercy, or reminding Himself to be merciful, we would be still lost and under the power of death and without any hope of life everlasting through our resurrection from the dead. Praise God for His mercy, for Jesus has conquered death, or taken away, destroyed the power of death, and through God’s divine plan, Mary will give birth to Jesus, bringing salvation to the world. We cannot help but wonder what our lives would have been like had not God remembered to be merciful. But He has and our lives are the richest they could ever be. We have life and life more abundantly, which we believe simply means that we have this life, and life everlasting solely because God is partaking with us, supporting us, and helping us by showing us mercy.

The Empty and the Full

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE EMPTY AND THE FULL

Luke 1:46-55

 

46 And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

NIV

There are two types of people Luke tells us that Mary spoke about as she was inspired by the Spirit. There are the hungry and the rich and each has been dealt with by the Lord in accordance with their desires. First, let us look at the rich because they have already made their choice as to who they trust in, and that is themselves. Their trust is in their ability to produce wealth for themselves. We would think they would say in their heart, “We don’t need God, for we have everything we want, and if we don’t have it, we go get it”. This takes right to the verse about not being able to serve two masters, God, and money. However, for those who hunger after God, as Jesus said in his sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." It is interesting the Greek word, peonaoo which is translated as hungry, is seen metaphorically as grave ardently, to seek with eager desire. This is to follow after God with every fiber of our being, putting aside our desire to satisfy ourselves with wealth, as we are told here the rich are sent away empty. Who in their right mind would want to be sent away from the salvation of God empty, without eternal life? How could anyone think they can provide for themselves better than God can? Because we seek after God, we thirst for Him, for His word, and we will be filled with good things, such as grace, mercy, compassion, love, and the Holy Spirit. How good it is to be in the palm of the hand of God, to have him walk and talk with us, sharing His divine thoughts with us, giving us the direction in life we need. Just as earthly parents try their best to give guidance to their children so they will become mature adults serving God, although we fail all too often, God never fails. He is always faithful to guide us in the way we should walk. He fills our hearts with His love. He lifts us up and uses us for His glory. Everything good comes from God, and the greatest good that God has given to us that hunger for him, is Jesus, for through Jesus going to the cross and shedding his blood for us, all our sins have been forgiven, and through his death and resurrection we have been given the very good thing of having the power of death destroyed and the assurance of our resurrection from the grave. We could go on and on about the good things that God has filled us with because we hunger and thirst after Him. So we have two types of people, the empty and the full.

 

The Proud and the Humble

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE PROUD AND THE HUMBLE

Luke 1:46-55

 

46 And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

NIV

Even though we are part of the generation to generation who experiences the mercy of God because we revere Him, He is mindful of our humble state as His servant, and that He has already done great things for us, and we do praise His Holy name, there is more that God has done and is doing. What we see now is a warning of the danger of being proud in our inmost thoughts. Mary's song is prophetic and yet because of the Spirit filling her, she speaks about the pridefulness of the rulers of her day. Yet, the rulers of our day seem to have that same sense of being proud of themselves. We as members of the body of Christ are also warned about being prideful. The Apostle James quotes the proverb that says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” The Apostle Peter also quotes that same proverb. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans said, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low positions. Do not be conceited.” It would seem to us that pridefulness has no room in the heart and mind of a Christian. This is especially true of those who are in positions other than lowly, although we would think that all of us should be of a lowly estate considering we are servants of the Might One, the Lord God Almighty. It might be possible that some of us believers could get perhaps a little, if not more, prideful about the amount of education, or our title, of which there are a vast amount of in the church, or how many things we do, or what we do not do, and thinking more highly of ourselves then we should. There is a danger of being brought down if we even allow this pridefulness in our thoughts. Again, the key to holy living or living in a manner that pleases God, is to live a humble life. However, this could also bring us to prideful thoughts, if we say to ourselves, or others, “See how humble I am”. We must be careful not to think we are being so holy because we are humble. Although it is difficult to be humble and not think it is good to be humble, if we consider our lowly estate, our lack of abilities, skills, training, and everything else we do not have, then maybe we might see our true humility before God and men. We need to allow God to lift us up rather than making our own efforts to lift ourselves up. Can we decide to be humble without being prideful about being humble? It would seem that is the key to living humbly before the Lord. 

Extended Mercy

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

EXTENDED MERCY

Luke 1:46-55

46 And Mary said:

"My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his forever, even as he said to our fathers."

