Caboodle

Jesus' name means Yahweh saves. The name indicated his worldly mission. The name is exactly what He does: saves us all from our sins, if we will only let Him. By telling Mary and Joseph the name individually, it was so neither would forget who He was-God on earth in a human form. This way there could be no argument as to His name or no consideration as to what it ought to be.

Mary had very little in the way of options. She could live with her family if they would let her. The lesson said she might become a housekeeper, but that would be if some family would accept her. She could become a prostitute. Joseph showed that he was not self-centered. He wanted Mary to be spared as much pain as possible. He was kind and wanted to do what was right by this young girl. He had no desire to punish her.

It bothers me a little that you spoke of Mary taking the easy way out. I don't think God was giving her the option of saying no. If she hadn't wished to submit, did she really have a choice? Also I will personally not refer to her as St. Mary.

Jesus would have learned all the various carpentry skills that Joseph possessed. He would also learn how to make contracts and carry out business deals. He would have got to know a variety of people. Possibly there would have been rich people who would have been somewhat snobbish. some people could have been kind and friendly; there may have been others who were critical of his work or even tried to cheat him. He may have got to see how the customers interacted with their families. He probably traveled around quite a bit.

Mary was blessed in that she was the one God chose to give birth to His son. Elizabeth calls her blessed so if the Bible calls her blessed then it has to be an appropriate term since the Bible is God's word. She was the "mother of God" as she carried Jesus in her womb and gave birth to Him. God was His father-we need two parents so Mary was His chosen mother. I think we hesitate to call her blessed among women as we want to give her her proper place and not take the chance of giving her more prominence than she should have or letting her overshadow Jesus.

The essence of Mary's response is that she was a young woman with a lot of faith and she was willing to be obedient. We need to realize that if this young woman was willing to take a chance with what all could happen to her, we need to step out in faith as well and not constantly be worrying about what might hasppen to us or what others might think. The Lord will sustain us whatever he provides for us. This was an informed consent in she knew of possible consequences: rejection by her family, the townspeople, and her bethrothed. She knew as well that obedience could cost her her life. When we let go and "let God", we do not know what we are facing either. There could be hardships, broken relationships, even death. There is persecution of Christians today which will only increase but we must put ourselves in God's hands and our trust in Him. Mary is our shining example.

The virgin conception shows us that Jesus is truly God's son. I think this is important in Christian doctrine in that it is one of God's miracles. This is an important event in the Bible. We need to believe it along with everything else in the Bible. As my minister says: The Bible does not contain the word of God, but is the word of God. All of it; we don't get to pick and choose what to believe.

Mary never questioned what the angel said; she just did not understand how it would happen and wanted to know. Zechariah did not believe what the angel was saying. She was rewarded because she had faith in the angel's message; Zechariah was disciplined because of his doubt.

Her child was the son of God. He was part of God's family even from His birth. He was to become eventually the ruler over all things and would be so forever.

The end of the term will come when Christ returns and we are raptured. The seal shows that the Holy spirit keeps us for God and acts as our protector. As a downpayment, as He lets God speak to us and us speak to Him, we get a peek at how marvelous things will be when we are united with God forever. Taste and see that the Lord is God-that is what we can do now through the Holy spirit's help.

Christ is the ruler of the entire universe so it is fitting that all things should be under Him. We all belong to Him and our differences will then be gone; we shall all be together undr His beneficent rulership. The Creator made us all and loves us all so it is right that we finally be in one body. There will be the unity that we so sadly miss here with our race conflicts, political differences, and religious differences. No more dissension-only blessed harmony. Corinthians speaks of the end times when there will be no more ruling except that of God when all things are turned over to Him and He will rule eternally. I think this is a a passage which is hard to fully understand.

Because of my redemption, I can be free from the power of Satan. If I ask Jesus for His help and put my trust in Him, I can resist his power and not yield and do the things he would have me do. I can say no to sin. If I hadn't been redeemed, I probably would not be in church and probably would have committed sins (more and worse) than I do now. Life could well have been aimless. The future would be eternity in hell-separation from my beloved Jesus forever. And who can guess what sins and depravity I might take part in while still on this earth. There probably would be great unhappiness in my life.

Just as we might adopt a child to make our family more complete, God wanted us as a part of His family. As sinners, we were apart and not members of His family. By adopting us, He brought us into His family. This is encouraging because He loves us so much and wants us to spend eternity with Him. He felt we were a needed part to make His family complete. He wanted to bring us in from the "fields of sin".

Our minister has been preaching on brokenness and how sometimes we have to have everything taken away or go some really bad times in order to be broken and useful for the Lord. It sounds as though this has happened to you.