Mary visits Elizabeth

The angel Gabriel told Mary “Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

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, even as he said to our fathers.”

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

~ excerpts and edited verses taken from Luke 1:36, 37, 39b-56

The angel Gabriel visits Mary

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

~ Luke 1:26b-38

The birth of John the Baptist foretold

A man named Zechariah was serving as priest before God in the Temple.  When the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.  Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

…When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son.

~ excerpts and edited text taken from Luke 1:5-20,57

(the name John means “God is gracious”)

Thanksgiving Prayer

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. ~ Psalm 69:30

Merciful God, you have done great things for us! We owe you endless gratitude and love.  We thank you, Lord, for each moment we enjoy in your blessed care, for each act of healing, for each meal to satisfy our hunger, for each friend and companion, for each little thing that keeps us going day by day. We especially thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ. Pardon our sins. Help our weaknesses, and receive us at last into eternal glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Thanksgiving Worship Service: Nov. 27th at 6:30

There will be no Worship Service at Living Hope on Thanksgiving Day.

We all need a Savior

Adam & Eve are tempted

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Eve said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The first sin

When Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, Adam, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Guilt followed sin

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Adam answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

God said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Adam blamed Eve for his sin

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Eve blamed the serpent for her sin

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

God punished the serpent, and promised a Savior for all people

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity (hostility) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he (Jesus) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God punished Eve

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

God punished Adam

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

God still loved Adam and Eve even after they sinned

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

God protected Adam and Eve from living forever in their sinful bodies

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Edited verses & excerpts taken from Genesis 3

Sin and salvation:

Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

Through the disobedience of the one man, Adam, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, Jesus Christ, the many will be made righteous.

Edited verses & excerpts taken from Romans 5:12-25

A garden, a command, and a wife for Adam

God plants a garden

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. The Lord God took the man he had made and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

God gives Adam a command

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

God makes a wife for Adam

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.  Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Excerpts and edited verses taken from Genesis 2 & 3

Veterans Day