Hail Mary!

Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said,

"Blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb!"

Luke 1:42, NKJV

Did you know the Hail Mary is Scriptural? Well, what I mean to say is, did you know that the words of the Hail Mary are found in Scripture? Well, what I should say is, some of the words of the Hail Mary are taken from the Scriptures. But they were said as greetings, not prayers.

Gabriel spoke them first, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women (from the KJV). Elizabeth added, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. But the rest of it...since I'm not a Catholic, I'm not familiar with the origin of the Hail Mary prayer, so I googled it. The rest of it was added and developed into a prayer by "the Church itself" once the paganized organized church began to worship Mary as the "Mother of God," a designation the Bible never gives her.

I have spent a lot of time promoting the integrity of Mary's character as a Jewish girl, and her virginity as the chosen mother of God's Son. The Virgin Birth is a foundational element of Christian faith...but the virgin is not the one who brought about the Virgin Birth. It was the Holy Spirit who worked it in her womb, and honestly, God could have chosen anybody to accomplish the birthing of Jesus...but He did choose Mary, a righteous Jewess, to be mother to His son, and He did choose her betrothed husband Joseph, a just man, to foster that Son as his own. But the choice of God's vessels should never be mistaken as an exaltation to near-godhood.

Jesus Himself will later comment on this in Luke 11:28, when a woman cried out, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you." To this Jesus replied, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Mary was just a girl who, following the conception and birth of her extraordinary Son, went on to lead a rather ordinary life as a daughter of Israel, wife of the gentle carpenter Joseph and mother of his four sons and two daughters. At Jesus' death on the cross, He as her oldest Son passed his responsibility for her care over to His dearest disciple John, and church history says that she accompanied John to Ephesus after the destruction of Jerusalem...where she died a natural death. She was part of the early church, but after Acts 1, there is no further mention of her anywhere in the Scriptures. And why? Because it was never about her...it was about her Son, Jesus, the Son of God.

Yes, Mary was an extraordinary girl, both for being chosen and because she was chosen. But she was just a vessel, the instrument of fulfilling God's Plan of the Ages. That action brought salvation to the world, but it did not save her. She had to come to salvation just like everyone else...through belief in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God and her personal savior. She was a righteous girl by the measure of the law, but she was not perfect. But those who exalt above what is right would have us believe that not only did she give birth to a sinless Son, she was also sinlessly conceived herself...the Immaculate Conception. And that she remained sinless because she never had sex with her dutiful husband, and was therefore so holy that she was received, body and soul, into heaven through the Assumption. Thus she is living today, sitting somewhere as the Queen of Heaven (another pagan designation) and making intercession for the saints. There is even a move underway to actually name her the co-redemptrix with Christ in Catholic dogma!

Don't' get me wrong. Mary is a significant figure in the Christ story, but like John, she must decrease, that Christ may increase. She was the most blessed among women because God chose to use her womb. She carried there the most blessed of Sons ever conceived, the Son of Man and the Son of God who would bring salvation to all who believed on Him. But it's never been about Mary. Never once did Jesus instruct us to honor her or venerate her, and certainly not to pray to her or through her. The apostles neither acknowledged her nor suggested that she held some special place in Christology beyond being his mother. Never does the Bible indicate that she is anything beyond that. We have one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ the righteous. One advocate, one intercessor, one Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

I'm not trying to offend and alienate Catholics here, but I have to tell you...one of the saddest developments in the church has been the constant exaltation of that Jewish girl while leaving her son as a helpless infant or a hopeless corpse. I serve neither the infant, the corpse, or His mother. I serve the resurrected glorified Lord Jesus Christ...and He is all that we need.

In His Presence

Now Mary arose in those days

and went into the hill country with haste,

to a city of Judah, and entered the house

of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.