NIV

There is no question that Mary was blessed beyond all other humans because of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon her as a virgin she was with child, and not just any child, but the Savior of the world, the Son of God, Jesus. The Mighty One has done a great thing for Mary, and we too can say holy is his name. Yes, of course, for what happened to Mary, but also, on a personal level, because His mercy has been extended to us who fear him. It is interesting the Greek word phebeo has the direct meaning of to take flight, to be frightened, to be alarmed, however, it also is used to be in awe of, i.e., reveres. With the first meaning, we can see the English word phobia which we use for an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. Indeed, this is not the use of the word for “those who fear Him”. We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, do not have an irrational fear or aversion to Jesus. However, we do stand in awe and revere Him with all our inner being. We have already received his mercy in the person of Jesus Christ, for He is the mercy of God. Still, we have also received mercy, or compassion over and over again, for He has forgiven our sins, past, present, and future. However, all that compassion is still wrapped up in the Holy One of God, Jesus. For it was His blood that was shed for our sins. He was His resurrection that gives us the hope of our resurrection. God is also continually showing us mercy, as Jesus constantly intercedes for us before the throne of God. Without the mercy of God, our lives would still be in the pit, which is only a shorter version of a grave. In other words, without the mercy of God, we would be dead men walking. God has also given us the Holy Spirit for several reasons, however, in the context, the Spirit within us confirms the mercy of God that has been extended to us who revere His holy name. We can live in peace with God, enjoying all His many blessings in our lives, filled with contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment, and all the joy of the Lord, because of His mercy being extended to us. 

The Mindful God

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE MINDFUL GOD

Luke 1:46-55

46 And Mary said:

"My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his  forever, even as he said to our fathers."

NIV           

 

We are still looking into the song of Mary and after her soul glorifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior, Mary said that the Lord has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. Once again, we can take a lesson from that statement. First, to live a humble life before the Lord and we would think that living humbly includes before men as well. It should not be difficult for us to humble ourselves before the Lord, as He is God, and we are His creation. He has given us life, and life abundantly, which simply means eternal life. there is nothing we can do that qualifies us to partake in salvation from the Lord. But, this goes against everything we have learned from the world as we grow from infancy to adulthood. The world teaches us to be self-sufficient, self-motivated, and self-absorbed. It teaches us that we are to be all that we can be, and as one commercial made the point that we only go around once, and grab all the gusto we can. Even as believers we try with our best efforts to make the most of our lives, trying for the best jobs, or careers that provide us with enough money to live out our dreams and desires, even to the point of storing up for our future. This philosophy has even invaded the church, with the possibility of becoming prideful about our position or title within the body or boasting about how much “Good works” we do. We think that if we were humble before the Lord and men, we would be always looking for a way to build each other up, looking to be a benefit to others. Yet, the most wonderful part of this part of what Mary said was that the Lord is mindful of the humble state of his servant. What more could be wanted than for the Lord to be mindful of our humble state as we live as his servant. God knows every aspect of our being, He knows our thoughts and is constantly there to influence our hearts. This means that we must first, be humble, and second, be his servant. We know what a servant is in that they are owned by the Master, who dictates every aspect of their lives. Do we really live as servants of the Lord? Although He has absolute authority over us, do we submit to His authority, turning all of our lives over to Him, or do we just live in the spiritual realm under his authority saying that He is our Lord and Savior because we desire eternal life, and we then make all our own choices about the physical, or how we live in this world. Perhaps the key to the Lord being mindful of us is our being his humble servant. 

