Laura J. Davis

She was frightened by the appearance of the angel. One moment she was alone and the next words she heard changed her life forever, "Greetings you who are highly favoured!" She turned around and there stood an angel of God and he was telling her that God favoured her. I can feel Mary's heart beating fast can't you? Imagine what was going through her mind - the emotions that must have been swirling through her. I'd think fear, anxiety and confusion would be top on her list. But then the angel goes on.

"You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Say what now?

Can you see her eyes blinking rapidly trying to take it all in? Her face is flushing too. Her heart is going a mile a minute! New emotions are tumbling in and building to a fever pitch. She is no more than 14 or 15 years old. Some scholars suggest she may have been as young as 12! She is a young Jewess. Deeply devoted to God and His laws. Getting pregnant outside of marriage would result in a stoning, according to those laws. So, we have no doubt that this is not very good news for Mary. That fear is clutching at her throat right now waiting for release. Yet, at the same time, she experiences peace and joy at the angel's words. Why? She has just been told that she would have the honour of bringing the Messiah into the world! She is no doubt flabbergasted at such an honour.She has so many questions to ask - but only one comes forth. "How will this be since I am a virgin?"

A logical question considering all the other ones that were probably going through her head like - why me? When will it happen? Will it hurt? What will I tell my fiancee Joseph? How will I explain this to my parents? And oh...yeah...how will I avoid a stoning?

After the angel explains to her how it will be done, he tells her about her cousin Elizabeth so that she might know she wasn't imagining everything.

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” 

And after all that, this lovely young teenager says, "I am the Lord's Servant. May it be to me as you have said."

Mary obediently surrendered to God’s desires for her life. God was pleased to honour her by using her for His good purposes. Mary knew she was about to face a world full of trouble and hurt when her friends and family discovered her pregnant. Yet, she said “yes” to God. How do you react when God asks something of you that you fear is way out of your comfort zone? Do you automatically question God? Say no? Stall for time? The next time God asks something of you, take a lesson from Mary and say yes. He might just use you to change the world.

Several months ago it was put into my head by several well meaning souls that I needed to write a bible study on the life of Christ, to go with my novel Come to Me. At first it was suggested that I write something geared to a book club, but as I started writing I felt myself drawn to exploring the faith of Christ, his mother and the events of their lives that changed the course of history. In all honesty, I was in the middle of writing another book in a totally different genre, when this "idea" for an accompaniment studyguide to Come to Me took over my days and nights.

I am happy to report that Learning from the Master is almost ready for print and it is good for book clubs and bible study groups. It isn't until you sit at the feet of the Rabbi from Galilee and meditate on his words that you start to see patterns in his life and his faith. This study will, I hope, help young and old believers alike to discover the true meaning of surrendering to God. In addition, I will have the privilege of making the DVD The Star of Bethlehem available with this study. The two books - Come to Me and Learning from the Master will be available as a package with the DVD. Or you can order each book and the DVD separately. I am over the moon that the creator of The Bethlehem Star has blessed me with this opportunity. It is one of the best videos I've ever seen on the Bethlehem Star and it will blow your mind!

You can purchase the DVD from my web-store in time for Christmas for $10.00 plus shipping. I have limited quantities so get your orders in fast (if you are interested). Or, you can pre-order Learning from the Master and I will include a copy of the DVD for a reduced price, (but you won't get it until after Christmas). In the meantime, enjoy the trailer below.

In my daily study time I am working through Francis Chan's book/workbook Crazy Love. It's an awesome study and one that will make you ponder things for hours. For example, today I was faced with something that I had always assumed was a given, but when I really thought hard about my answer I began to wonder.

The theme of the chapter was simple - do you love God? Well, my immediate reaction was - of course I do! I wouldn't be devoting my life to Him if I didn't love Him. But then, Francis Chan went a little deeper and I was faced with these questions: 

Do I love God like I love my spouse or my children? Do I want to be with Him - to pursue Him? Is my love for God like that "Crazy Love" I experienced when I first fell in love with my husband? Does the spirit within me "light up" at the thought of spending time with my Saviour? While the author never directly asked those questions, the study inadvertently pushed me in that direction. I didn't like my answers.

I began to think of all the ways God has expressed His love for me. Not just the death of His Son, but in other ways throughout my life where He has shown me how much He cares. Shelter, clothing, jobs, safety during moments of danger, healthy kids, delightful surprises, friendships, family, a loving husband. The list goes on and on. Yes, there were some bad times, but God was still there during them, holding me up and keeping me strong.

So, how do I express my love for God? He has given me so much, what can I possibly do to return that love? Will going to church or having a bible study everyday make Him happy? What about volunteering to help the poor? Will that make Him smile? Or perhaps a daily morning devotional that is at a set time everyday will let Him know how devoted I am. Are these adequate ways to show my love for Him?

Before I married my husband I couldn't stand being away from him for even a moment. We had a long distance relationship and racked up the phone bills talking to each other everyday for hours. Why? Because we loved each other, we wanted to hear each other's voice and get to know one another. When I hung up the phone, I missed his voice right away.

Is your love for God like that? Do you long to be with Him? To talk to Him? Do you constantly think about Him? Do you LOVE the Father like that?

