Mary was pregnant at a time when the mood of the Jewish people was low. Israel was no longer a sovereign state and the Roman occupiers were not exactly kind to their subjects.

Mary was also directly affected by all of this. She was well along in her pregnancy when she had to undertake a difficult journey to comply with the Roman occupation forces’ order for a census, and to say nothing of finding a place to live once they arrived in Bethlehem. Perhaps she even thought that God could have done things differently. But what did God do? He did not liberate them from Roman occupation. He did not spare Mary the ordeal. He did, however, make sure that the child was born healthy and could ultimately carry out His plan of salvation.

Even today, people expect God to intervene in the history of the world. In the same way, we also expect Him to help us with our personal concerns. Many have a heavy cross to bear, and the question may well arise: “Dear God, I am Your child, can’t You spare me this?” As in the past, He will not intervene in the course of history today, nor will He solve all our personal problems. However, there is one thing we can be sure of: He will make sure that His plan will be fulfilled, that His Son can come, and that we will be part of the bride. This is the activity of God in our time. The Lord will come!

Food for thought from a divine service by the Chief Apostle

Unpleasant, even terrible things happen on this earth which we often cannot explain. People then often create enemy images in order to justify their animosity and have someone to blame for the misery. Be it a nation, a certain group, or a neighbour.

Whether this group actually has anything to do with what has happened is completely irrelevant. People simply look for a scapegoat to justify their animosity, someone on whom they can unleash their anger about the situation. How much discord and antagonism, and how much suffering has already been caused by such thinking?

We do not need to create such a negative perception for ourselves because we already know our enemy. This is not just some person. We are talking about evil here! This is what we must overcome. What is dangerous for our salvation is not the evil that others do to us, but our reaction to it. As with everything else, we need to become more like Christ in this respect as well. He did not even have to create an enemy image for Himself. It was obvious who condemned, tortured, and killed Him. In fact, He could look these people in the eye. But He knew who was in actual fact responsible for His suffering. That is why He could say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23: 34). And that is why He defeated His – our – enemy, namely evil.

Food for thought from a divine service by the Chief Apostle

The Lord creates new things. He also creates new knowledge through the Holy Spirit, and He leads us into the perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I know that one or the other has trouble with these new insights. For years you believed certain things, it was preached for years, and now everything is different and new. What is more important now? What you believed, said, preached, or heard for years? Or what comes from the Holy Spirit and brings us closer to Jesus Christ?

Dear brothers and sisters, let us not categorically cling to things only because we heard and believed them for years. The question here is not whether it was right or wrong.

The important question we need to ask ourselves is: does this new thought bring me closer to Jesus Christ? If this is the case, then let us walk this path and accept this new knowledge. If it does not correspond to the will of God and creates distance to Jesus Christ, then let us not pay any further attention to this new thought.

New knowledge from the Holy Spirit leads us closer to salvation and blessing, and it will bring us even closer to Jesus Christ. Let us accept it. Brother, sister, allow yourself to be guided by the Holy Spirit.