YOUR REPUTATION IS HIGHLY IMPORTANT:
Your character is important. What you say is what you should not only do but it should also be what you are, who you are – honest, godly.
People do judge…
Did you know there is biblical grounds to judge?  Let’s get our theology right.

Christians are good for we have been cleansed in the blood of The Lamb; we are safe, we are sealed by the Great I AM. Our spirits are new, our thoughts should be too. We have been cleansed by the blood of The Lamb!

Mary is an example of greatness in word, action and love. She is a forever role model. And yet, how many people believed her as she lived a life of holiness, shunning evil and deeply loving her and our God? At the appointed, time Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel. She loved God and proved this when one of the greatest tests came to her and to her alone. Mary was not a Christian, nor could she be. Jesus had not taken the sins of the world upon Himself, becoming sin. He didn’t pray to have the cup taken from Him in the garden. He hadn’t sweat drops as blood, He had not carried His cross yet. Jesus Christ at this time in world history was not a fully grown man, was not even a baby yet, for Mary was just getting the good news: she, a virgin chosen to carry the Son of God in her womb and deliver Him, our only Savior and Lord to the world. Praise be to God! And eternal thanks to Mary, the virgin mother to the Son of God!

Mary’s character was such as one willing to risk death by stoning, being ostracized for the sake of God’s magnificent plan. The plan which could never be extinguished, the plan that was never in danger because God’s word goes forth and He cannot be denied or mocked.

Luke 1:46-55
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

Certainly the people in her region would think it was the appropriate thing to stone such an ‘immoral woman’ – but as in so many cases: God knows something we don’t know!

Selah!

What better time to declare this word of the LORD?

Isaiah 55:6-9
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We Christians do have the mind of Christ and we need to use it that way but never will we be God, never will we be His equal! Never will we be The Creator.  Mary had numerous challenges that we are truthfully unable to sympathize with. We can’t feel what Mary felt. We don’t live in a period of time when travel and lodging was so much more difficult. Mary had it rough in so many ways and yet she willingly proclaimed:

Luke 1:46-48
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,  for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

Thank God Almighty He puts people in your life you absolutely need! Elizabeth understood and believed:

Luke 1:39-45
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

The angel Gabriel also visited Elizabeth and told her of her cousin’s coming baby boy, the Son of God, Son of man, coming King, great I AM. Elizabeth was also so very close to God that He sent her a supernatural visitation: she too, took this angelic message literally (how many people do not take the Bible literally, much to their detriment?) Elizabeth was one of the few who gave great comfort to her godly and blessed cousin Mary. Joseph also came to believe. Here was a man ready to marry a beautifully honest Jewish virgin and yet he doubted…

How very many people had to be shown Mary was honest before they believed her! Still to this day! Beloved, unlike His Son evidenced in Mary’s womb, God does not always show physical proof. We are to believe Him because He is God and He has given us more than enough evidence to know He cannot lie:

Romans 1:18-20
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

We need to take seriously our character.
We need to stand up for our beliefs and our lifestyle without condemnation, without fear.
Mary did. Joseph did…