December 8, 1999
This column is repeated from our Dec. 1 issue
GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE:
"How will this be, since I am a virgin?"
Luke 1:34
___I've got lots of questions--theological, practical, moral. I wonder why children get cancer. I wish I knew how to preach better. I wonder, sometimes, why things take so long.
___I don't always talk about my questions. Some people are troubled if a preacher admitstoo much uncertainty. It is discouraging for someone to spend much time with the Bible and still not have the answers.
DON GUTHRIE
Pastor, First Baptist Church, San Antonio
___Questions aren't necessarily bad. The writers of the Psalms didn't hesitate to ask God,"How long?" or "Why?" Asking questions is the way we learn.
___Luke 1 records a question Mary posed to an angel after he had promised her a son.
___Her question wasn't a challenge. It wasn't unbelief. It was a request for information. Mary was familiar with the Old Testament stories of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. But in that case, there was a man involved. She was a virgin.
___ What Mary really wanted to know was what she needed to do. Was there a part she was to play, a step she was to take? Her question was, like the Philippian jailer's, "What must I do to be saved?" She was willing to obey, but she needed to know her assignment.
___I often get answers like the one Mary got. "'The power of the Most High will overshadow you,' said the angel" (Luke 1:35), which clarified the person, but not exactly the process. The details were still unclear. His answer told Mary who rather than how and refocused her attention on the central task of trusting God.
___Perhaps the details were left out to prevent us from an immoral comparison with mythology. Crude stories about gods falling in love with women were popular. So God left the details unclear, but not the promise.
___Jesus used to say, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. So is it with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). Spiritual life requires both faith and flexibility. Often I would like to know the next step, but God's call to me, like Mary, is to trust and wait and obey as he makes the path clear. He is capable! He is faithful! We are called to trust him.
___Mary's last word is better than her first. "May it be to me as you have said," she finally whispered in courageous surrender to God's will (verse 38). Thirty-three years later, her son would follow her example. As he faced the cross, Jesus would say, like his mother, "Not my will but your will be done" (Matthew 26:39).
___Fifteen years ago, I waited for an answer. My question was, "Will you marry me?" Holly Holm's answer was "yes," and I've never stopped being grateful. But sometimes I still wonder. If a woman like her could trust a man like me, then why shouldn't I trust God?
___Now, that's a good question! May the Lord give us all grace to answer like Mary.
___Merry Christmas!
Previous Columns: 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20 10/27, 11/17, 11/24.
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