Magnify and Jubilation

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

MAGNIFY AND JUBILATION  

Luke 1:46-55

46 And Mary said:

"My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

NIV           

This is referred to as the song of Mary and for the sake of space, we have condensed each phrase, otherwise, each one is a single line, as it shows in the scripture. Nevertheless, we may well take each statement separately. First, Mary makes it known that her soul glorifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. The Greek word, megalunoo, translated as glorifies is also translated as magnifies. We can see mega which we take to mean really big, or very large, however, in conjunction with lunoo, it means to make great, to see as very great. Would this not be our story also? Should our soul, the seat of my feelings, desires, and affections not speak of the glory of the Lord, to speak of His greatness, His majesty, His power, magnifying Him as the largest there is. When we look at anything with a magnifying lens, we see what we are looking at as larger as well and we see all the details that we cannot see with our naked eyes. Therefore, with our innermost being, we magnify the Lord, making Him the largest person in our lives. There is nothing more important or larger in our lives than the Lord. In addition, Mary said her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. It is interesting the Greek word, agalliaoo means more than to rejoice, but exult, rejoice exceedingly. We needed to amplify this word exult, because it is defined as to feel or show triumphant elation, or jubilation, to be delighted in God our Savior. Of course, there is no perfect comparison to being elated, jubilant, and delighted in God, but when we receive a present from a loved one, we would usually show some elation, or be jubilant and thankful for the thoughtful gift. We have received the perfect and most thoughtful gift from God, who is our Savior. God has gifted us with the forgiveness of all our sins, and given us Jesus Christ as our Savior so that through our faith in Him, we have eternal life. How can we not magnify God our Savoir and live out our days, filled with a constant state of rejoicing, being elated and filled with jubilation? Because both our soul and our spirit are engaged in giving all the praise and honor to God Almighty, our Lord, and Savior, our whole being serves to magnify God, to show Him as larger than life, and reveal all His details because we are His image bearers.

 

Spirit Words

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

SPIRIT WORDS

Luke 1:39-45

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

NIV

This is just the beginning of the world reacting to the presence of the Lord. We do not know exactly how soon Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea after her visit from Gabriel. Although Luke does not give us any details about this trip Mary took, we would believe she did not travel alone, after all, she is a young woman, perhaps no older than a teen, and is pregnant. Again, Luke does not tell us exactly how pregnant Mary was at the time she arrived at Zechariah’s house, however, we know that Jesus was in Mary’s womb, because of the response of John within the womb of Elizabeth and the presence of the Holy Spirit as he filled Elizabeth. What is interesting is what Elizabeth said because of being filled with the Spirit. We know the Spirit only speaks the truth, and in this case, the Spirit knows full well who was present in the room, for from before time began, there was the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, who decided to make man in their image. The Spirit was there, as it had been decided before the foundation of the earth when Jesus left heaven to be born of a woman in the form of man. We know the words of Elizabeth were prophetic, but the point is the Spirit gave her those words. Here is where we pick up our story, some thousand years later with the Spirit still being the presence of God within us, prompted our words regarding the truth of God. Without the prompting of the Spirit, we would believe our words would be useless chatter without meaning or substance. Of course, we must engage in our daily activities and conversations needed to accomplish the business at hand, but should we not be always walking with the Spirit, keeping in step with the cadence of the Spirit? Would that not mean all our words would have some evidence of the Holy Spirit within us? Yet, it seems we still engage in useless and meaningless, mundane chatter about the things of this world. Would it not be better, especially when we are in the presence of fellow believers to speak to each other in hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, as Paul warns the Ephesians to be careful how they live, which was not being filled with wine, the meaningless things of the world, but be filled with the Spirit, the meaningful things of God, marking music in our hearts, always giving thanks to God for everything in the name of our Lord, Jesus  Christ. Does this mean we should not enjoy some fun, or entertainment in life? We think not, but at the same time, we should always be aware of the Spirit among us, and within us, so that we would not want to be offensive to Him, ignoring His prompting of our words. Again, when we speak from our own selfish thoughts, things can go very badly, but when we speak from our hearts filled with the Spirit, then we build each other up, encouraging each other in every aspect of life, our walk with the Spirit, because we would be speaking Spirit words. 

I Am The Lord's Servant

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

I AM THE LORD’S SERVANT

Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

NIV

Now to the message of Gabriel to Mary who found favor with God. We have noted this was all planned by God before the foundation of the world, and He determined beforehand that this would be the exact time in history for the Messiah to come to earth.  We also know that because God has always been and will be and He knows everything that has ever been and will forever be, He knew Mary would be just at the right age and in the right place to be the one who would give birth to Jesus. Is this evidence for the case of predestination, Or is this a case for the foreknowledge of God? We are convinced that it does not matter because God already accomplished the salvation of his creation before time began. This is just playing out of what has already been done. That sounds strange to think along these lines, but we know this is what is truth, although we do not fully grasp the wholeness of this truth. Nevertheless, Gabriel tells Mary she will give birth to a son and that his name will be Jesus. Of course, what will happen to the son she will give birth to is a mother’s dream for any of her children. This child to be named Jesus will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. This Jesus will receive from the Lord God the throne of his father David. Mary knew all about King David, the mighty man of God, who began his fame by killing Goliath and became a mighty warrior and composed hundreds of songs plus many great things for the kingdom of Israel. For her child to sit upon the throne of one of, if not the greatest king of Israel would be a great honor. Mary also knew she was a virgin and in the natural, it would be impossible for her to give birth to a child, but Garbiel was to tell her that God would be the Father of her child so that He would be called the Son of God. All this brings us to the truth that the Holy  Spirit can overshadow any one of us, for any specific reason of God, so that we will be working under the power of the Almighty doing that which is for His purpose, not ours. Mary had plans to marry Joseph and have a normal life being a wife, bearing children for her husband, taking care of the home, and all the daily tasks of those days in that culture. But God has called her and after understanding this was a call of God upon her life, she responded positively. Would not we be obligated to obey the calling of God upon our lives? Perhaps obligation may be the wrong choice of words, yet, it is true that our correct response to the call of God should be no less than, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you called, Lord”

