The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 3

“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel replied, “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. Look, even Elizabeth, your relative, has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.” (Luke 1:34-38 BSB)


In part 1 of our series of the Women of Christmas, we looked at the lineage of Jesus, how that was connected to Mary, and his right to be King. In part 2, we explored the grace of God that was coming and how that contrasted with the Jewish law the people had been living according to. In part 3 we are going to talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a person. He is the third person of The Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We first learn about Him in the book of Genesis.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”(Genesis 1:2 BSB)

This sounds so familiar doesn’t it? It sounds like what the Holy Spirit would do when Jesus was conceived.

The word “hovering” in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word “rachaph.” According to Strong’s Lexicon, it means “To hover, to brood, to flutter.”

Under the word “rachaph” on Biblehub.com, there is an entry that says,

“While there is no direct Greek equivalent in the Septuagint for "rachaph," the concept of divine hovering or overshadowing can be seen in the New Testament with the Greek word "ἐπισκιάζω" (episkiazō), Strong's Greek 1982, used in Luke 1:35 to describe the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary.”

The activity of the Holy Spirit was very reminiscent of the story of creation in Genesis. It’s like there was a Re-Genesis. Isn’t that amazing? I am always amazed by the Old Testament and the New Testament connections!

The Holy Spirit overshadowing or hovering over Mary would bring about the birth of the Son of God. In his message, “Christmas: the Wisdom of God,” Dr. Charles Stanley said about this event,

“The Spirit of God planted within that woman, the very life, the very person of the Son of God.”

What would be next?

The Holy Spirit would also be coming into the earth in a greater way than He had before. We talked earlier in the series about how under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit would seem to come and go. Men and women were anointed by God into the offices of prophet, priest, and king. The Holy Spirit would “come upon” them, and then would receive spiritual gifting to carry out the plans and purposes of God. But, He didn't live in them.

There was a very significant change coming. And it was for us.

In John chapter 1, speaking about Jesus, John says,

“And John bore witness saying, "I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon Him.” (John 1:32 BLB)

The Holy Spirit came and remained on Jesus.

That word “remain" is the same word that Jesus used to teach the disciples about the Holy Spirit in John 14:17.

“...the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.” (BSB)

Abide here means to remain. He will remain. He will abide in you, never to leave.

Ephesians 1:13 says about our relationship to the Holy Spirit,

“And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.” (BSB)


Many blessings to you as you rest and remain in the Lord this season! Thank you for reading this short series on Mary, part of The Women of Christmas.


Merry Christmas!

Beth


P.S.I am sorry I didn't get to Elizabeth and Anna. Christmas caught up with me, and the parts about Mary became longer than I had originally anticipated.


I wrote a series about the Holy Spirit starting with the baptism of Jesus. You can read about that here. The links to the rest of the series are at the bottom of the post.


If you missed the first two posts about Mary, you can go here to The Women of Christmas at Bethlisteningtohim.blogspot.com.

Five Minute Friday: Moment

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "moment."


In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.-Genesis 1:1-3 (BSB)



In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

He was with God in the beginning. 

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.-John 1:1-5 (BSB)

He was there, in that moment; He was always there.

Jesus was part of the Godhead, making creation, creating all things. Love was in the beginning, birthing this world.

John, the apostle of love, remembered that His love was always there, always had been, always existed. And in that moment, at the beginning, His life was a part of us.

His light was the light of men. In that moment, when we were created, life and light breathed into us, and we became human beings.


In the Gospel of John, he reminds us that it had come full circle. The one who walked in the garden was walking on earth, waiting to breathe His life, his Spirit into us once again.

31 Days of Jesus: Jesus Solves Problems

Today's word prompt for the 31 Days Five Minute Friday Writing Challenge is Problem.

Jesus solves problems.

Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus solving problems.

In Luke 5, Jesus causes Peter and his partners to catch a boatload of fish, literally, after fishing and catching nothing all night.

When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

“Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.-Luke 5:4-7 (Berean Study Bible)

In John 2, Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding after the guests have run out. 

When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to Him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why does this concern us?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim.

“Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!”-John 2:3-10 (Berean Study Bible)

In Luke 9, we have a record of Jesus causing 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed 5000+ people.  The disciples wanted to send them away to get food.  But Jesus was like here, let me fix it.

