Encouragement For Women

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." I have been thinking on these words of Mary often this Christmas. Mary describes herself as the servant of the Lord….servant of the Lord. How did that play out in Mary’s life? She was probably ostracized for most of her pregnancy for being “supernaturally pregnant.” Scripture doesn’t say exactly what she endured, but it does record that God sent an angel to Joseph to explain to him that Mary’s story was real. So, obviously it was a big enough deal to require a heavenly messenger. We see in the Gospel of Luke that Mary had the joy of going on a trip during the later part of her pregnancy, birthing a baby in a stable, laying him in an animal trough, and being greeted by shepherds after giving birth. Wow, not exactly what I would have expected the mother of our Lord to have endured in order to welcome Him into this world. Not exactly what I like to think of when I...

Welcome to the March issue of EFW! You and I should be making some good progress on reading through the Bible…a little bit each day! Well, winter is almost behind us and the newness of spring shall begin to blossom. This issue is about being a servant. The Toughest Job… I think being a servant is the absolute toughest job on earth. You are required to do much work and receive no thanks for it, all to please your master. Thankfully as believers our master is our loving Father in heaven. Yet, because of our prideful flesh – the job is one we really struggle with. When I was in high school I found a man’s wallet in the dairy aisle of a grocery store. It was “fat” with cash; he must’ve just cashed his paycheck. I was a young believer and took it to the customer service desk assuming I would be handsomely rewarded. As my Mom was checking out the man claimed his wallet and I saw the customer service clerk point to me. The man waved a sort of “thanks alot” k...