Highly Favored

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

HIGHLY FAVORED

Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

NIV

Because this is such a beautiful story of the beginning of the time Jesus came to earth in the form of man to redeem his people, we needed to keep it together, although there are various points we can focus on. The first of these points is the greeting from the angel Gabriel to Mary. Why was Mary “highly favored”. Of course, Gabriel also told the Lord is with you. Mary even questioned why this angel gave her such a greeting, although we are told she was troubled at his words, it does not seem that she was troubled having an angel appear before her and talk to her. However, what stands out is Mary being “Highly favored”. We do wonder about the favor of God, and that we are told that God does show favoritism, but then there was only one woman in the world who could bring the Savior into the world. It is also true that this woman had to be a virgin, never ever having any relations with a man so that her pregnancy would be a miracle in itself. Jesus was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is all true and could mean this is why she was highly favored by God. It is not that Mary was worthy of more favor than we are, for God shows the same favor to all his creation, but the fact that God was going to use her to bring Jesus into the world in the image of man, would be a highly honored happening. There are conflicting beliefs about the life of Mary as to whether she was sinless, or simply a normal young virgin living in a small town where she was known by many. Because there is absolutely no scripture to indicate anything about the birth of Mary, it would be inappropriate to make and confirmed belief, so we would think Mary was a normal young virgin who God determined to find favor upon her by bringing Jesus into the world through her. This could mean, that any of us should find favor with God, and have found favor with him because he sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin. In fact, we might even say that God is looking upon us as “Highly favored” people because what Jesus did for us. Why would we not be so highly favored when Jesus came to died for us, and conquered death,and by his resurrection and that He has gone to prepare a place for us, and because he has prepared this place, He is going to come back and take us to the place where He is. How much more of a favor from God could we ask for? He has freed us from the penalty of sin, and has given us everlasting life. There is no question that we are “Highly favored”. 

Beyond the Natural

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BEYOND THE NATURAL

Luke 1:21-25

21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

NIV

Is this sort of a repeat of Abraham and Sarah, two people in the later years of life having a baby? Was Elizabeth over the age of being able to have a child naturally as Sarah was and once again God demonstrates his power over the natural. God is certainly showing his ability to overshadow us, causing Zechariah to now be able to speak because of unbelief. If we can learn anything from this narrative is that God can do what we would think is beyond our natural realm. At times, we might think that our lives are dependent on our power, or abilities, so we put limits on the power of God acting on our behalf, doing things in our lives that are beyond human power and abilities. It is also interesting that although Elizabeth was well along in years and becoming pregnant, she remained in seclusion for five months. We would think because God did such a miracle in her life, she would want to tell everyone she knew. However, on the other hand, would anyone believe she became with child by the power of God, although John was still conceived through the natural human course. Elizebeth was barren but that did not mean she was a virgin, as Mary her cousin was. However, the main truth we should be careful to remember is that God can do whatever he desires in our lives to accomplish his purpose. When we call Jesus our Lord and Savior, it means that we have declared God to be our Lord, our Master, our Sovereign, who is in charge of us. That includes doing supernatural things in and through us. But we need to release his power within us, looking past the natural order that we are limited to in our flesh. This would include every aspect of our lives, however, the one area in which we are the weakest would show how God is the strongest when he works through the power of the Spirit within us. Zechariah thought it would be beyond the natural realm for him and his wife to have a child, but it was not anywhere near beyond the power of God. This is how we need to face life, always expecting the power of God to work in and through us beyond our natural abilities, we will have life and life abundantly, living in and for the kingdom of God.

