Greetings and Happy Sabbath from Friedenau Adventist University here in Eastern Germany. Just three more days and our Reformation Tour will be over. I'm still trying to soak in all the stories, the experiences, the sights and the sounds from this trip and the things we've been learning these past couple weeks. It's been an amazing experience... although a very fast paced one. So I'm looking forward to some quiet time back at home when I return to Maryland to cogitate.
In today's Bible reading, I appreciated the reminders again of Hezekiah pointing his people to God in their time of distress. The king of Assyria may be against us, but there's MORE with us than with them, he tells them. And "with us is the Lord our God." If we could only remember that every moment of every day as we fight our own battles and our own temptations...
Something that is very meaningful to me though, from today's reading, is Luke 1:38. Mary has just been told that she's to be the mother of Jesus, and that she's going to be pregnant of the Holy Ghost. What has been told her is impossible in human reasoning. The implications are magnificent, and the social ramifications are probably staggering... what will everyone think if they find out she's pregnant and she's not yet been with Joseph? I'm sure there must have been a few concerns or questions going through her mind... and yet this is her response to the angel: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." It was perfect quiet acceptance to the will of God. Basically she is saying, "I'm yours Lord, do with me as you will. I may not understand, but my body is Yours. Use it for Your glory!"
This sweet spirit of humility and acceptance really speaks to me today. I wish to have the same response when God speaks to me, when He asks me to do something that is out of my comfort zone, when He asks me to trust an unknown future in His hands, when He asks me to lay down my life for Him... I'm Yours Lord, take me, do with me what You will... and may YOU be glorified!
Tomorrow's Reading: 2 Chron. 33,34 and Ps. 75,76
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