Immanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church

From a friend’s post: It took nine months of enforced silence before Zechariah could sing, but notice the prompt joy of the women in the narrative. Elizabeth tells Mary that her son in her womb leaped for joy, Luke 1:44. And Mary responds with a song of joy, Luke 1:56. Notice especially how Mary’s joy is intertwined with her recognition of the holiness of God as she glorifies her Lord. [T]he Son prepared the whole world, including Jews as well as Gentiles, for his coming in... the flesh. The world and humanity, land and people, cradle and stable, Bethlehem and Nazareth, parents and relatives, nature and environment, society and civilizationthese are all components in the fullness of the times in which God sent his Son into the flesh. It was the Son himself who thus immediately after the fall, as Logos and as Angel of the covenant, made the world of Gentiles and Jews ready for his coming. He was in the process of coming from the beginning of time and in the end came for good, by his incarnation making his home in humankind.... Now this entire preparation of the incarnation in the preceding centuries is concentrated, as it were, and completed in the election and favoring of Mary as the mother of Jesus. Mary is the blessed one among women. (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 3, pages 280281)

Here is a brief, edifying, and quite interesting presentation on Genesis 1 for your enjoyment today. https://www.youtube.com/watch

Words immensely important to remember and internalize, posted by a wise friend: When the church spends more time convincing people that God isn't as bad as they think, rather than convincing them that they are more needy than they realize, the best case scenario will be pews filled with people who find God acceptable. But the gospel is that God acquits us, not the other way around. Putting ‘God in the dock’ doesn't just rob God of His glory, it robs us of what we need most: good news.

'A mourner in Zion you may and ought to be, but a self-tormentor you must not be; complain to God you may, but complain of God (though but by the language of your actions) you must not.' John Flavel