Today Our Daily Bread Luke 1

Luke 1:1-80
Luke Writes To Theophilus
1Many people have written about the things that have happened among us. 2Those who saw everything from the first and helped teach the Good News have passed these things on to us. 3Dear Theophilus, I have looked with care into these things from the beginning. I have decided it would be good to write them to you one after the other the way they happened. 4Then you can be sure you know the truth about the things you have been taught..
An Angel Tells Of The Birth Of John The Baptist
5When Herod was king of the country of Judea, there was a Jewish religious leader named Zacharias. He worked for Abijah. His wife was of the family group of Aaron. Her name was Elizabeth. 6They were right with God and obeyed the Jewish Law and did what the Lord said to do. 7They had no children because Elizabeth was not able to have a child. Both of them were older people.
8Zacharias was doing his work as a religious leader for God. 9The religious leaders were given certain kinds of work to do. Zacharias was chosen to go to the house of God to burn special perfume. 10Many people stood outside praying during the time the special perfume was burning.
11Zacharias saw an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar where the special perfume was burning. 12When he saw the angel, Zacharias was troubled and afraid. 13The angel said to him, "Zacharias, do not be afraid. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to a son. You are to name him John. 14You will be glad and have much joy. Many people will be happy because he is born. 15He will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or any strong drink. Even from his birth, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16Many of the Jews will be turned to the Lord their God by him. 17He will be the one to go in the spirit and power of Elijah before Christ comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children. He will teach those who do not obey to be right with God. He will get people ready for the Lord." (Malachi 4:5-6)
Zacharias Does Not Believe The Angel
18Zacharias said to the angel, "How can I know this for sure? I am old and my wife is old also." 19The angel said to him, "My name is Gabriel. I stand near God. He sent me to talk to you and bring to you this good news. 20See! You will not be able to talk until the day this happens. It is because you did not believe my words. What I said will happen at the right time."
21The people outside were waiting. They were surprised and wondered why Zacharias stayed so long in the house of God. 22When he came out, he could not talk to them. They knew he had seen something special from God while he was in the house of God. He tried to talk to them with his hands but could say nothing. 23When his days of working in the house of God were over, he went to his home.
The Lord Did What He Promised
24Some time later Elizabeth knew she was to become a mother. She kept herself hidden for five months. She said, 25"This is what the Lord has done for me. He has looked on me and has taken away my shame from among men."
Gabriel Speaks To Mary
26Six months after Elizabeth knew she was to become a mother, Gabriel was sent from God to Nazareth. Nazareth was a town in the country of Galilee. 27He went to a woman who had never had a man. Her name was Mary. She was promised in marriage to a man named Joseph. Joseph was of the family of David. 28The angel came to her and said, "You are honored very much. You are a favored woman. The Lord is with you. *You are chosen from among many women."
29When she saw the angel, she was troubled at his words. She thought about what had been said. 30The angel said to her, "Mary, do not be afraid. You have found favor with God. 31See! You are to become a mother and have a Son. You are to give Him the name Jesus. 32He will be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the place where His early father David sat. 33He will be King over the family of Jacob forever and His nation will have no end."
34Mary said to the angel, "How will this happen? I have never had a man." 35The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come on you. The power of the Most High will cover you. The holy Child you give birth to will be called the Son of God.
36"See, your cousin Elizabeth, as old as she is, is going to give birth to a child. She was not able to have children before, but now she is in her sixth month. 37For God can do all things." 38Then Mary said, "I am willing to be used of the Lord. Let it happen to me as you have said." Then the angel went away from her.
Mary Visits Elizabeth
39At once Mary went from there to a town in the hill country of Judea. 40She went to the house of Zacharias to see Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary speak, the baby moved in her body. At the same time Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42Elizabeth spoke in a loud voice, "You are honored among women! Your Child is honored! 43Why has this happened to me? Why has the mother of my Lord come to me? 44As soon as I heard your voice, the baby in my body moved for joy. 45You are happy because you believed. Everything will happen as the Lord told you it would happen."
Mary's Song Of Thanks
46Then Mary said, "My heart sings with thanks for my Lord. 47And my spirit is happy in God, the One Who saves from the punishment of sin. 48The Lord has looked on me, His servant-girl and one who is not important. But from now on all people will honor me. 49He Who is powerful has done great things for me. His name is holy. 50The loving-kindness of the Lord is given to the people of all times who honor Him. 51He has done powerful works with His arm. He has divided from each other those who have pride in their hearts. 52He has taken rulers down from their thrones. He has put those who are in a place that is not important to a place that is important. 53He has filled those who are hungry with good things. He has sent the rich people away with nothing. 54He has helped Israel His servant. This was done to remember His loving-kindness. 55He promised He would do this to our early fathers and to Abraham and to his family forever." 56Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months. Then she went to her own home.
The Birth Of John The Baptist
57When the time came, Elizabeth gave birth to a son. 58Her neighbors and family heard how the Lord had shown loving-kindness to her. They were happy for her. 59On the eighth day they did the religious act of the Jews on the child. They named him Zacharias, after his father. 60But his mother said, "No! His name is John." 61They said to her, "No one in your family has that name."
62Then they talked to his father with their hands to find out what he would name the child. 63He asked for something to write on. He wrote, "His name is John." They were all surprised and wondered about it. 64Zacharias was able to talk from that time on and he gave thanks to God.