And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary,

that the babe leaped in her womb,

and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:39-41

Two great men were in the making. It was early winter, November or December of 4 BC on our calendar, and the season of Hanukkah. It was a time of feasting and gift-giving and rejoicing, of lighting candles and remembering the goodness of God in the shortened days and longer nights of cold. The womb of one mother was already six months with child, a son prophesied by an angel to be one coming in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare Israel for their soon-coming Messiah. The womb of the other mother was newly active, her offspring a cluster of cells barely the size of a mustard seed. But the first meeting of these two--both the meeting of the mothers and the meeting of their sons--was filled with great import!

We are not told the reasoning behind Mary's winter vacation to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Perhaps when the message of the angel was confirmed that Elizabeth was indeed six months pregnant, Mary was dispatched as a near relative to assist her in the final months of her pregnancy. And I'm guessing that at this point she had told no one of her own angelic announcement. Whatever the circumstances behind the visit, when Mary came into Elizabeth's presence, things began to happen.

Remember that Elizabeth had secluded herself after she found out she was pregnant. And Zacharias couldn't talk. What a mysterious greeting Mary must have received, even if they knew she was coming, and how strange she must have felt. I can imagine her knocking on the door, being greeted in silence by the old priest with a gesture toward some inner room, and her pushing open the door with a timid greeting for her cousin. And I can imagine Elizabeth sitting on a cushioned couch or bench of some kind, needlework in hand.

At the sound of a girl's voice, she looks up and feels a lurch within her, not of sickness but of exultation. At six months, her child is about nine inches long and weighs over two pounds. When he leaps, she takes notice. And instantly the power of the Holy Spirit fills her as He did the prophets in days of old. A joy inexpressible which she cannot contain fills the depths of her innermost being, and ecstatic expression spills from her lips! All this, because they--mother and child--were suddenly in the presence of God Incarnate, unborn, barely a collection of small cells in the womb of His mother, but alive and powerful.

God With Us is an awesome encounter, one that should produce such a filling every time we enter His presence!

I am the Servant of the Lord

Then Mary said,

"Behold the maidservant of the Lord!

Let it be to me according to your word."

And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:38, NKJV

I have a very active imagination. When I read Scripture, I always try to visualize the scene, the setting, the stage (if you will) in order to understand what was happening. And when I see this story unfold in my mind, there is something about it that touches me on a very deep level every time. Let me share it with you...

It was a cold evening in late November, perhaps with a dusting of snow on the hilltops of the Galilee, but the sky was cloudless and the stars bright. All through the village special candles have been lit and special prayers have been prayed to commemorate Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights that celebrates the miraculous provision and protection of God for His people through the ages. But now families are retiring for the night. Mary's parents and her sisters have already gone to bed, but this young girl lingered in the candlelight of the Hanukkah menorah.

She was about fourteen, a child by our standards but of marrying age in ancient times. She was betrothed to Joseph, a local carpenter from a family closely related on their fathers' sides. Perhaps she was thinking of Joseph on that wintry night, and the life that they would spend together. Perhaps the candlelight danced upon the golden band of her betrothal ring. Perhaps she even whispered a prayer before she extinguished the candles.

And then, all of a sudden, she was no longer alone in the room. Every corner was bathed in the soft glow of a heavenly light, perhaps the scent of incense filled the air, and a deep but gentle voice spoke to her: "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" And with the encouragement to be not afraid, Gabriel informed her of her destiny in the eternal plan of God. She was a virgin, having never been with a man, but the Holy Spirit was about to perform a miracle in her body, conceiving within her the very Son of God.

At that moment, as Mary faced the angel of the Lord, did she understand the ramifications of everything that was being said? Did she know how hard the explanations were going to be...to her parents, her sisters, her friends, to her beloved and betrothed husband? Did she comprehend the stigma that she and her son would have to endure at the hands of the village gossips who knew how to count the months? She was going to be pregnant out of wedlock with no other explanation than, "I have conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit." Who was going to believe this betrothed girl?

