Advent Week 3 Theme: Joy – Unspeakable Joy! Literally unspeakable.

What I love most about the Advent scripture today is that it talks about reconciliation, peace, and waiting on the Lord. But it also reminds us to recognize the power of God to do the impossible. We have to believe He who has all power to do great things, uses people who have unremarkable lives, but unshakable faith.
The Bible says God doesn’t call the qualified who have everything figured out and mastered; God qualifies the called who have a teachable spirit and solid belief in His sovereignty.    Nght in Bethlemen 2012 k39
Have you ever been speechless?  I mean really speechless? Zechariah was. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were old and childless. In their day, it was a sign that you were inferior and had missed God’s blessing if you grew old and never had children. Imagine how Zechariah felt when an angel came to him and told him he and Elizabeth were going to have a baby. Zechariah had just been chosen to be the priest which was a blessing in itself, but he was also given the inside scoop about the Savior coming to Earth. Zechariah seemed to be more in shock about his ability to start a family at his age than he was about God coming to Earth. Because of his doubt, he was unable to speak the entire time Elizabeth was pregnant.
Luke 1:14-25 (NIV)
He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”  The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.  When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
When his time of service was completed, he returned home.  After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.  “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
Everyone thought this was a “Strange Way to Save the World” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCVIJBB7o4  by 4Him

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