The Answer

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE ANSWER

Luke 1:11-20

11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.   16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." 19 The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time."

NIV

Now to the conversation between the angel and Zechariah. We should not be surprised that an angel met with Zechariah because he was in the house of the Lord. True, it might be a startling and even fearsome experience to meet an angel of the Lord, but are we not meeting with the living God when we enter the sanctuary at church? In Fact, are we not also living with the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within us, and yet we are not startled nor are we gripped with fear, although maybe we should be, instead of being so casual about being in the house of the Lord. The angel told Zechariah to be afraid, and that his prayer had been heard. Surely, he had been praying about having a son, but Elizabeth had been barren their whole marriage. Zechariah has no heir, and, in their culture, it would be considered shameful not to have an heir, much less any children at all, and now they are well advanced in years. But the good news is the Lord heard his prayer and sent Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, to deliver the answer. What a powerful way to answer a prayer, and here we stand in the sanctuary of God, praying for the sick and those in need, maybe just out of routine, and not expecting an angel of the Lord to deliver God’s answer. In fact, sometimes it seems we wait days, months, and even years to see an answer to our prayers. We do not know how long Zechariah prayed, or when he started to pray about having an heir, but the fact is, that God sent an angel to deliver the answer. However, this was also the exact time that God wanted Zechariah to have a son and God told him what his son’s name should be. Yet, with all that spectacular type of answer, an angel of the Lord appearing before him, Zechariah was still looking at the physical instead of seeing the power of God at work, and Zechariah was a priest. We would think that if anyone would believe without questioning God, it would be a minister of the Lord, one who is supposed to lead the people in spiritual matters. Because he looked at the physical instead of just believing, especially under the awesome way in which God delivered the answer to his prayer, the angel used the physical to prove God’s power to give him an heir. Let us not wait to be inflicted with some physical problem because we question God’s ability to bring the answer to fruition and do it exactly at the right time. There is no question, God answers prayer. Let us not get caught up in that idea his answer could be no, maybe, wait, or you have to prove you are worthy of my answer. Jesus has told us to ask anything in his name and he would do it. We just need to believe, and have faith in God. 

Serving at His Pleasure

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

SERVING AT HIS PLEASURE

Luke 1:8-10

8 Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

 

The first truth that stands out to us is this is not a happen-stance situation, but a complete work of God for His expressed purpose. First, at just the precise time, Zechariah’s division was on temple duty. It is interesting that in Chronicles chapter 24 all the divisions of priests are listed and there are twenty-four divisions. So out of that number of divisions Zechariah’s was the one to serve at this time. We cannot find any data has to  how many priests in each division, but we know there were enough that they had to cast lots to see which priest would serve before God in the temple. Once again, no matter how many priests that were in the division, God ordained that Zechariah would be the one to serve before him. We will get to the conversation with the angel, but this scenario of a particular division and a particular man being chosen to serve before the God at this specific time in history so that Zechariah’s son, John would be at the precise place and time to introduce the Son of God to the world. This gives us a grand picture of the Sovereignty of Almighty God. This brings us to wonder, and yet not wonder that we have been born at the precise time God determined to the very parents he chose for us so that all our experiences would bring us to the exact place and time where the Spirit would convince us of the truth of God, and we accept his saving Grace, Jesus as our Lord and Savior, so that He would be able to use us for specific duties, at specific times, for us to serve before Him. He has chosen where we are to live, what church we are to serve in, for what time, and what type of service. Nothing has been done by casting lots in our lives, everything is about the purpose of God, so that we will be at the precise place and time that He needs us to be for the exact purpose He has determined. Just as Zachariah, we serve at the pleasure of God. 

Upright in His Sight

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

UPRIGHT IN HIS SIGHT

Luke 1:5-7

5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.