But Mary was a righteous daughter of Israel, heir to both a kingly and priestly lineage. If God said it was going to happen, then that's all there was to the matter. The only question she had asked was: "How is this possible, since I'm still a virgin?" But when the answer was given, the question was settled. She knew the history of her people well. When God issued the call, there was only one of two things you could do: resist and suffer wrath, or submit and receive God's blessing. Mary's heart was devoted to her God.

"Behold, the maidservant of the Lord!" And it is said as an exclamation. There was no doubt in this girl's mind whose she was. She may be the daughter of a prince and the granddaughter of a priest, she may be betrothed to the legal heir to David's throne, she may be despised, rejected, mocked, and mourned. But here she declared without regret or reservation: I belong to the Lord. He can do to me just as He sees fit! "Let it be to me according to your word."

How God longs, even now, to hear those words from your people. "Look, here I am, the servant of the Most High God. I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord. I'll do what you want me to do. I'll say what you want me to say, I'll be what you want me to be!"

Variations on a Song of Songs, which is Solomon's

I am my Beloved's and He is mine
His banner over Me is love
I am my Beloved's and He is mine
His banner over Me is love

He spreads His presence over me
He holds my head and embraces me

I hear my Beloved, He looks for me
He comes to me with love
My Beloved speaks and He calls to me
come with me my love

Rise up my love and come away
Rise up my love, this is the day

Winter is past and the rain is done
The sun is warm, His voice is heard
The time has come
The flowers appear, the time for song is here
'Til the day breaks and the shadows flee away!

I am my Beloved's and He is mine
His banner over me is love
I am my Beloved's and He is mine
His banner over me is love
It is love. It is love.

Hear My Heart

A Psalm of Casey

I was your friend, and I thought you were mine.
I wanted to be your friend, and I wanted you to be mine.
If a man wants friends he must show himself friendly,
And from the first day we met that is the only way I ever tried to be.
We embraced as brothers at every occasion.
We ate at table together, you in my house and me in yours.
We traveled the same road together from time to time.
We never had a disagreeable moment, nor a disagreement, and yet

When you chose a different path, I wondered.
But you left me in doubt.
When you spoke with different words, I questioned.
But you left me unanswered.
When you sat with different friends, I tried.
But you left me to sit alone.
When you abandoned me, I prayed.
And you never knew the intercessions I made, the tears I cried.

I hungered and thirsted for the same things as you.
I wished to hear and understand your heart.
I wanted to know where you were going.
I longed to catch sight of what you sought.
I desired to give you my help and my strength.
I yearned to offer my wisdom and my gifts.
I hoped to lend my heart to your cause.
I tried to come along side, but you left me behind without a backward glance.

When I was in need, I asked for your help.
You abused me instead and took the side of my enemy against me,
You surprised me, until I found you had done it before to better men than me.
When I looked for ways to support you,
To strengthen you and hold up your arms,
I found what I was not looking for and learned what I did not wish to know.
I carried the burden, I shouldered the load,
And you never knew, nor did you need to. It was mine to bear, and I was glad.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
And deceitful the kisses of an enemy.
To me I am the one and you the other; to you I am one and you the other.
What I offered you did not want. What I gave you rejected as naught.
You did not heed me, nor did you care to inquire of me.
You heard the words, but not the heart,
And now you think I have launched the firebrands and arrows of death.
But I have not.

Now fellowship is broken and relationship is gone.
I hear what you say, but your silence is deafening.
I see how you stiffen when I am around.
I feel the looks even when you’re not looking.
You don’t have to pretend with me anymore, I know exactly how you feel.
You feel betrayed by your friend, who became your enemy,
And you don’t even know why.
I feel the same way, and don’t even know why.

You listened to those who did not know me,

and accused me without cause.

You threatened me and demanded of me,

and never asked what you needed to know.

You were brutal and harsh when you needn't have been.

I would have told you everything, had you just been my friend.

Even now, I think you would isolate and deprive me,

but the walls that you build confine only you.