As the day neared its end, the Twelve came to Jesus and said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside for lodging and provisions. For we are in a desolate place here.”

But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.”

“We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.” (There were about five thousand men.)

He told His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so, and everyone was seated.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people.

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.-Luke 9:12-17 (Berean Study Bible)

He repeatedly solved problems when issues arose. When he came into contact with things that needed to be affected in the natural, supernatural things began to happen.

He also healed people over and over and over again. The phrase “and he healed them all” is repeated many times. There are also many individual accounts of healing throughout the Gospels.

In John chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus says, 

But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”

Jesus solves problems.

What problem do you need solved today?

 To read more in the series, please go to 31 Days of Jesus.

Names in the Life of Jesus

There have been quite a few times that I have heard people speak about women in the Bible and try to combine the different personalities, like the woman who was a great sinner, or Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Bethany. But, I think they were all individuals. I have a couple of reasons why.

The first reason was the authors were specific. They called them the names of people to whom they were connected, or linked them to the name of a specific region. Like, the mother of James and John (John 20:20) or Mary and her sister Martha (John 11:1). Mary Magdalene was most likely called that because she was from a region called Magdala. And the Syrophoenician woman was called that because that is where she was from.

Second, if something changed about them, usually the writers let us know. Like when Jesus renamed Simon. The author would state different names for one person., and Simon, who was also named Peter (Acts 10:18).

Finally, and this is opinion, I feel like we short change the ministry of Jesus when we combine persons. I believe that a lot of those people were all very interconnected, more than we know. But Jesus touched so many lives. How do I know that?

John 21:25 says, "There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written."

He's a great Jesus, and we want all their stories to be told. Because in them, we find ours.

Fragrance of Kings and Queens

Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. “That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.” They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.


But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.”-Mark 14:3-9



I love Mary of Bethany. She is who I named my blog after. She has several stories in the Bible, each filled with their own unique goodness.

One of the stories has to do with the anointing of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and John all tell the story about anointing Jesus for his burial. Each Gospel writer gives different details, but they all tell the same story.

She is not the same woman as in Luke 7. That is a completely different story filled with its own treasures. But Matthew, Mark, and John tell the story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus with the perfume, which would have been spikenard.

Now, if you haven't ever smelled spikenard, it is strong. One little drop is very fragrant. The Bible says, she took an entire jar of alabaster, which equaled a pound of spikenard, broke it, and anointed him with it, starting at his head.

Every time I hear or think about this story, I think about how everyone in that room, or in that house came out of there smelling like spikenard that day. They had the fragrance upon them.

I just read that this particular perfume is used to anoint royalty. Jesus says in that passage of scripture that she is anointing him for his burial.

In the Old Testament, kings were anointed on the head with oil to prepare them to be king. What if, in anointing him for his burial, she was also anointing him to be king?

When he was crucified, Pontius Pilate had a sign placed above his head.

"And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.""-Joh 19:19

The same things that happened to Jesus, happened to us. The fragrance of the spikenard that anointed him, also covered us that day.

Now, consider these scriptures...

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.-Romans 6:8

And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.-Colossians 2:12

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.-1 Peter 2:9

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.-Revelation 5:10

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.- 2 Corinthians 2:14

we have boldness through him, and free access as kings before the Father because of our complete confidence in Christ’s faithfulness.-Ephesians 3:12 (The Passion Translation)


Grace and peace to you.


In Him,
Beth

A Foundation of Grace: His Name is John

"His name is John."

Last night I was watching The Nativity Story, and when it got to the part where Zechariah wrote on the tablet, "His name is John," those words leapt off the screen at me!!!

When Zechariah was visited by the angel, Gabriel told him what to name the baby. This was no coincidence. It wasn't something haphazard, just because God thought his name should be John. It was pregnant with purpose, just like Elizabeth soon would be.

John. The name means "the Lord is gracious."

John the Baptist would be the forerunner of Jesus, and just like the angel said, he would,

He will be your pride and joy, and many people will be glad that he was born. As far as the Lord is concerned, he will be a great man. He will never drink wine or any other liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring many people in Israel back to the Lord their God. He will go ahead of the Lord with the spirit and power that Elijah had. He will change parents’ attitudes toward their children. He will change disobedient people so that they will accept the wisdom of those who have God’s approval. In this way he will prepare the people for their Lord.-Luke 1:14-17

I have often looked at John from a more religious and zealot like perspective. He often seemed like a condemning outlaw to me. I think other people might have the same perspective.

