Betrothed - A Christmas Pondering

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
Luke 1:26‭-‬28 NKJV

The whole betrothed thing has had me thinking this Christmas season. Back in those days being betrothed meant so much more than an engagement in today's terms. You actually entered into a legally binding contract of marriage the wife was given a ring or other gift as a token of the betrothal. The betrothal period on average was about 12 months during which the bride started gathering her things and preparing herself for part two of the process, the wedding day. This is when she would actually move under her husbands roof and became fully his wife. The groom during this time period was also doing things to prepare his biggest task was to finish his house and ready it for his bride. So when Abba decided it was time for the arrival of Jesus, His timing was interesting. You see Mary by law was Joseph's wife, but it had not been fully consummated. There are some things that are key here, it wasn't unheard of for betrothed couples to have sex prior to the final ceremony, but both Mary and Joseph held themselves to the highest standard waiting for the final ceremony. And Abba decides to enter into their lives with an unexpected gift. He chooses a time between the start of a legal contract and it's consummation (the Law and the new covenant). He gives Mary and Joseph an opportunity to partner with Him and His plan for salvation of the world and they both said yes.

Thinking about all of this also got me thinking about our position as "the bride" of Christ and where we are in that process. Many would say that we are in the betrothal stage preparing for some future event, but I think that sets us back and keeps us from the fullness of all He has for us. I believe that when we say yes to Jesus and agree to make Him our Lord we are also saying yes to Him as our groom, where we can step into full intimacy with Him, where we are full partakers in this new covenant that He provided, where we allow Him to indwell us and we function and partner together. You see before the betrothal process even happened He placed gifts in each one of us, for all intents and purposes He has impregnated us even before we were born. And being born again and coming into full relationship with Him allows for those things that He placed in us to fully come to life and be released to share with others so that they too can enter into their bride relationship with the Groom.

So as we celebrate Christmas we should take some time to look at where we are in our relationship with Abba. Are we in the pre-stages of entering into this relationship unsure if we are ready to commit? Are we in the betrothal stage where we have said yes but have not fully committed to making Him Lord? Or are we fully committed where we have jumped in being fully submersed into all He has for us? And we need to look at what gift has He placed inside of us that needs to be opened and released to bless others.

He has given us the greatest gift of all because He loves us in ways that we really will never fully comprehend.

So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love. I’m convinced that his love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens. There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken his love. There is no power above us or beneath us—no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! Romans 8:38‭-‬39 TPT

Thankful

So I'm sitting here this morning having yet again woken up way too early on a day that I could sleep in. And being that it's Thanksgiving morning it's only normal to ponder about things that you are thankful for. I have also found over the last few years personally having potentially serious life events makes you look at what you are thankful for in a different way. Some of you may or may not know that I ended up in the hospital about a month ago with they called atrial flutter. Basically it was causing my heartrate to spike and do crazy things. I went to the ER and within 5 minutes of walking in the door I was in a room that quickly filled with about 8 people putting stickers and wires allover my upper body so rhey could see what my heart was doing. I looked over at Laura and could see some fear creeping in, and knew that she was praying. I need to say that I am very grateful for a wife that prays especially since when I go through stuff like this I am generally unphased of the brevity of the situation until afterwards. Anyway they hooked me up to an IV and admitted me to the hospital, 2 days later I had a procedure called an ablation where they essentially break the circuit that causes the flutter and went home the next day. So back to the IV I can't remember what the medicine was called but they use it to force your heart to behave (go back into a regular rhythm). They kept saying that my heart needed to convert, which led to some fun underlying jokes on our churches group chat. I am thankful that the medicine worked because the alternative would have been a procedure that would mean shocking my heart to get ot to stop and reset. Working for Microsoft this would have been the reboot of all reboots. Through all of this I want to say that I am grateful for some amazing nurses and doctors especially the cardiologist that was able to fix the issue. I get to see him next week for a follow up.

Through all of this Abba started talking to me about the heart. How because we are all essentially born with hearts that are broken and don't function properly that we need a great Physician to perform surgery to make things right. To bring our hearts into a correct rhythm a rhythm that is instep with His.

In Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 it says “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and light"

He was talking to me about how through Jesus, when we make Him the Lord of our lives that we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5) in Him. He also showed me that because of what Jesus allowed Himself to go through with His body being broken and His blood being spilled that He provided not only cleansing of sin but also healing. (Isaiah 53:5 says that by His stripes we are healed)

I find in life and the older I get and hopefully the wiser I take Jesus's commands to us more and more seriously. They are simple but don't come without cost, but we need to remember the cost was already paid for. He tells to love God, love others as ourselves, to heal the sick, set captives free and to make disciples. He wants us to be a reflection of Him wherever we go and whatever we do.

So what am I thankful for the list is long because I am a greatly blessed man. My greatest blessings are my wife, my daughters and their husbands, my amazing grandchildren, my siblings, nieces and nephews, my extended family which includes many of my kids friends, our spiritual kids and all of our church families. But then there are the not so obvious ones the people I get to meet at the store, on the street, at the airport or on a plane, the people that Abba leads me to so that I can pray for them, prophecy over them or just be a random helping hand. I also have a list of cool stuff that He has blessed me with as well like this ridiculous house that He provided for us. But the one thing I am most thankful for is Abba, that He loves me and continues to put up with me while He teaches me to learn and grow.

300 Mighty Warriors - a lesson in obedience

When I first woke up this morning, still lying in bed Abba started to talk to me about Gideon. Well not Gideon so much but about the 300 mighty warriors that were chosen by God to give victory to Israel and ultimately to God. These men were the top 300 picked out of the original 32000 that showed up for battle, these men were instinctive warriors it was what they were born for. They were all in for the fight willing to follow a man that Abba found essentially hiding in a dumpster scavenging for food for his family, the guy that responded to God by reminding that he was the smallest and weakest man in all of Israel. But Abba looked beyond that into what Gideon was made for and called that forth.

While I was pondering this dynamic I was reminded of way back in school when the gym teacher would pick the two least athletic kids in the class to be team captains not realizing that one of them was a born survivor and strategist. He showed me that guy was Gideon and he was now the leader of these mighty warriors and notice there is no mention of them questioning or scoffing at his directions. These 300 mighty men were prepared to go to war against an army of over 100,000. And in their very first battle engagement they were armed with trumpets, pitchers and torches. Not the usual warrior faire going into a massive battle. This initial engagement actually caused so much confusion that the enemy started to kill each other then they fled and the the 300 mighty warriors were released to go and do what warrior's do and because they were working in their calling and because they were obedient to the directions from the Lord they gained great victory and freedom for Israel.

A couple of things that stood out to me in this whole thing are:
• God will call who He needs, when He needs them to step into their destiny despite their current situation. And sometimes that person becomes the unlikely leader of a movement that will set people free.
• God has made us all with special, unique gifts to function in the world, to do battle, to heal and ultimately to love.
• When we are obedient to Him we will always be blessed. Sometimes that obedience will cause us to do something that is uncomfortable but He provides us the strength and the strategy to get it done.  Fear is not a factor.

For more context read Judges chapters 6-8