'Mary' Tagged Posts
Daily Devotions
Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.” vs. 38 Luke 1:34-38 Mary has come to be revered for many different reasons all around the world. For the Easter Orthodox she is the Theotokos or Mother of God. For some Roman Catholics she is Co-Redemptrix, the redeemer together with Christ of all peoples. For the indigenous people of South America, she is…
Daily Devotions
The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.’” vss. 30-31 Luke 1:26-33 So how was it that Mary had found favor with God? She was likely quite young, maybe even a teenager, but no one knows much about her. Our scriptures say nothing–only that she had found favor with God. Of course that…
Daily Devotions
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” vss. 52-53 Luke 1:52-53 The text of the Magnificat comes from Luke 1 and is the song sung by Mary when she was greeted by Elizabeth after being told by the angel that she was to bear a son. It’s regularly sung in churches all over the world during the Advent season…
Daily Devotions
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” vss. 48b-49 Luke 1:46b-50 It didn’t take long for Mary to receive an exalted position among believers in the early church. By the time Luke wrote his gospel, about 50 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, there was already an anticipation that she was going to be remembered as a rock star of the Jesus…
Daily Devotions
The Name of Jesus … and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” vss. 18-19 Luke 2:17-21 In Luke’s story, Mary treasured the report of the shepherds when they came to see the baby in Bethlehem. Obviously it was good news for her–but it was more than she could comprehend. She needed time for reflection as she pondered their words in her heart.…
Daily Devotions
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” vss. 52-53 Luke 1:51-55 Mary’s song gives definition to Luke’s vision of the peaceable kingdom. As he sees it, God is no unbiased bystander in the great scheme of things. Rather, God is intimately involved and has a pronounced bias for the poor and the hungry. Luke simply doesn’t buy the contemporary…
Daily Devotions
And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.’” vss. 46b-48a Luke 1:46b-50 Sometimes the words of scripture become so commonplace to us that we don’t quite recognize their significance. Here we have the gospel writer Luke beginning his account by giving voice to a woman! That didn’t happen with Matthew or Mark and is an introduction to Luke’s inclusive style…
Daily Devotions
Luke 1:46b-55 “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” vss. 52-53 Mary’s song, the Magnificat, has long been a favorite for Christians, particularly at this time of year. When the vocalist is skilled, the tune lifts our hearts, and we’re entranced by its beauty. What we miss though is that the song is about revolution, the total transformation of…
Daily Devotions
Luke 1:34-38 “Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then angel departed from her.” vs. 38 Mary’s act of trust has been a model for believers since the beginning, and is one of the reasons that millions of followers hold her in such esteem. “Let it be with me according to your word,” she responded and she became the mother of Jesus the Christ, a child whose…
Daily Devotions
Luke 1:30-33 “The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” vss. 30-31 As Luke began to put together his account of the life of Jesus he discovered that people were curious about his origins. All agreed that he was a Jew but little was known about his heritage, except that he was from…
Daily Devotions
Luke 1:26-29 “And (the angel Gabriel) came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” vss. 28-29 The artists of the Renaissance were much taken by Luke’s account of the Annunciation and almost all of them painted one or more versions of the angelic appearance. Many show Mary in what the artists presume to be a perplexed state with…
Daily Devotions: December 22, 2019
December 22, 2019 For full passage click: Matthew 1:22-25 … “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” vs. 22-23 Matthew’s use of Isaiah 7:14 in his story of Jesus’ birth has had enormous significance in the elevation of Mary to almost divine status in the development of Christian thought. Some…
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