Category: Luke: Long-Expected

Rhythms and Disciplines

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day five)

“Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division,”

I spent over twenty five years serving churches in youth ministry. One of my favorite sayings to those students was, “be in your place (on Sundays).”  What I had hoped the students would discover was that God (who  is at work and present with us at all times) is particularly visible, particularly verbal, and particularly nearer to us as we practice godly rhythms and disciplines. Private and corporate worship. Regular scripture reading and study. Praying. Serving. Christian community. We often see and sense the Lord clearer as we faithfully follow Christ in these ways. That’s what happened to Zachariah. Obedient. Righteous. Walking with the Lord in and through His commandments. Where are your “places” this advent season?  Will you faithfully follow Christ through godly rhythms and disciplines?  May He be particularly verbal and near to you!!

Shame

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day four)

Zacharias and Elizabeth lived righteous lives, but they still wrestled with the realities of a broken world. Their inability to bear children was a point of hurt and shame in their lives, one they had dealt with for a long time. When the Lord confronts Zacharias in the temple, he gives him a promise that ministers to his deepest wound. This passage is meant to remind us of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. Throughout our lineage of ancestors in the Kingdom of God, the Lord meets people in their hurt and shame and brings beauty out of that place. He not only gives Zacharias and Elizabeth a child, but he uses that child to prepare the way of the Lord and advance the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The Lord continues to work in this way today. He ministers to our hurt and shame in a variety of ways, but when we submit those things to the Lord, he is willing to not only heal us in that area, but use it to advance the Kingdom.

Ready

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day three)

He will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The description the angel gives of the boy’s future life and work appears congruent with the oath-taking, asceticism-valuing, solitude-pursuing men and women called Nazarites. Samson is perhaps the most sensational example of this religious class, famous (or infamous) as much for his lapses from his vows as for his status as a Nazarite in the first place. St. Paul also took a Nazarite oath, referencing his vows and the cutting of his long hair at the end of his oath period. But John would be a Nazarite among Nazarites. Jesus called him the greatest among those born of women. John experienced the full sound and fury and loneliness of holy living – believing, doubting, praying, preaching, wondering. His life’s message: get yourself ready to receive the Christ.

Waiting and Waffles

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day two)

They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. v. 6

This is the perfect story to begin our Advent journey together. Israel was waiting and expecting for deliverance to come in the form of a savior. It had been hundreds of years. Zacharias and Elizabeth were faithful, but they were waiting as well. We don’t know the inner dialogue they had within themselves and each other; but they wanted a child, and it appeared they would not conceive. Yet, they remained faithful.

Fast forward two millennia. My daughter Jessica wanted to make waffles this morning, but realized that the mixing bowl was in the dishwasher. She said she could wait until the cycle was complete to make them, but then realized there was an hour and forty-nine minutes left. She quickly declared that she didn’t have time to wait for them to be clean.

Wanting a child and wanting waffles aren’t even close to being the same; but as I sat down to write this morning, I was reminded of how little patience any of us have to wait on the Lord for things big or small. There are even times when the Lord has a completely different plan for us than we hope or desire, and in the waiting we can learn to want what he wants more than what we want. This is often a painful lesson.

Each Advent season,  we remind ourselves that waiting is part of the journey. God is working out his perfect will among us, and we often are left in a place that doesn’t feel like it is ever going to move. God wasn’t asleep with the nation of Israel, and he is not asleep in your life.

Zacharias and Elizabeth were able to get the desire of their hearts. Jessica, also found a clean bowl and got the waffles she desired.

 

Monday Re:Vlog – 11/24/25

Re:Verse passage – Luke 1:5-17 (day one)

Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty, and Associate Pastor Bryan Richardson walk us through Luke 1:5-17 in our Advent Re:Verse Series: “Luke: Long-Expected.”