A brother offended is harder to win than any strong city.
What you want me to say would be a lie upon my lips.
But this I say: You heard my words, but not my heart.
What you thought you heard was not what was truly said.
You listened to deceitful kisses and honeyed lies,
You followed sedition and seduction where I could not go.
You did not see me for who I really was, but rather saw me as what you feared.
You did not know it, but you needed me, and yet I call to you from here.

You are my friend; let me be yours again.

Nothing is Impossible with God

"Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age;

and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.

For with God nothing will be impossible."

Luke 1:36-37, NKJV

I wonder how old Elizabeth really was? I know I've said before she was probably in her forties, but reading these verses again makes me wonder. Mary had marveled that she could become pregnant without knowing a man, and the angel equates it to the miracle of Elizabeth conceiving "in her old age." Maybe Elizabeth was closer to the age old Sarah was in Genesis...

But the point is this: Nothing is impossible with God.

We look at things from a natural, human perspective. God looks at thing from the supernatural, Divine perspective. We see things as impossible; God sees what He wants to happen and then makes it happen. There is no impossible with God, no difficult, no hard. I mean, we're talking about the One who stood on the pinnacle of nothing, grabbed a handful of in His right hand, a handful of it in His left hand, slapped it together and sent it spinning, thus creating the universe.

This is the One who spoke, and it was...and now that Spoken Word was becoming flesh. He lit the universe for four days with His presence before there was ever a sun, moon or star...and now that Light was coming to live among men that they might have Life. This is the God who populated the earth by the power of His will, formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into man's nostrils God's own breath. He created it. He sustains it. He could speak it right out of existence at the notion of His desire. He can do all that, and yet when He shows up or sends a messenger with an extraordinary (by our reckoning) announcement, we scratch our heads and say, "How can this be?"

Jesus was about to come on the scene and show humanity how really nothing IS impossible with God...not healing the blind, the cripple, the leper; not walking on water, commanding the wind and waves, delivering the terrorized from their demons; not turning water to wine, multiplying loaves and fishes, or catching the fish where fish shouldn't be; not even life and death were beyond His power to control.

When we get ahold of THAT reality, how different will things be for us? When we learn that God is all powerful and absolutely trustworthy to do whatever He says He will do, when we learn to exercise our faith and put our hope in Him, when we make up our minds that truly NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD...then God can accomplish great things with us.

No Tiger in Me

The following is the opening paragraph to an article found at crosswalk.com (http://www.crosswalk.com/11623365/) entitled "The Tiger (Woods) in You".

Prior to this recent series of revelations, there wasn't a man on the planet who in some sense didn't want to be Tiger Woods. Tiger is good looking. He's physically fit. He's a world-class athlete. He has a beautiful wife and two beautiful kids. He's rich beyond anyone's wildest imagination. He had a father who loved him—not just in words, but in action, pouring himself into his son, building a love that survives to this day, in many ways making Tiger the man he became.

I would like to state, for the record, that I am one man on the planet who never wanted, in any sense, to be Tiger Woods...even before this recent series of revelations. He may be good-looking, physically fit, and a world-class athlete. He may have a beautiful wife and two beautiful kids. He may be rich by the world's standards. He apparently had a father who loved him, who poured himself into his son to make Tiger into the man he became. But I still never wanted to be anything like Tiger Woods, and I'll tell you why.

I don't know if I'm good looking or not. I'm not physically fit, I'm certainly no kind of an athlete. I don't have a beautiful family. And I'm almost as poor as the proverbial church mouse. Tiger and I share one thing, though...I also had a father who loved me, who poured himself into me to make me into the man I have become. But what really differentiates me from Tiger is not what he has that I don't, but what I have that he doesn't.

Tiger is a self-professed Buddhist, the religion of his mother. He says it has made himself aware, and helped him realize he was stubborn and impatient, but has taught him that he has to work on the things in his life that he wants to be perfect. His entire life, all thirty-four years of it, has been about his career as a golfer--his swing, his stance, his concentration. The most important thing in Tiger's life, the thing that got him international fame, wealth beyond compare, a beautiful wife and beautiful children (along with no less than 11 beautiful mistresses) is the ability to hit a little white ball into a little black hole. That is the most important thing to Tiger Woods...that is what Tiger's dad apparently poured into him. And now, his whole world is crashing down.

