PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Sunday

Scripture lesson: Luke1:26-38 The promise to Mary

Time to reflect: Modern people keep getting hung up on how all this was supposed to happen historically and scientifically. We get in fights over defending or attacking the account. This is such a side issue! If God wanted it to be supernatural God could certainly to that, if God wanted to use a natural process (possibly one not known and understood by Luke) that is certainly possible too. What really matters is the substance of the promise. Read the passage again looking for the core meaning.

Moving through the day Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the coming of the Christ child.

Scripture:

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

Now this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Christ."

 They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"
      He said, "I am not."
      "Are you the Prophet?"
      He answered, "No."

 Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.' "

 Now some Pharisees who had been sent 25questioned him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"

 "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."

 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.