Like Minded People

 

^{Luke 1:}

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” ³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

³⁹ Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

 

So I wanna talk about Mary for a minute.  As you all know Mary gets a crazy visit from an Angel with an even crazier message about not only having a baby BUT having THE baby that would save the world.  Honestly I can’t wrap my mind around all that. 

 

Mary had some explaining to do but I love that the Angle gives her the response to all the comments she would get from family and friends and yes at the beginning even Joseph.

When they say “what do you mean an angel spoke to you?” or “it’s not possible you are pregnant without having sex!” or “how can you say this is from God?” you can imagine the accusations. Even though Mary could agree with some of their comments she only had one explanation and it was given to her from God Himself.  NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

 

Ok so Mary gets this mind boggling message and no one believes her or in her at the moment. God in His mercy also gives Mary another message that she may have forgotten for a time in light of her own word, a message about Elizabeth.  He lets her in on a little secret about Elizabeth and her conceiving a son as well. The Bible tells us that Mary arose and went in a hurry to find Elizabeth.  I’m sure saying she went in a hurry was an understatement! She probably hauled butt to Elizabeth as she would possibly be the only person that would consider her unbelievable announcement.

 

 

(Side note: We know Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant and Mary is maybe three, I don’t know for sure. However when Mary enters the room the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps when the baby in Mary’s womb comes near him. Hmmmmm obviously these are two live babies.)

Back to Mary and Elizabeth, I’m sure they were talking so fast about Angels and babies and miracles they literally fell into each other’s arms feeling both relief and comfort.

 

 

Mary needed a like-minded person, someone who loved and obeyed God and personally experienced Him move in a very unusual way. You just can’t totally understand if you haven’t experienced it.

 

I guess where I’m going with this is, that same need of being near someone who understands you, and supports you when you get a “crazy message” is still needed today. We still need likeminded people as we journey.

 

Philippians 2:2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

 

God can give unusual request.  He tells Joshua to march around a city 7 times then blow trumpets and he will win the war, Jesus spit in someone’s eye, a great warrior dipped in a regular river and was cured of leprosy, a donkey talked to his rider, the list goes on and on, read your bible.

 

Right off the top of my head I can name two friends that understand this feeling of "I just got a crazy message," my friend Charlotte and T-Bone. We have definitely had some “hurried visits” when we needed someone to be liked minded.  T-bone is the most outrageous person I have ever met! He truly lives by faith and to be honest the longer I know him the more he looks like an Old Testament prophet. I have heard myself say to him what some have said to me “I’m glad God didn’t ask me to do that.” He is the real deal but I can tell you it comes at a cost. I don't always understand the things God has him do but I don't question them. I just pray for him to have the strength and courage to fulfill his calling.

 

Gems I just don’t want to get too comfortable on this journey home. I don’t know where you are right now and honestly I’m doing a lot of praying on where I’m headed. I don’t have any grand insight but I do know that nothing is impossible for God. So I want to encourage you today to walk or hurry if you have to but don’t limit God in your life.  If you don’t feel challenged maybe you need to hang with some new people for a while. I’m not saying lose your old friends but definitely embrace new ones.

 

I pray 2017 will be a year that will have some unexplainable moments for you, a year you will hurry to find a like-minded person, heck their probably looking for you.  I pray it will be a year you will experience the truth that NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD!

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

Calling All Virgins

My girls and I went to a craft fair over the weekend and were laughing at how many people were lined along the field escorting us to a parking space. My daughter teased that we would run out of gas before we ever parked. To be honest I started to complain that they were sending us so far away from where the festivities were and it was going to take a long time to walk and it was hot and we had a baby with no stroller and wa wa wa…

We were in a pretty long line of cars when all of a sudden we were waved on in another direction. What’s this??? Why are we being routed a different way? It seemed the next few attendants were seeing something as they waved us on to a better field, closer to the event. At first I thought, was there an angel on my hood? Probably not since I had been complaining…

Finally my daughter noticed I had the pink paid parking ticket on my dashboard but I also had a blue card showing. When we finally parked we were in the VIP parking!!! They had mistaken my blue card for a VIP card. It was actually my parking ticket from the day before that I got in Tarpon Springs!

We all had a good laugh and thanked the Lord for the great parking spot in spite of my complaining.

This of course got me thinking….. How many times are we a part of something by association, or mistake as in my case, but not because it’s where we actually decided to be.

I have been reading about the 10 Virgins in Matthew. There were 10 virgins’ five wise and five foolish.
Matthew 25

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³ The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴ The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵ The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
⁷ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
⁹ “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
¹⁰ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
¹¹ “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
¹² “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
¹³ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

In the first century Jewish wedding a bridegroom with his best friends left his home when his father told him it was time for him to go get his bride.

History lesson taken from Glenn Kay

The culminating step in the Process of the Jewish Wedding
The final step in the wedding proces is called - Nissuin - the word commons from the Hebrew verb - hsn ( nasa) - which means , "to carry." This is a graphic description - as the bride would be waiting for her groom to come - to carry her off to her new home. The period of the betrothal - was a time of great anticipation - as the bride waited for the arrival of her betrothed. One of the unique features of the Biblical Jewish wedding was the time of the groom's arrival - it was to be a surprise:
The bride took the betrothal seriously - expecting at the end of the year long period of the betrothal. She knew the approximate timing - but the exact hour or day was uncertain.
It was the father of the groom who would give the final approval for the marriage to begin.