My dad never played ball with me. He never taught me to work on a car. He never took me hunting, never showed me how to clean a fish or butcher a deer. In fact, I'd say that in terms of "practical" things, my Dad taught me very little. It wasn't that he didn't love me; my Dad loved me without reservation; he told me; he showed me. But Dad wasn't concerned about me being a success by the measure of the world. I'll tell you what Dad poured into me.

My Dad poured Jesus into me. As much as he received, he gave. If he learned it in the Word, I learned it. If he heard it in the Spirit, I heard it in my own ears. Dad taught me how to pray, how to worship, how to preach, how to minister to people. Dad showed me how to be strong and how to take a stand when I was right, even if it meant everyone else was standing against me. Dad showed me how to be honest, and how to have integrity, and how to keep seeking God's grace to overcome my weaknesses. Dad never condemned me for my failures, he loved me in spite of them, showing me the immeasurable love that our Heavenly Father has for us. He encouraged me to do better, but never rejected me for falling short.

He was not a perfect man, my father. There were some failures on his part, some shortcomings. I knew some of them; those did not diminish his stature one iota in my eyes. He was a great man of God. There were probably issues he dealt with, weaknesses, failures, sins, of which I had no knowledge. But he was a man who lived by grace, through faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He showed me the way to perfection was through forgiveness, and gave me hope...not in a worldly fortune or a measure of success. He gave me hope in the eternal. After all, a man can gain the whole world and lose his soul.

I never wanted to be like Tiger, because he doesn't have Jesus. He has the whole world, but give me Jesus!

And God Said...

And the angel answered and said to her,

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Highest will overshadow you;

therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born

will be called the Son of God."

Luke 1:35

God says, thus and so.

Man says, how so?

God says, because I say so.

How complicated is that? We say we believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, a Supreme, Divine, Sovereign Lord who can do anything, who knows everything, and is everywhere present all the time. But sometimes I think we treat that as simply superficial knowledge.

I know Who God is and What God does, but when I'm in trouble, I'm calling a lawyer. When I'm sick, I'm calling a doctor. When I'm in need, I'm calling a banker. When things get really bad, I might call the pastor.

But why don't we call on God?

I love Mary's response to the angel. When he informs her of her impending pregnancy, her response is, "Wow! How is that going to happen? My mom had the talk with me, and she told me that dancing causes pregnancy! I've never even been to a dance. How can this be?"

Do you think the angel smiled encouragingly? Or might he have rolled his eyes in just a bit of exasperation? They were talking about the God who delivered Israel from Egypt with ten plagues, parted the waters and dried up the bottom of the Red Sea for them to pass over safely, nourished them for forty years in the wilderness with cool, clear water from a rock, fresh bread baked in heaven's ovens, and quail that flew into camp on the wind, and then drove out their enemies before them so that they could possess the land of their inheritance.

And still today, there are questions about this virgin birth. How is this possible? How can such a thing be? Never forget that the God who formed the womb was the God over the womb that would form Him. God who fashioned man out the dust of the earth and fashioned woman from man's rib was more than able to cause a cell the size of the head of pin to begin to spontaneously divide. The prophets proclaimed that God formed them in the inward parts of their mother. Why is it so hard to believe that God did the same to Jesus?

The girl asked, "How can this be?"

And the angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Power of the Highest will overshadow you." Too often, we want to know the how beyond the obvious, but the obvious is the how! The virgin was going to conceive because that was the action that God had designed. No other explanation should be necessary. The conception was done through the presence of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Almighty.

And one more thing, Mary. You are still thinking in the natural. You wonder how you can conceive when you've never known a man. We aren't talking about a natural child here. We are talking about a supernatural child, a holy child, the child who will be born and called The Son of God.

The Virgin Birth

Then Mary said to the angel,

"How can this be, since I do not know a man?"