NIV

This is going to be a long narrative on the birth of John the Baptist, and there are some truths we should look at as we move through this story. First, we are told about the spiritual life of Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth. Why it is important that we are to know that both were upright in the sight of God? Of course, this was before Christ, although it was about the time for Jesus to be born of a woman, but the law was still the main source of righteousness and life. However, the law was also in effect to show Israel they needed a Savior, an ultimate sacrifice on the altar, which was the cross. Yet, here are two people, both descendants of Aaron who observed all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. It is no wonder God decided to use them for the birth of the one who declared and introduced the Holy One of God. It is interesting that Zechariah and Elizabeth are both from the line of Aaron, the brother of Moses, who delivered God’s people from bondage in Egypt. Now their future son, John, is going to be the forerunner to Jesus, his cousin, who would deliver His people from bondage to sin. This does bring up a question in our minds regarding Zechariah and Elizabeth following the law and regulations blamelessly and being upright in the sight of God. That cannot mean they were completely free of all sin, can it? Is it possible to follow all the commands blamelessly and still have sin in their lives? Does that mean it is possible for us to live uprightly in the sight of God, by obeying all the commandments and regulations blamelessly? If that is the case then we are not in need of Jesus, for our righteousness comes from our works and not by faith. This would also mean then after we have accepted the provision of God, Jesus, as our Savior, and we have been forgiven of all our sins, that we are upright in the sight of God because we are in Christ. But that does not mean we have become sinless, for then we would be perfect, and that we know it simply not so. Yet, because of Christ, we can walk upright in the sight of God. For now, we have learned that a descendant of Aaron will introduce the descendant of David, as both Zechariah and Elizabeth are in the line of Aaron, and Joeseph and Mary are both in the line of David. Just an interesting fact. However, the truth we glean here is being upright in the sight of God. They were because of the law, we are because of Christ. 

A Friend of God

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

A FRIEND OF GOD

Luke 1:1-4

1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

NIV

We start a new look into the gospel of Luke who has a deep desire to make sure that the account of the life of Christ is recorded as accurately as possible. Now the question about Theophilus is to if he was a particular man, or as this Greek word Theophilus used to mean, friend of God, but is also said is the name of a Christian. We would have to believe that any Christian would also be a friend of God, so in that sense, Luke could have been writing to any friend of God, or any or all godly men. All of us believers have been taught many truths from the word of God, especially those of us who have believed for many years. But even the newest believers have already been taught the basics of their faith, Jesus Christ died for their sins, was buried in the grave three days, and on the third day was resurrected and later after appearing to many, ascended back to heaven and sat at the right hand of God. But now Luke wants us all to know the certainty of things we have been taught. Luke does not claim to be an eyewitness to all these events, but that he made a careful investigation of the facts. So we begin our investigation of Luke’s account of the things that have been fulfilled among them, and actually, the message of the gospel is what has been fulfilled among all us believers. This is our life, the story of our faith, the reason we have this faith, and every time we read anything that Jesus said and did, our faith is encouraged, and we become more and more convinced of everything God did because of His surpassing great love for us, and that we have life and life abundantly, which means we are saved from the pit and brought into the glorious light of Jesus. So we begin our journey into this gospel account. Let us open our hearts, and hear the voice of the Spirit, as we explore what has been fulfilled among us as we are now a friend of God, a most excellent godly person, we are Theophilus. 

Undying Love

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

UNDYING LOVE

Eph 6:19-24

19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. 21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you. 23 Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

NIV

We thought we had concluded with this letter seeing that we need to open our mouths declaring fearlessly the mystery of the gospel. But something else came to our attention. The reason that Paul sent Tychicus was for two purposes. First to tell the believers in Ephesus everything that Paul and his companions were doing. Secondly, to encourage them. It is always good to give a testimony about how God is working in our lives, thus telling all the believers to give God all the glory. We know Paul is not a boaster about his own efforts or abilities, as we know that God still received all the glory when Paul beseeched him about the thorn in his flesh, and God told him that his grace was sufficient. Paul had learned to be content. This is a key to Christian living, to always be about giving God all the glory. When we give our testimony, when we tell people about how we are and what we are doing, it is always about giving God all the glory for we know we are not to boast about ourselves, but only boast about Jesus. The second purpose is to encourage others. We know that if we boast about our own abilities or what we are doing, without giving God all the glory, then we are not encouraging anyone, in fact, we are discouraging them for we are not testifying about how God is at work in us and how he is at work in others as well. The Christian life is about building up others, helping their faith grow, and at the same time being encouraged because they see God at work in us. But the kicker here is the very last thing Paul said to the Ephesians. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with undying love. We like the Greek word aftharsia which carries the meaning of incorruption, perpetuity purity, and unending existence. Undying is a good translation, but it is even more than that. Our love for our Lord Jesus Christ is incorruptible, pure, and with all sincerity, that is never-ending. In fact, because we are filled with the Spirit, which we would believe that Ephesians were, our love for Christ is inspired by the Spirit so we love Jesus just as Jesus loves us because God is loving himself. So then we can testify that our love for Jesus is because God is working in our lives, and God is recieving all the glory, even for our undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Speaking the Mystery

