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By accepting Mary as his wife we see Joseph as an upright and righteous man. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight. Jospeh was a man who had the wisdom of God , full of love, patience and understanding and submitted himself to God's holy will. Joseph had his ancestral lineage from David. when he accepts Jesus as his own child he gives Jesus also the legal title and welcome into his ancestral lineage. He lovingly accepts Jesus from the hands of God and also gives him all his earthly inheritance and the prophecy gets fulfilled as Jesus the son of David.

The significance of the name Jesus is "Yahweh saves". Jesus is our saviour who came to redeem the whole mankind from sin and slavery and reconcile us back to the Father in Heaven. The angel gave the name both to Mary and Joseph independently because each one had to do their part in fulfiling God's plan in the birth of Jesus. Mary had to fulflil her part in the great plan of God and Jospeh had to fulful his part in God's great and mighty plan of the savior's birth into this world.

Mary could have been falsely accused and also stoned because of her pregnancy. she would not be understood by anybody even if she had discuss and tell her family that what is in her womb was of the Holy Spirit. she would have been treated badly by her community and made her live in isolation . Joseph on the other hand was an upright and righteous man and he did not mary to be publicly exposed. He was a peaceful and loving man and did not want to accuse or harm mary in anyway except made a quiet plan to divorce her. Joseph observed the traditions and laws of the Jewish culture and since he was a man of honesty and integrity he niether broke the law or accused mary but sought to divorce her quietly.

The sign of the birth of Jesus is prophetically given in Isaiah chapter verse 7 that a virgin would give brith to a son and he will be called Immanuel and also in Mathew Chapter 1 :22 it again says that a child would be born through a virgin and he would be called Immanuel. the prophetic saying in Isaiah has it fullness through the birth of Jesus through Mary which we find in Matthew chapter 1 :22/

As the Son of the Carpenter Jesus learnt all the skills of carpentry. He also learnt to be humble and sumbmisive to his father and learnt carpentry work taught by his father. he learnt not only the skills of carpentry but also learnt from the work experience of his father and Jesus too imitated his father's behavoiur while at work He was exposed to all the type of work of carpentry and also exposed to people of different kinds at the work place.

God's eyes are open and his ears are attentive to prayer of his righteous once. when a person does not obey God's word and does not walk in the ways of the Lord it can hinder God to answer thier prayers. Sin causes separation from God. it can be corrected by true repentance and to turn away from sin and walk in obidience to God's commands.

we must spend time in God's presence on the sabbath day by setting a time of worship and adoration to him. we must honor God by reading and meditating on his word and also have fellowship with believers to pray wiith them and reach out to thier spiritual needs. we must not to things that please our human desires and will instead concentrate on pleasing the Lord and fufil his desires and purposes on the sabbath day and keep the day holy. we should not give away to speak idle things instead spend time in singing and praying and edifying , encouraging God's people with our words of wisdom and encouragement.

Back biting, judgemental attitudes and harsh criticism can make a person totally hurt, bitter and resentful. False accusations and slander can leave one person leave the church and also create damage physically and mentally. we need to carefully study the word of God and apply the word of God into our lives which will set our lives inorder and we will stop these attitudes. Also we should spend time in God's presence and he will give us the grace to overcome the sinful nature help us to bear fruit of the holy spirit in us. we require God's very own presence to help us to spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry. we need his holy spirit to give us the grace, the wisdom and strength to care and show compassion to the hungry. we require to love God and filled with his love we can take spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry. we need Jesus our Lord to be our guide and light and in the fullness of his presence we will be able care for the hungry. we need the strength of God and guidance of his holy spirit as an individual and as a congregation.

The injustice God condemns in these verses is not caring for the hungry, the homeless , the naked without clothes and members of once own family. we excuse ourselves thinking they are deprived sector of the community because they are sinful people. Also the we have a fear that they may deceive us by showing their weaknesses and thus take advantage of our goodness. Another excuse can be because of our hard heartedness towards these people because of lack of love in our hearts.

we learn that God is a holy God and no unholiness pleases him and no one who is unholy can dwell in his presence. The paradox here is God is holy living in a holy place but also lives with those who are humble in spirit. God cares for the contrite because they choose to walk in the ways of God and not in thier rebellious ways. They choose to humbly walk with their God. The downtrodden too look to God as their help and strength, their deliverer and provider. our intensity of caring for the downtrodden and contrite is not as the level of God. Yet we try to care for them with his grace and thus honor God.

God's word commands us in Exodus 20 :8 to keep the sabbath day holy. we give him the highest honor by obeying his word that he has commanded us that is to keep the sabbath day holy. Sabbath worship and rest. No worship no rest. Sabbath worship and rest.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son Jesus so that we may not perish but gain eternal life. God's love flows from the entire human kind and He is God of love and mercy to all. He is no respector of persons and shows no partiality based on culture , creed or social status. He is the Lord of all. The church should also depict the same love , mercy and compassion to all without discrimination. By God's grace we have being taught to love people of all kind and culture with the love of Jesus Christ and only His grace enables us not to discriminate people.

The titles Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother of God are appropriate for her because she said Yes to God's will in her life that is to give birth to Jesus who redeemed the mankind from sin. she was blessed because she was obidient to the plan of God and she carried Jesus our Lord in her womb and delivered him to fuflil the mission of God our Father. In this sense the title Mother of God appropriates her. we are hesitant to to exalt her as blessed among women because we do not want to exalt her above God and we dont intend to worship her. in the true sense exaltation is due to her as blessed among women because she submitted herself to the will of God and she was the instrument God used to give Jesus to the lost world. she deserves respect and honor because her immense love for God made her obey God's plan to redeem mankind from sin through Jesus born through her.

