{"id":727,"date":"2014-11-30T00:56:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T04:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727"},"modified":"2014-12-24T01:32:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T05:32:35","slug":"christmas-is-about-gods-faithfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727","title":{"rendered":"Christmas is about Faithfulness of God!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Stars1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-725\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Stars1-150x150.png\" alt=\"Stars1\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Stars1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Stars1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Stars1.png 399w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #008000\">Scripture: Luke 1:46-66<\/span><\/p>\n<p>God is a faithful God and He keeps His promises. Sometimes we might not see things happening according to our timing have to wait patiently, or impatiently at times, but God has His perfect timing, and He\u00a0never forgets us!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>God had promised that Israel and nations would be blessed through Abraham<sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727#fn-727-1' id='fnref-727-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(727)'>1<\/a><\/sup>, but it was a long wait from Abraham to Christ, through whom God&#8217;s promise would be completely fulfilled. It is not that God did not fulfill His promise througout generations in the past, but the greatest and complete fulfillment of His promise was to be\u00a0accomplished through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For that His people waited and waited. Though it felt long, He kept His promise!<\/p>\n<p>And sometimes when we look at the condition or situation we are in, things might not look good from our point of view either, but remember God can always turn things around through Jesus Christ. God had promised that the kingdom of David would not end, but by the time of Joseph and Mary, there was no king in Israel; the kingdom of Judah had ended;<sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727#fn-727-2' id='fnref-727-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(727)'>2<\/a><\/sup> and Israel was governed by the Romans. Yet concerning her future son, the angel said to Mary that &#8220;the Lord God shall give him the throne of David.&#8221;<sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727#fn-727-3' id='fnref-727-3' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(727)'>3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Then Mary recognized that the merciful God was fulfilling His promise to Abraham (vv. 54-55). Though the kingdom of David looked hopeless at that time, with God nothing was\/is impossible! Thus with confirmation from her relative Elisabeth, Mary was filled with joy and sang the beautiful song of praise which we know today as <em>The Magnificat<\/em>.<sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727#fn-727-4' id='fnref-727-4' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(727)'>4<\/a><\/sup> Mary understood that although things\u00a0looked desperate from human point of view, God was certainly able\u00a0to change things!<\/p>\n<p>As we begin our celebration and remembrance of the birth of our Lord, may our heart also be filled with joy. May we remember that our Lord remembers His promise, and may we never forget that our God never forgets us.<\/p>\n<p>May the joy and peace of our Lord be with you wherever you are!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>For other articles in the\u00a0Christmas series, please click this link: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?cat=27\">Christmas Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em><span style=\"color: #008000\">The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-66)<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #008000\"><span style=\"color: #333333\"><sup class='footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727#fn-727-5' id='fnref-727-5' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(727)'>5<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">46 And Mary said: &#8220;My soul glorifies the Lord<br \/>\n47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,<br \/>\n48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,<br \/>\n49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me&#8211; holy is his name.<br \/>\n50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.<br \/>\n51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.<br \/>\n52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.<br \/>\n53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.<br \/>\n54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful<br \/>\n55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.&#8221;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">\u00a0<span style=\"color: #008000\">(Luke 1:46-55 TNIV)<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scripture: Luke 1:46-66 God is a faithful God and He keeps His promises. Sometimes we might not see things happening according to our timing have to wait patiently, or impatiently at times, but God has His perfect timing, and He\u00a0never forgets us!<\/p>\n <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/?p=727\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[29,70,28,30],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","tag-advent","tag-christmas","tag-faithfulness","tag-promise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsoemarko.us\/christian\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}