When you know what his name means, it totally changes your perspective of everything. He would be the prophet to usher in the Age of Grace.

His name is John. It just keeps rolling around and around in my heart.

May preparations for your Christmas season be a season of Grace, knowing that Grace itself has come into the world!

Merry Christmas!

~Beth

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.

 

Women in the Life of Jesus: The Women at the Cross

All four writers of the Gospels mention the women at the Cross the day Jesus was crucified. Some give more details than others, but they all four mention that women were there.

Matthew’s Gospel says,

And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.-Matthew 27:55-56 (NKJV)

Mark says,

There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.-Mark 15:40-41(NKJV)

Luke gives the least amount of detail. His Gospel reads,

But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.-Luke 23:49 (NKJV)

John’s Gospel has the women up close.

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple who He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ The He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.-John 19:25-27 (NKJV)

There were a lot of woman at the Cross the day Jesus was crucified, some of them named and some of the unnamed. One of the noticeable things about the women that day is many were named Mary. I don’t think there are any coincidences in the Bible, or with God, so this must be significant.

The Hebrew word for Mary means “obstinacy” or “rebellion.” I have also seen the definition “bitter.” So there was a lot of rebellion surrounding Jesus on the Cross that day.

In John’s Gospel, he describes a scene between Mary and John.

When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ The He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.-John 19:25-27 (NKJV)

I have always found this scenario very interesting. Why would Jesus tell John to care for His mother? He had at least 5 other siblings. Should they be responsible for the care of Mary? She was also not an old woman when this took place. Jesus was only 33 when He was crucified. She had him at a very young age. If she was 18 when Jesus was born, which scholars estimate she was much younger, she would still have only been 51 at Jesus’ death. I am 45 and do not need to be cared for. How could a woman so young, with other children, need to be cared for by John? 

I don’t think that was the point of this particular passage.

The name John means “Jehovah is gracious.” So Jesus asked a man whose name means “Jehovah is gracious” to care for a woman whose name means “bitterness, rebellion, and obstinacy.” John and Mary were a picture of what was happening in the spiritual realm.

There at the Cross that day grace came to care for rebellion. That is what happened with Jesus’ death. His grace came to care for our rebellion.


May you grow in the knowledge of His love,


Beth






To read more posts in this series, go here to Women in the Life of Jesus.

Passion in the Life of Peter

This morning I woke up thinking about passion and the life of the apostle Peter.  He started out almost afraid of Jesus.  When Jesus filled his boat full of fish, he said, "Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man." (Luke 5:8)  That didn't deter Jesus.  He told him, "From now on you will catch men." (Luke 5:10)

He was probably the most vocal of the twelve.  He said so many good things during Jesus' time on earth.  One of my favorites is when people were leaving Jesus and Jesus asked Peter and the others around him if they were going to leave Him too.  Peter says, "To whom would we go?  You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)

Then, when they come to take Jesus, Peter grabs a sword and cuts Malchus' ear off.  Jesus had just told him he would deny Him three times, and Peter still defends Jesus with his whole heart. (John 18:10)

After they take Jesus away, Peter follows.  He is only one of two disciples the Bible records as being there when they are interrogating Jesus.  Then he denies Jesus.  (Matthew 26) He is not recorded as being at the cross, but we see him on Resurrection Day. (John 20)

Later when Jesus appears to them in Galilee, and the disciples are fishing.  Peter is the only one to jump out of the boat and swim to Jesus on land.  Jesus restores Peter at that point with a beautiful conversation about love, and the job He has for Peter.  He does it for Peter, not for His sake.  (John 21)

Peter is in the upper room with the 120 on the day of Pentecost, and preached an awesome message and 3000 people get saved! (Acts 2)

Later, he is responsible for the first Gentiles coming into the Church! (Acts 10) People are healed through him and one woman, Tabitha is raised from the dead! (Acts 9)  He later writes 1 & 2 Peter, two of the epistles found in our Bible today!  

It is remarkable what Jesus can do with the human heart.  He took this timid, fearful man and turned him into a man full of passion and love and a heart for His Lord!  What can He do with you and me?

but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.- 2 Peter 3:18 (NKJV)