My fellow believers, we don’t even recognize the turning of the season because our hearts are all busily engaged in God’s work. However, the leaves have already fallen, the seasons have changed, and Christmas is almost around the corner. I think of the lyrics of one of the Christmas hymns entitled, “It Came upon a Midnight Clear.”

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Brothers and sisters, we will get to have a closer look at Mary’s faith through today’s Scripture passage. Even though Mary could not comprehend the angel’s message, she denied her own human thoughts and accepted the angel’s message from God. That is how she could participate in God’s ministry of bearing the Son of God by obeying God’s Word.

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To save us from the sins of the world, God had prepared John the Baptist and Jesus. The mystery of their birth is revealed in today’s Scripture passage.
In order to save you and me from the sins of the world, God the Father had prepared John the Baptist to be born from the house of Zacharias, one of the descendants of Aaron the High Priest. Today’s Scripture passage says that Elizabeth, Zacharias’ wife, hid herself for five months when she had conceived. As the wife of Zacharias, Elizabeth praised the righteousness of the Lord for preparing John the Baptist, saying, “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” Since Elizabeth was an old woman, she was somewhat embarrassed of being pregnant, but she was nonetheless very grateful that God had given her a child. So she thanked God for doing this work on her, saying that her reproach among people was taken away in the days when the Lord looked on her.

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Like the lyrics from a popular song that says, “I think of you whether I am standing or sitting,” the things we have not accomplished completely yet, the work that we have not yet achieved though we have started, come to mind whether I am standing or sitting now.
Many negative ion products are on the market these days and they say the negative ion is very good for health. Humans need many kinds of nutrition and elements, and the negative ion is absolutely necessary. Of course, the positive ion is also necessary, but it is said that humans need the negative ion even more and it is better for health. All the things that produce heat are positive ions. On the contrary, you can think that humidity is from the negative ion. Put simply, the negative ion is such that when there is lack of humidity, the lack of moisture, the electromagnetic currents from the cell phones and computers accumulate in the body and people get sick because of the lack of negative ions. It is especially like that these days because we are surrounded by many chemical construction materials. The whole house is full of artificial chemical construction materials. There is almost no natural material. Is there any natural element in a house whether it is of yellow earth or wood? No, there isn’t any.

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Luke, one of Jesus’ disciples, was a person who spread the Word of the Lord and left a record of the Apostles’ activities by recording the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. He recorded Jesus’ ministry and teachings in the Gospel of Luke. He recorded in detail the works that Jesus’ Apostles and disciples had done through the Holy Spirit after Jesus went back to Heaven because he wanted to leave them to future generations. Thus, Luke was a person who had a great interest in leaving behind in writing the works of the Lord, His Apostles and disciples. He wanted to clearly tell that Jesus is the Savior and all the work that the apostles performed through the Spirit. So, he left behind all the facts by meticulously recording them in writing.

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My fellow believers, we must think well. I mean that we must think of spiritual matters first. How and what a person thinks about determines everything about him, including his actions and faith. Therefore, the issue of how a person thinks is very important. A person can have an optimistic view or a pessimistic view about the same thing depending on the way he thinks. He can go down the blessed path or down the path that leads to death according to how he thinks.

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Let’s read Luke 1:5-7. “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.”

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In today’s Scripture passage, Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist and was hiding for five months. We know that the Virgin Mary also conceived Jesus when six months had passed since John’s conception. This fact holds a very important meaning. People are born after being in their mothers’ wombs for nine months; Jesus was conceived exactly six months after John the Baptist and born into this world accordingly. The angel Gabriel appeared to and spoke to Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father, when he performed his duty of priesthood in the sanctuary. Six months later, he appeared to the Virgin Mary who was betrothed to Joseph, a descendant of David. This shows that God’s preparations were very detailed.

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The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and spoke to her six months after Elizabeth had conceived John the Baptist. Just before today’s Scripture passage, it is written, “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!’ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.’ Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.’ Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:26-38).

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Where can we meet Jesus Christ? It is in His righteousness that we can meet Jesus, who is God Himself. The saints encounter God nowhere else but in His righteousness. The righteousness of God here implies that our Lord took upon Himself our sins once and for all by being baptized, and that those who believe this are made sinless and find God. This means that God has completely blotted out our sins all at once with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We had always been sinners, but to make us sinless, our Lord God took away all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and blotted them all out with His righteousness. It is when we realize this and believe it that we are able to meet the Lord.

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