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

SPEAKING THE MYSTERY

Eph 6:19-24

19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. 21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you. 23 Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

NIV

One last thought about this letter as we look at the concluding statement of Paul. He is asking for prayer that whenever he opens his mouth, words may be given to him so that he will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. We need that same prayer from others so that we, who are filled with the Spirit of God, may be given the words whenever we open our mouths so that we can fearlessly declare and make known the mystery of the gospel. We do wonder if this is just when we have the opportunity to preach the word, and if so, then this only applies to those in the position of pastor/teacher. However, are we not all called to be a witness for Jesus? Then it is up to everyone to declare the mystery of the gospel fearlessly, as we should. Does that mean we cannot talk about the mundane things of life, and whenever we open our mouths, something about the mystery of the gospel should come out. Yet, at the same time, Paul was called to declare the gospel message, in some sense, as an evangelist, missionary, pastor/teacher, and perhaps a prophet. All the gifts to the church could be seen in the travels of Paul. However, we are nothing like Paul, not in the slightest bit. Yet we are still called to share our testimony, being that witness of the power of God at work in us, and in so we are declaring the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Years ago, within one of the denominations, the youth groups were called Christ ambassadors. We all are ambassadors of our sovereign Lord, speaking with diplomatic immunity for our Sovereign. This is the task of any ambassador, not to speak his own words, but to represent his head of state of his origin country. Because we have been adopted into the kingdom of God and that is now our country, we serve at the pleasure of our sovereign and speak not from our own words, but from the words we are given by the Spirit. We wonder if Paul ever spent time talking about the mundane things of life or was, he always speaking from the inspiration of the Spirit. Have we become too much like the world, accepting the trivial matters of life as the normal conversation and rarely, if ever, bringing up the mystery of the gospel? Perhaps we need to refocus our lives on the things of God and speak about Jesus Christ as the saving grace of God, a mystery that has been revealed to us. Let us talk about this mystery.

 

Being Sleepless

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

BEING SLEEPLESS

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

The last thing is to be sleepless, or as this translation puts it, be alert. However, the Greek word used here means to be sleepless, as well as being persistent in our supplications, or petitions for all the holy ones of God. We need to explore this being sleepless so as to gain a fuller understanding of what is meant by with this in mind, be alert. We would think we should always have the fact that God has dressed us in his armor, but perhaps we should keep in mind that our battle is not about flesh and blood, but against the schemes of the devils, against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. If we get caught up in living in the rut of Christianity, we could be lulled to sleep. We wonder if we could get too concerned about the human aspect of Christianity, that is doing all the right things, or trying to live under some set of rules and regulations basing our faith on works or service, our position in the body or how much we know about scripture, or our worldly duties and recreations. From what we understand here is that our Christian walk is a spiritual battle, that is we are always under attack from the enemy of our souls. If we get too busy with our works of service and trying to live under some version of the law, we might forget about this battle and be found sleeping in regard to the battle we are in and that we have all the armor of God available, but we must put it on, so we can stand our ground, take our stand, and after everything, stand firm. That is quite different than sleeping, for this would be living sleepless, always on high alert against all attempts made against us by all the forces of evil but in this world and in the heavenly or spiritual realms. Of course, we still have to live out our daily lives and do all those things both in the body of Christ and in our physical world, but while we do all that, we must not forget to put on all the armor of God and keep it on at all times, knowing the battle we face. Let us always be sleepless. 