65All those who lived near them were afraid. The news of what had happened was told through all the hill country of Judea. 66And all who heard those words remembered them and said, "What is this child going to be?" For the hand of the Lord was on him.
Zacharias' Song Of Thanks To God
67Zacharias, the father of John, was filled with the Holy Spirit. He told what was going to happen, saying, 68"Let us thank the Lord God of Israel. He has bought His people and made them free. 69He has raised up from the family of David One Who saves people from the punishment of their sins. 70His holy early preachers told us this long ago. 71God told us that we should be saved from those who hate us and from all those who work against us. 72He would show loving-kindness to our early fathers. He would remember His holy promise. 73God promised this to our early father Abraham. 74He promised that we would be saved from those who hate us and that we might worship Him without being afraid. 75We can be holy and right with God all the days of our life.
76"And you, my son, will be the one who speaks for the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to make the way ready for Him. 77You will tell His people how to be saved from the punishment of sin by being forgiven of their sins. 78Because the heart of our God is full of loving-kindness for us, a light from heaven will shine on us. 79It will give light to those who live in darkness and are under the shadow of death. It will lead our feet in the way of peace."
80The child grew and became strong in spirit. He lived in a desert until the day he started to preach to the Jews.
Lena’s Journalin’
Why do we write? Why does God write? Why are things written? I’ll let ya think about it for awhile……Ok, awhile is up! :-) Is the reason things are written – effective? So effective that even God uses it as a tool to speak to humans? Then maybe it is a tool we can also effectively use to bring things to people’s recall, to their attention, to their rehearsal, to our own recall and reference
Sons get people ready for the Father. Sons prepare the way. Sons bring joy, Sons are great in the sight of God & Fathers, Sons make others "happy", Sons turn people’s hearts towards God, Sons turn disobedience to obedience. Am I a "Son", or only a person, a human, a child? Who I am is voiced in what I’m doing, how I’m thinking is expressed in my daily actions. We are not one day a Son and the next a child. We are either a Son or not yet a Son. Yet is a word that is not complete, until a decision is made to complete it.
If we do not really know and recognize our father yet, we can have one of His messengers standing erectly with authority before us and not get the message or who the messenger is at all. Ever have God staring you right in the face and not see Him? Do not disregard the messenger from God, remember God even used a borrow. What would happen if each time we disregard the words sent to us by God in various forms came and when we do not heed or listen we lose speech for a period? How do we know that that is not really what happens to us? Every act of disobedience to or refusal to regard the voice of God in whatever form, makes it harder and harder to have a close relationship with God. Do NOT allow stubbornness to keep you from obeying the still small (almost unrecognizable) voice. Gabriel was quite recognizable, but Zach was not able to recognize him as being from God. Why? Hardness of heart and stubbornness exercised regularly can be a reason. God can stand in front of us, and we don’t see him, because the blindness of stubbornness or of pre-conceived notions of how He should speak allude us. It’s like putting our hands over God’s mouth, or our hands over our ears. Zach could not speak, even for God after that Encounter. Has your tongue been loosed to speak for God or is it all bound up? Those are symptoms of greater issues. Be loosed in Jesus’ name, Into obedience.
All of us, as Mary was , are favored and chosen by God to carry God’s message of life to our world, we can choose to either accept or decline His offer for us to house His spirit. He gave us the freewill of our decisions. We can even not allow God’s work in our own lives, as we all know, we wer stubborn against the work of God’s spirit in us. We’ve got to let that old nature view and that old natural way of responding die, in fact we need to crucify it on purpose, because it is standing in the way of God’s will in the earth. It stands in the way of our participation in His plan for the whole earth. We are a big part of His plan for the whole earth.
Have you ever born witness between God in someone and God in yourself? That’s what was happening here, There was the spirit of one standing face to face, the potential for greatness, for God’s great work being birthed into the world and carried on for generations to come. We who carry the gospel message in us and are released from stubborn resistance to God and released by His obedience working in us, our wills to do His good pleasure, that same will should bear witness with the wills of those who also carry the same spirit of Christ. Is Joy leaping inside of your spirit whenever the word comes to you, from others who also have the word?
Worship and the ability to wholeheartedly enter into it, is directly related to revelation of Christ inside of us. Mary believed God and he took His place inside of her being, she was overwhelmingly elated, overjoyed and the expression came forth. It wasn’t just because she was an emotional woman, she represented male and female, the church of the Lord Jesus, the very place God wanted to make His house on earth. The elation and the expression of it was a direct response to the revelation and indwelling of Him. It was a promise received by faith and manifested inwardly, the expression could NOT in nay way stay inward! There’s just No way! It gave birth. When it comes forth what will it be called by others? When anything comes out of you, it does not so much matter what you think it is, but others will call it what they see it as. Is there a confirming voice in your life of the promises birthed? Are you listening? They asked him, will the promise carry the name of your 1st father, or of the heavenly Father? Natural fathering, natural training or that of the spiritual nature of the Father of all spiritual life? Of old familiar ways or of new days ahead, not yet seen or known?
One sure sign of being filled up and overflowing with God’s Holy Spirit is the ability to speak where one could not before speak! God gave us a message, a life applying and copying message, to speak and live. We cannot with the power of God in us be silent, either in worship or in witness. We cannot be silent, we’ve got to lift our voices and be heard. While we still can. Faith is what God is looking for us to speak. As in Genesis, God said, God saw….Worship Him with your tongue, with what your life is saying- SPEAK, BE LOOSED Oh Tongue of God! Hark the herald angles sing!