{"id":7678,"date":"2016-12-11T00:39:01","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T00:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=7678"},"modified":"2016-12-11T00:39:01","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T00:39:01","slug":"according-to-your-word-christmas-series-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=7678","title":{"rendered":"According to Your Word: Christmas Series Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>And Mary said, \u201cBehold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.\u201d And the angel departed from her.<\/em> Luke 1:38<\/p>\n<p>When you think about it, Mary was a radical believer. She humbly submitted herself to the will of God even when doing so could bring her untold hardship and shame. A virgin with child? Absolutely preposterous. Scandalous. Shameful.<\/p>\n<p>She embraced the impossible, knowing that with God, nothing is impossible. Think about her life; she was recently engaged to the godly carpenter Joseph, and this new predicament would surely bring shame to him as well. Would he understand? Would <em>anyone<\/em> understand?<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>May it be done to me according to your word<\/em>,\u201d she said, despite the nearly certain outcry of ridicule and suspicion to follow.<\/p>\n<p>You may be facing a crossroad in your life. Perhaps the Lord is directing you down an unbeaten path. Maybe He is prompting you to take a stand that is unpopular with your peers. One of the messages of Christmas is plain and direct: \u201cLord, I am Your bondslave. <em>May it be done to me according to Your Word.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, the story of Christmas is tender, warm, and mild. But within it\u2014in the courageous spirit of the sweet young virgin\u2014is a bold, fierce passion for the plan and will of God\u2014a passion that does not cower at the consequences or cost.<\/p>\n<p>Think about that as you see the young mother in nativity scenes and on Christmas cards this season. Her humble willingness to lose everything\u2014her reputation, her husband-to-be, and perhaps even her life\u2014to gain the will and approval of God speaks indelibly amidst the hubbub of the season.<\/p>\n<p>May God grant you not only the joy of Christmas, but also a fierce, bold passion that says to God in the face of impossibilities, \u201c<em>Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to Your Word.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a9 2015, Dorothy Frick<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Tomorrow:<\/i> Joseph<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And Mary said, \u201cBehold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.\u201d And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38 When you think about it, Mary was a radical believer. She humbly submitted herself to the will of God even when doing so could bring her untold hardship [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7678"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7694,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678\/revisions\/7694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}