The essence of mary's response to the angel was total surrender to the will of God. we need to completely surrender to God's plan and purposes he has for us than trying to run away from what he calls us to do. Mary loved the Lord and she was willing to say yes to his plans. God as he strength she was ready to face the opposition and rejection of her family and people arround and humbled herself and was ready to accomplish the tasks of the Lord Most High. when we respond to God we consent to his thoughts and ways to be established over our lives that our own. we respond in faith and total rely on his strength to help us to do what he has called us to do for his glory.

The virgin conception teaches us that Jesus was sinless from his birth to death, was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and submitted to the will of his Father in heaven. The doctrine of virgin conception is central to christian message because here lies the message of salvation of the whole mankind. Jesus was born pure and holy without sin through mary who was a virgin and the power of the Most High was upon him to fulfil the mission of his Father that is to redeem the whole world from sin and reconcile back the mankind to the Father.

Mary's "HOW" question was a question asked in faith and in submission to God 's will. Zecharia"s question was with unbelief and doubt because he saw his circumstances were not agreeing to the declaration of the angel. Mary was rewarded because she believed that God had the power to make the impossible - possible and she put her trust in God and yielded to God's will. Zechariah was disciplined because he could not believe God's plan for his life and he could not be an hindrance for what God purposed through him. So he was disciplined and made to wait for the fulfilment of God's plan over his life by he becoming speechless till the birth of his Son John.

Mary's child would be a son and he would be named JESUS. This child would be great and called the Son of the Most High, He will reign over the house of Jacob and His Kingdom endures forever.

1 Peter 2: 24-25. Jesus love for me was so great that he was punished and died a shameful death on the cross for my sins and set me free. His death on the cross redeems me and gives me the grace die to sin and live a righteous life . His death on the cross has made me return to Him and He is my Shepherd and i am his sheep. A victorious life i live now by the power of the precious blood of my Lord Jesus Christ shed on the Cross for me! I am crucified in Christ and it is no longer I live but Christ lives in me! The life i now live i live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

The wages of sin is death. Jesus took my sin on his body and he died for my sin and saved me from punishment of sin and granted me salvation and eternal life.

Jesus took our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquites. He bore our sin on his body on the tree so that we may die to sin and live for righteousness and thus took the form of a servant and substitute for our sins.

Jesus took the Twelve aside and said to them " we are going to Jerusalem and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again. (Luke: 18:31-33).

God removes sins of the whole mankind. God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. JESUS died on the Cross to redeem the whole world from sin but it for us accept him as our lord and saviour and be saved. His sacrifice is a waste for those who do not confess with their mouths and believe in their hearts that Jesus is Lord and they do not accept his salvation for them.

Seeking the Lord entails our total surrender to his plans and we cannot lean on our wisdom and understanding. God's ways and thoughts are higher than our thoughts and ways.As the heavens are than the earth so are his marvellous ways and thoughts. The implications of these are trust God at every step and total rely on his wisdom. when i seek him i try to find out his thought over my thought, his way above my way and if i carefully consider it although it may look narrow to follow i am sure my success and prosperity lies in following his ways and allowing him to accomplish his thought over my life. i need to be humble and acknowledge God is my master , my lord and submit to him out of love and humble myself that without him i can do nothing but with him i can do all things. He is my source of everything! if we do not seek him with all our heart and mind we may be loose his gracious promises fulfilled in our lives. when we put off seeking him when he invites us to come to him we may be in the danger of being deceived by the enemy. it is not too late to seek the Lord. when we know we have gone far away we can turn around and come to him in total repentance and once again live in his presence and allow him to be our guide in all things There is no other means in being successful than seeking the Lord and walking in obidience in his ways that gives us true satisfaction and victory over the ways of the world.

we spend our time and energy on things we love the most or what ever we value the most. people who do not love the lord and his ways spend lives on things even though there is no satisfaction from it since they love those things passionately. Love of pleasure leads people away from God's protection, mercy grace and blessings and leads them towards destruction. it is deep and loving call from the Yahweh to come and enjoy his abundant blessings. he calls forth for a deep relationship with him which will lead to life everlasting in him which is full of his peace and joy There is no cost in accepting the invitation of Yahweh. For people who have a desire to walk in the ways of Yahweh and he is the only source of all satisafaction this invitation is a good news. For people who love the world and the things of the world it does not become a good news but they resist and walk away from this invitation. our way of living for the Lord and the joy and peace we possess can draw someone's attention to Christ. we must pray and as God gives us opportunities we can testify to his goodness and mercy in our lives , our victory over life's battles with God as our everything can be an invitiation to the hungry and thirsty to come into a loving relationship with Yahweh. The values of Christ that we follow in our lives can help the once in darkness to come into his marvellous light.

Greater is he that is in us than that he is in the world. No plans of evil one plotted against God's people can succeed when God is the strength and source of our life. when God is with us every scheme of the enemy will be turned and whatever harm the enemy tries to do it will not prosper. There is warfare we need to conduct with prayer and faith against the enemy. enemy may come against us but we will stand strong in the might and power of the Lord . when we dwell in the shadow of the Almighty and make him our refuge and obey his ways we are able to win victory over every situations. with the praise of God in our mouth and the word of God as double edged sword in our hand we can extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one. It means that though thousand fall at our side ten thousand at our right hand God will protect us, defend us and will see us through every situation. God is our strength and sheild,our provider and a strong deliverer at our right hand.