Luke 1:34

How important is the doctrine of the virgin birth to my Christianity?

Matthew and Luke both make a good effort to emphasize the fact that Mary was indeed a virgin--not just a young girl, as some liberal scholars would like us to believe, but a virgin in every sense of the word. Matthew points out that after her betrothal but before they had "come together" she was found to be pregnant, and he connects it to the Isaiah prophecy, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive." He goes on to say that Joseph did not "know" her until after Jesus was born. Luke calls her a virgin twice, and then quotes her as saying, "I do not know a man." These three references, plus the Genesis 3:15 prophecy about the seed of the woman form the ENTIRE basis for the doctrine of the virgin birth. Jesus never talks about it, and the epistles never mention it. So how important is that particular doctrine to my Christianity?

One popular author whose writings seem to embody the thinking of the emergent church claims that it shouldn't be important at all. To paraphrase, "If tomorrow we found out that Jesus Christ was the son of Joe the plumber instead of the Son of God, it would do nothing to my faith."

I think that is an extremely stupid and short-sighted statement. Of course, that same author rejects all formalized doctrine as an invention of the corrupted church, and states that though the Bible may be the Word of God, we as mere humans do not have the intelligence or insight to formulate doctrine from its pages. But that's for another blog. My question is still this: If Jesus Christ was really the son of Joe the plumber (or carpenter, as the case may be), instead of the son of God, is it really that important?

And my answer is yes! It is of vital importance. The virgin birth, and the deity of Jesus Christ are of ultimate importance to the foundation of Christianity--mine, and anyone else's. And here's why.

First of all, the Bible prophesied the virgin birth at least twice. In the Garden of Eden, God promised Eve that her seed would destroy the serpent at the climax of the eternal conflict between good and evil. The problem with that statement is that women don't have seed; men do. Men provide the seed that fertilizes the woman's egg. And yet God, who created us and certainly understands that fundamental scientific fact, said that it would be the woman's seed. Not the seed of a man, but the seed of a woman. And Isaiah specifically said, "A virgin shall conceive." Liberals would like to tell you he simply meant a young woman, but the ancient scholars who translated the Old Testament into Greek took it to mean virgin. So did Matthew and Luke. So do I. If Jesus was not conceived and born of a virgin, then He was not the fulfillment of God's promises through those two prophecies, and therefore not the Messiah. Not the Savior.

Ever since Eden, every union of a man's seed and a woman's egg resulted in the conception of a completely human person, an individual inheritor of Adam's likeness and Adam's fall. David says, "In sin my mother conceived me." Elsewhere, the Bible states that we are wicked from the day of our birth. If Jesus was conceived in the natural way, and not the supernatural way of the virgin birth, then He too was conceived in sin, born in sin, and was just as in need of salvation as any other. As a sinner, He could not be the savior.

Under the law, God required sacrifices and offerings to atone for sin and provide reconciliation between God and man. And He was very specific about what kind of sacrifice he would accept. Male lambs, spotless and unblemished, perfect, and unbroken. But those sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not sufficient to completely remove the sins of the people; they were merely the means of covering the sins with blood until a better sacrifice could be provided. A perfect sacrifice. A sinless sacrifice. If through man sin entered the world, then through man sin must be removed. But it couldn't be just any man, just any son of Adam. It had to be a perfect man, as sinless and unblemished as Adam before his fall. If Jesus was to be the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, then He also had to be a perfect man, impossible for a man begotten of man. But not for a Man begotten by God. A merely mortal man could not be the savior of mankind.

Without the virgin birth, there could be no sinless life, no sacrificial death, no perfected atonement for all of humanity. Without the virgin birth, there is no Savior, and no salvation. Without the virgin birth, Jesus' death could not pay the price for all of our sins, for he could not even pay for his own. But if Jesus was who the Bible says He was, then all is well! We can be saved!

Central and foundational to the Christian faith is that Jesus was the Son of God, not the son of any mortal man. And it is important!