The Kingdom of God is like none other. What ruler saves His people with a King born to a teenage girl and a carpenter, in a stable? What baby is first visited by dirty and outcast shepherds? What kind of a toddler has magistrates come and visit Him, to bring birthday gifts that are for the preparation of His death? The answer to all of those questions can be found in this series. In the beautiful, yet strange Upside Down Kingdom of God, each and every individual played an important, and possibly even peculiar role in the grand scheme of things. We hope you enjoy the long awaited Upside Down Kingdom Series!
In her day and age, Mary was not your stereotypical average teenager. In fact, the Bible describes her as being "the one that the Lord was with." In all of the land, this young woman was the one person the Lord was so pleased with, that He decided to cast her a role in the play of events in the storyline of His upside-down kingdom.
Now, imagine with me just how Mary felt: here is this pure young lady with a bright future ahead of her, as she is engaged to be married to the love of her life, and then one day, an angel unexpectedly shows up and tells her that not only has she found favor in the eyes of the Lord, but she, a virgin, is somehow going to conceive and carry a baby, who just so happens to be the very Son of God and long-awaited Messiah. Crazy, am I right?
I can only imagine how many questions and comments she had regarding all this that the Lord was bringing her way. I wonder if she was petrified out of her mind, knowing that there was no backing down because she chose to obey and trust that God knew just what He was doing, no matter how upside-down things seemed.
Mary most definitely had times of fear and uncertainty, not just for herself or her family, but also for what this would mean for Joseph, the one she was engaged to. Now, Joseph truly was a good man: when he found out what was happening to Mary, he, in his great love for her, devised a plan to quietly break off their bond instead of publicly shaming her, as their culture called for. So, here we have your basic carpenter who goes from planning a wedding for his dream girl to planning just how he could call it off in a meek yet discreet way. Thankfully, God had other plans in store for them.
The whole message of this part of our Christmas Story is that God has no problem picking the ones who seem ordinary on the outside but have something deep within them and then uses them to play an important role in His story. To God, Mary wasn't just a teenager, nor was Joseph just a carpenter. They were both people with something within them that somehow caught the eye of the Father, landing them a "role" in His extraordinary Upside Down Kingdom story.
END OF THE YEAR MESSAGE FROM GENELLE:
Dearest Philanthropical Faith Family Members,
We are closer and closer to our official one year anniversary! This means that for the past (almost) year now, The Philanthropical Faith has been here, and is a great testament to the faithfulness of God, and we want to take some time to reflect on that goodness!
From our very first devotional that came from my favorite Bible verse, Philippians 4:6-7, to growing to having members and readers all across the globe, and even establishing not just one, but two flourishing social media platforms, we could not be more grateful! God is good! Doing this has been nothing but a labor of love, as I have strived to be intentional in the way I run and manage this devotional, as well as taking the time to deeply study the Word of God, and what I feel Him lay on my heart, and through all of that, He is still good to me!
With this season of old coming to a close, there are incredible and great new things on their way, and I declare over this platform that what is coming for you and me will be greater than the latter, in Jesus' name.
I love you family!
<3 Genelle
Love this!!! So good!! ♥️