Starts Up Quick

So I finished Deuteronomy and decided to read Luke since it is the Christmas season. Man it jumps right into it. So much is going on. Zacharias receives a prophecy but doubts so he is punished by being mute so he can't really explain what is going on. His wife Elizabeth conceives. Then Mary is visited by the same angel and given a prophetic message. She believes the message and commits to serving God.

Then Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth who is filled with the Holy Spirit and blesses Mary. Then Mary praises the Lord. She hangs around for a few months then goes back home. John is born and named John instead of Zacharias after his father or any family name for that matter. Then Zacharias is no longer mute and prophesies praise to God.

A few important little details that are pretty cool:
45Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"
man, if Zacharias was in the room this may have stinged a bit.
63He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." 64Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.
Go Zacharias. Now he steps up. Elizabeth had just said his name was John and the people thought her crazy and asked Zacharias what he thought. Apparently Zacharias wasn't in the room to know about Elizabeth wanting him named John. This amazed the people when both parents said his name is John.

Man this stuff is exciting. And this is just the prophet of the Most High. Wait until the Most High is actually born. Then the two get to meet.

What about the change, what about the difference

If you don't recognize the title you should listen to more music by Steven Curtis Chapman. But the song has a point. It actually wasn't even the song that brought it up.

This started when I was reading in Act a few days ago and it spoke of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). Later on you read how a group was saying they were baptized by John and not the Holy Spirit (Acts 19). In these instances there was a dramatic and noticeable change. They received power. So why don't we now?

How is the church different from the world. Through out the Bible God's people (both Israel and the Church) are to be different. I think having a nation with so much religion as being standard we just don't get it. For some reason people believe that by going to church they are Christian, or because their parents are Christians they are somehow automatically Christians. It seems that the Christians are not doing a good job showing people Jesus but are being sucked into the world's system. So with that out there I have to ask myself... am I part of the problem? Probably. What can I do to change? How can I show Jesus to those around me?

These are a few questions I need to work through, and would suggest others to ask themselves also.