The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Receiving Christ on His Terms Pastor Brian Gold, Flin Flon Pentecostal Church Some months before that first Christmas, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, hoping to obtain her consent to give birth to the future Messiah of Israel. Here was a young girl, a virgin, the Bible states, asked to do something no one else had been asked to do. For perhaps the first time, someone was asked to do something completely on God's terms, without her own agenda in mind. What do you and I say when we are asked to sacrifice something for a cause greater than our own? Do we say yes or do we lay down some terms which must be met if we are to fulfill our end of the deal? Here is the young girl, Mary, engaged to a man named Joseph, putting her life on hold, for God's sake. Here is an example where in every way possible, the means does justify the end. But do we see all the implications of Mary's choice? Would there be a girl in our own society that would say "yes" to such a question of being the mother of the Christ child? Mary suffered the shame of the village that she lived in; she born the brunt of an "untimely" pregnancy in her own body . . . unwed mother . . . illegitimate child . . . why could you do this to us, Mary? What about Joseph, Mary? It's not fair for him, Mary, in our close-knit Jewish community. And on and on it went for this young girl, perhaps 13 to 15 years old. Yet what was this young girl's response? "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." That was Mary's humble response, despite the four or five months of difficult looks and questions she received as her abdomen began to protrude. What is our response to Jesus Christ? Do we accept Him on our own terms, or on His terms, as did Mary? Do we remain in control while Jesus gets sidelined? As the Advent season approaches, may we be reminded of a young Jewish girl who accepted God solely on His terms, so that all of us might benefit from Christ who went to His death on the cross on His own terms. Now by whose terms do we follow Christ?