The coming of the Bridegroom and the Wedding Begins
Since the time of his arrival was a surprise - the bride and her bridal party were always to be ready - this is the background of Yeshua's parable (^{Mat. 25:1-13). It was customary for one of the grooms party to go ahead of the bridegroom, leading the way to the bride's house - and shout - "Behold, the bridegroom comes." This would be followed by the sounding of the shofar. At the sounding of the shofar the entire wedding processional would go through the streets of the city to the bride's house.}
No one knew when that would be except the father (sound familiar? Mark 13:32 But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. We don’t know when Christ will return for His bride, us the body of believers)

There were all kind of festivities and then a procession through the streets. Everyone in the procession was expected to carry his or her own torch or lamp in case it was evening when the bridegroom came. This could last several days before finally getting back to the groom’s house so you had to have extra oil to keep your lamp or torch burning so people would know you weren’t a wedding crasher.

The thing is all the virgins in the scripture were getting drowsy and falling asleep so apparently there was a delay.

Have you ever felt like you were waiting on God for something and were getting tired of waiting? I have….

Apparently God uses delays intentionally! I heard it said that God uses delay to test our faith. Did you know that after God told Noah to build the ark, which may have taken 120 years to do, and after he finally got in the ark and God closed the doors it still took 7 days for it to start raining!!! Did there really need to be a delay???  Many people say Jesus isn't returning because it hasn't happened yet. I believe the "delay" is to give people time to accept Him because we know God's heart is that none should perish.

Ok so the Bible says 5 virgins were prudent/wise and 5 were foolish.

All the ladies that were waiting for the bridegroom had a lamp which would represent the word of God and all had oil which represents the Holy Spirit. Basically we are all on the same playing field, there was no favoritism.

The difference is some had extra oil.

What I think this means is the five foolish virgins represent non-believers today. They know about Jesus because they may have read the Bible or heard about Jesus in a church service or from a friend, especially this time of year when people are more verbal about their belief in the birth of Christ.

They may have even said "the prayer." But they don’t KNOW Jesus personally. They have just enough, a lamp, to be a part of the wedding procession on the outside. Like me with that extra blue card on my windshield, I looked like I was a VIP but if anyone would have looked closely at my ticket they would have seen I wasn't.  The foolish virgins weren't actually ready for Christ, our bridegroom, to return because they don’t have their lamp lit. They don’t  personally KNOW Jesus.
Being ready for Christ’s return involves one major thing, we must be born again through saving faith in Jesus Christ…His death, burial and resurrection from the dead (<sup>John 3:16; 14:6; Romans 10:9 and 10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Ephesians 2:1-10).  Jesus tells us He will know His children by their fruit. That we will be looking ahead getting ready for His return, studying His word so we will see the signs and not be caught off guard when He arrives even if we don’t know the exact day.

Titus 2:11-14, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
The foolish virgins represent those who enjoy being a part of the "Christian Community" but they are not in love with the Savior. They want to be at the end party but they don’t want to "fill their lamp" with more of the Holy Spirit to try and live like Christ, which can only be done with the Holy Spirit, because we need His strength to strive to look like Jesus and His mercy when we screw up.</sup>
Their hoping that having relationship with true believers "give us some of your oil" will get them to the wedding. That will never happen, one person’s faith cannot save another person.

Gems we need to be a part of that wedding procession, being the light for the lost showing them the way to Jesus!! We have to keep extra oil daily, praying and spending time with our Lord and really falling in love with God.

I’m not talking about being perfect or judgmental I’m just sharing the word of God with you. The only thing sadder than not being able to attend the wedding, have a home in Heaven, would be knowing I had time to share the message with people I love and didn’t bother doing it.

Listen, my life was a total train wreck before I began a relationship with Jesus. I could do nothing to fix some of the decisions I made. I knew I was a horrible sinner that NEEDED forgiveness but what good would it be to repent and have sorrow for your sin if there was no one to cover the cost! The cost being eternity in hell. That would have been my decision not God’s.

It’s Christmas time again and again the most precious, life giving gift is free!! The playing field is the same for all of us.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten son that who so ever believes in Him shall have eternal life."

In the Middle East a fable is told of a Baghdad merchant who sent his servant to the marketplace to run an errand. When the servant had completed his assignment and was about to leave the marketplace, he turned a corner and unexpectedly met Lady Death.

The look on her face so frightened him that he left the marketplace and hurried home. He told his master what had happened and requested his fastest horse so that he could get as far from Lady Death as possible – a horse that would take him all the way to Sumera before nightfall.

Later the same afternoon the merchant himself went to the marketplace and met Lady Death. "Why did you startle my servant this morning?" he asked.

"I didn’t intend to startle your servant – it was I who was startled," replied Lady Death. "I was surprised to see your servant in Baghdad this morning, because I have an appointment with him in Sumera tonight."
Moral of the story we all have an appointment with death…..

Gems you may not need this message BUT someone you know might. Don’t let them be a "foolish virgin" share your light with them now! Give them an opportunity to have the best husband ever and to be filled with the Holy Spirit who can be their best friend here on this earth. Give them the gift of eternal life in Heaven because the groom Jesus Christ is coming back for His bride.