(Matthew 1:20)
When the angel of the Lord says, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” Joseph responds with faith and obedience.
Whenever I read this passage, I can not help but think how much Joseph is like most young men through the ages. Pop culture is full of books, television shows and movies about men who just can’t seem to settle down, even when the perfect mate is staring them in the face. And women have not been left out of this mix either. The movie, Runaway Bride comes to mind. Most of the time, these stories are humorous and good natured.
What was Joseph really afraid of? It wasn’t a fear of commitment as it turns out. It was a fear that many of us face and it sounds something like this-“What will the neighbors think?”
Yes, Joseph was more concerned with what others might think, as is evidenced by the preceding verse, when he is thinking of sending Mary away.
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Do you ever worry whether you will meet the approval of your neighbors rather than the approval of God? You allow yourself to engage in the latest gossip mill rather than excuse yourself, you see a fellow worker take some office supplies home, you see another student cheating on a test but don’t say anything with love, you don’t speak up in kind when others criticize a person unable to answer their critics.
Or how about this, you don’t say, “In Jesus name we pray…” when asked to give a public prayer where non-Christians are present, so as not to offend anybody". What will God think, remember...
Thankfully for all of us, Joseph had an angel tell him not to worry about what the neighbors think, but today we have someone even better to tell us-
The Holy Spirit that was sent to us by the Child that Mary was carrying. All we have to do is pay attention.
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The Holy Spirit that was sent to us by the Child that Mary was carrying. All we have to do is pay attention.
Prayer for the day:
Dear God, Thank you for your son Jesus, and give us the courage not to be embarrassed of our faith. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Until next Monday my friends....
Be blessed and spread his *WORD*
Monika
http://www.etsy.com/shop/myeuropeantouch?ref=si_shop
Dear God, Thank you for your son Jesus, and give us the courage not to be embarrassed of our faith. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Until next Monday my friends....
Be blessed and spread his *WORD*
Monika
http://www.etsy.com/shop/myeuropeantouch?ref=si_shop
10:07 PM |
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Comments (6)
Like DeNero in that movie -are you talkin' to me??
Could a post hit me square in the forehead? Yep! This one did.
Thank you, dear Monika! LOVE THIS!
♥♥♥
Sue
The way I've heard it is, Joseph didn't know God was the father so the obvious conclusion was that Mary cheated on him, and the traditional consequence was to publicly accuse her and have her stoned. Instead of that he decided to break the engagement quietly, because he couldn't marry her but he didn't want to kill her. He changed his mind about marrying her after the angel explained the plan.
I'm sure that "what the neighbors think" was a big part of that though, I mean if that wasn't a factor there wouldn't be a tradition of publicly stoning her in the first place. And that's why he couldn't marry her. But then he wasn't going to accuse her anyway.
lovely post!
Good post!!! Thanks for the reminder.
One of the hardest things is fear of rejection when preaching God but we have to remember that God is watching us!
Very good post ... thank you!