{"id":221,"date":"2012-05-31T20:41:30","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T01:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=221"},"modified":"2012-06-21T20:45:38","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T01:45:38","slug":"a-good-christian-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=221","title":{"rendered":"A Good Christian Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/font><\/p>\n

Visitation<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

Rom 12: 9-16; Luke 1: 39-56<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

By Deacon Larry Brockman<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n

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\u00a0<\/font><\/o:o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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Love and Humility!\u00a0 <\/span>They go hand in hand, two sides of the same coin.\u00a0 <\/span>And our Blessed Mother exhibits these two qualities so very well as she visits her cousin Elizabeth.\u00a0 <\/span>Mary has been chosen by God to be the God bearer- the mother of Almighty God born man.\u00a0 <\/span>But rather than get all puffed up about her role what does she do after she learns of it?\u00a0 <\/span>She visits her cousin Elizabeth and serves her for the final 3 months of her pregnancy.\u00a0 <\/span>She realizes how she has been chosen, and in the longest quote from Mary that we have in the Bible, she proclaims this famous prayer to her cousin, Mary\u2019s Song of Praise, a song of praise that is full of love and humility.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, Mary lived a life of love and humility.\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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I couldn\u2019t help but make the connection with the words in Paul\u2019s epistle this morning, as Paul leaves us all a roadmap for how to live a Good Christian life.\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes we make that more difficult than it is because we don\u2019t understand what the Lord is calling us to do.\u00a0 <\/span>We hear of the stories of great men and women in our society, and, especially when we are young, we aspire to greatness.\u00a0 <\/span>As life unfolds before us, we meet challenges with resolve to be great, to do great things- to be the world\u2019s best athlete; a world renown musician or singer; the next trend setter in technology, like the guy who invents the next Twitter or Facebook; or to become a doctor or engineer or lawyer or politician or whatever; and to really make a difference in the world.\u00a0 <\/span>As we get older, reality slowly dawns on us and most of us never achieve the greatness of our hopes.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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And yet, we can become eminently more successful than most of the world\u2019s success stories because mixed in with whatever we want to do, and actually do in this world with the talents God gave us, is our real purpose in life. \u00a0<\/span>You see, like Mary, God has his plans for us.\u00a0 <\/span>They may include great things by the world\u2019s standards, or they may be filled with the very ordinary things of life.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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<\/span>But mixed in with them is the need for us to live a Christian life.\u00a0 <\/span>And living that Christian life is what our roadmap to the kingdom of God is all about.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s all about how we relate to people along the way- loving with sincerity; being fervent in the spirit; treating others with honor; rejoicing in hope; enduring affliction; persevering in prayer; associating with the lowly and not being haughty.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, it\u2019s all about the things that Paul mentions this morning.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

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And each of us is given the opportunities to demonstrate our Christianity as well, to live these Christian values while we pursue our own dreams.\u00a0 <\/span>Only sometimes they seem to inconvenience us, like the people in need we encounter and the interruptions that life sends our way- illnesses, setbacks, failures, and moral challenges.\u00a0 <\/span>But they are all God\u2019s little moments in our lives, our opportunities to shine, to be a Christian; to be humble and loving.\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

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<\/span>Embrace them, and be a Christian.\u00a0 <\/span>And let your soul proclaim the greatness of the Lord.<\/o:o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visitation Rom 12: 9-16; Luke 1: 39-56 By Deacon Larry Brockman \u00a0 Love and Humility!\u00a0 They go hand in hand, two sides of the same coin.\u00a0 And our Blessed Mother exhibits these two qualities so very well as she visits her cousin Elizabeth.\u00a0 Mary has been chosen by God to be the God bearer- the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[139,138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}