Praying in the Spirit

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

And now the greatest weapon of all times, and yet it belongs to the armor of God, praying in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. There are several instructions about prayer that we are told here. First, that prayer should be consistent, on all occasions. We should also consider that prayer and requests are two different aspects. Prayer as mentioned here is worship, however, the Greek word translated as prayer is first defined as an address to God, which we would think is a given. Who would pray to anyone else than God. But it is also used as a place of prayer, such as the Jews would do in an open space when no synagogue is available. Here our place of prayer is in the Spirit, which we are at all times as he dwells within us. So, we should always be on communication with God, praying always on every occasion. Second, we can also bring our requests to God, but we do not think this is a time for our laundry list of needs, although we are told to ask anything in the name of Jesus, and it will be done. However, the clue here is that we are to pray in the Spirit. This might be a point of discussion among certain denominations as to what praying in the Spirit looks and sounds like. What we do know is that if we are praying in the Spirit, then it is the Spirit who both inspires and directs our prayer. We also know that we have an excellent example of being filled with the Spirit when the disciples were in that upper room. Their prayers as the spilled out into the street were prayer of worship, giving God all the glory, yet they were also not voicing their prayers in their own language, but that which the Spirit empowered them to speak. Of course, it might be improper for us to always pray in a different language, as we mostly all speak the same language, nevertheless, our prayers should not be from our own desires, but from the desires of the Spirit. This just might require that we speak a language of the Spirit rather than of our own so that we would be praying perfecting within the will of God for every occasion, which would be outside our will. This would seem to us that because the Spirit is directing our prayers, they would not be repetitive in nature, but would be inspired by the Spirit for every occasion we are in. We cannot either live in a rut, nor our prayer should not be stuck in that rut. We know that prayer is a form of praise to God, and that pray affords us time to hear from God through the Spirit. If we read this and understand praying in the Spirit on all occasions it would be right for us to be constantly connected to God. Prayer is also an offensive weapon against the schemes of the devil and all the dark forces of the world. Let us not just be on defense but let us live offensively with prayer. 

The Sword of the Spirit

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

Now that we have all the armor in place and we are ready to take our stand against the devil's schemes, and we can stand our ground when the day of evil comes, and we can stand firm, God also hands us the best weapon in both this world and in the heavenly realms, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. There is not a single evil spirit that can overcome the word of God. We have the best example in Jesus when he spent those forty days in the wilderness when the best of the best when it comes to evil Spirits used his schemes in an effort to get Jesus to fall, but Jesus used the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, to defeat the devils attempts. However, just like all the armor, we must put it on. We have to take up the sword of the Spirit, having the word of God in our hearts and minds. We are reminded of the words of the prophet and king, David when he said in the first psalm that our delight is in the law of the Lord, and on it we meditate day and night, the result being our leaves with not wither, or our lives will not shrivel, that is we will stand tall, standing our ground, standing firm, and bearing much fruit and whatever we do we will advance, make progress, succeed, or prosper, which in this case is against the schemes of the evil one, and all the forces of this dark world that are against us. But we must have the word of God not just hidden in our hearts, but on our lips. The sword of the Roman soldier is useless if he kept it in its sheathe tucked in his belt. It is the same for us, we must have that sword on our lips, speaking it into the evil forces of this dark world, and against every temptation that we face from the evil one. Just as Jesus said, our mouths speak that which is in our hearts. So we take up that sword and in some sense become a sword swallower, eating, or consuming the word of God so it becomes the desire of our heart. 

The Helmet

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE HELMET

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

Our heart, as it relates to the inner man, rather than to a muscle that pumps blood, is protected by the breastplate of righteousness. Because of the gospel of peace, we can stand firm even in the muck of this world, and we also have our shield to extinguish all those attacks of the enemy of our soul. Now we can be assured that as we place the helmet of salvation upon our head, we can also be confident our mind is protected. We know that our mouth speaks from what is in our heart, but our mind controls our heart, so to speak. Our thought life can be hidden from all examination, except not from God. He knows our thoughts, and so He has provided a helmet of salvation to protect our minds, and to keep our thoughts focused on the importance of our salvation, which of course is Jesus Christ. He is our salvation, as he redeemed us with this blood. It is interesting how our minds can wander through so many things in this world. Although we are told not to be anxious, and not to worry about tomorrow, if we consider the birds of the air, who do not sow or reap or store away in barns and the lilies of the field dressed even finer that Solomon in all his glory, we can be confident that God will provide for us. Our life is more than clothes, houses, cars, and all those other material things, as well as the array of other worldly areas, like our jobs, sports, hobbies, entertainment, and any other leisure time activities we can get distracted by. Then we have all those attitudes of jealousy, envy, pride, disappointment, discontentment, resentment, unforgiveness, and so many other thoughts that can destroy us from within. We would think that we can guard our thoughts against anything that detracts from thinking about God, but if we are honest, we know our thoughts wander off the beaten path all too often, but we do live in the world and must engage in the normal everyday life which requires some thinking. But it is because of those evil thoughts, God has provided the helmet of salvation, to guard our minds. But we also know because of this helmet that our salvation is secure in Jesus. Let us make sure we are completely dressed in all the armor of God.