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.

Selah.

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 it 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 Jewish virgin, was the only one chosen to carry in her womb and deliver to the world the Son of God, our only Savior and Lord. Praise be to God! And eternal thanks to Mary!

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.

Selah.

 

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.

 

God has impressed upon me how sad it was that it seems most everyone doubted Mary’s word, this devout Jewish believer… and a virgin.

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…

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.

People of all time are commanded to love God and obey Him, to willingly serve Him and when necessary, lay down their lives for Him. We’re all going to die anyway (unless we are raptured.) Make your death count for good and not for evil.

And be the type of child of God that people have witness to: you don’t lie, you don’t pretend, you are that Christian that Hell warned you about!

Selah.

 

SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS FOR THIS “JOY STORY”

 

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

 

Revelation 21:8
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.