Did you know that's how He loves you?

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

When you get up in the morning, what is the first thing you think about? The first thing I think about is that I want to sleep some more. Then I think about having a shower, getting dressed, feeding the cats, taking my pills so that I can walk with minimal discomfort, driving my husband to work and stopping at Timmy's* on the way back for a coffee. At this point I'm still half asleep, because I am NOT a morning person. My brain has yet to kick in to actual thinking. So far, everything I've done has been by rote. It's my morning routine, which begins at 6:00 am everyday (way too early for someone who isn't fully functional until after 11:00 am).  I am like the walking dead - not quite dead, yet not fully alive either.

By the time I get back to the house after dropping my husband off at work, I'm ready for breakfast. I still haven't a thought in my head - again everything is by rote and I'm not fully awake. The coffee helps - a little - and my head begins to clear of the sleep induced fog it has been in since early morning. It is now 8:30 am and I'm starting to come around, so I check my emails. I should be praying and having a bible study, but I'm afraid to, because I worry that I'll fall back to sleep. God deserves better than that. So, I try more caffeine and by 10:00 am I'm starting to think - thoughts are actually forming in my mind. It is time for prayer and bible study.

Surely, this is not how God intended my days to begin - as a comatose, middle-aged woman who can't put two thoughts together until the morning is half over? Whatever happened to jumping out of bed in the morning and singing, "Good morning, good morning!" (a la Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor). Oh wait - that has never happened in my life! I have ALWAYS been a night owl. But, somehow I thought that once I became a Christian my grumpy (I wish I were still sleeping) morning attitude would go away and be replaced with a more "Christlike" attitude. One that immediately thought of God and rejoiced that I'd been given a new day in which to praise Him.

It bothers me that I don't even think about God until AFTER I've had a shot of caffeine. This can't be right. Each day God has given me is a gift and I want to live it to it's fullest, praising Him and serving Him. Yet, somehow it never turns out that way. Oh, I do have my prayer and bible study times and I do have wonderful moments of worship, but it never seems enough. I could always fall back on the old "God made me this way" excuse and leave it at that. But I can't. God deserves more from me. He deserves all of me. He gives me the gift of life and I really need to be awake to offer it back to Him or my life is worth nothing. 

So today, I want to honour God the best way I know how - by staying awake. You may think - "That's awful! Your only gift to God each day is to stay awake?"  Yes, it is, because even now at 10:30 am as I write this, I am overwhelmed by the desire to fall asleep. It is so intense, this need to sleep, that I get dizzy trying to fight it off. I could easily crawl back into bed and not wake up again until 1:00 pm. I confess this is something I do all too frequently. But no more.

How can I take a day God has gifted me with and sleep it away? How can I not live it to its fullest? Even though most of my work gets done in the evenings, when I come alive, God still deserves more from me and I must not waste this day.

What about you? How are you spending your days? Maybe you are a morning person and you do jump out of bed shouting "Good morning!" But what happens after that? How much of your day do you give back to God? All of it, or only a teeny bit? Do other things get in your way like your job, shopping, children, the gym or TV? How much time do you devote to God each day? 15 minutes? An hour? God cannot be relegated to our agenda for the day, to where He'll "fit" in. Each day is a gift from God that we can open like a present on Christmas morning with excitement at the prospect of what it will bring. For some, this day may even be your last. So, ask yourself, how are you going to live your life today? Like the walking dead who go through the motions? Or are you going to use it to bring glory to God and be a gift to others? 

*Timmy's is Tim Horton's here in Canada. The best coffee Canada has to offer.

This is my friend Sue Minns. This picture pretty much describes everything about Sue. That smile lit up a room and her laugh and sense of humour stayed with you for hours after talking to her. Sue was an incredible speaker who managed to touch the hearts of people all over Canada. She loved to laugh at what most people would call "bad" things, but she could find something funny about any situation. Her philosophy? Try to find the humour in everything. Keep an eye out for it because there is always something funny to find - even with MS and cancer. Her humourous attitude toward life was a gift from God and her faith in Jesus to see her through life's trials - and she had many of them (depression, breast cancer, a devastating house fire, MS) - made her testimony about God's faithfulness all the more powerful.

Sue was famous for her red stiletto shoes.

"The way I see it, if you have to spend your days in a wheelchair you can either whine about it or your can seize the opportunity to wear smokin' red high heels with zero discomfort."

That was the way Sue looked at life - always with a positive. She even tried to convince me that I should get a wheelchair as it was the best thing that had ever happened to her. "I can go anywhere I want now. Best thing that ever happened to me was getting this wheelchair!" Her words, not mine. She saw me limping and new I was in pain. In fact, right up until the time she went into hospital, she was still trying to convince me to get one.

Sue died on September 29, 2011 of stomach cancer. I was supposed to go in and see her that day. I was going to surprise her with a bouquet of flowers - and my new red scooter. It wasn't a wheelchair, but I knew it would have brought a smile and a chuckle from her and it's no coincidence that it's red.

Today, I will in some small measure (I hope), give comfort to her husband Rick and her sons Jake and Jesse. Tomorrow, we are having a going away party. Again, Sue's idea. I know almost everyone there (men and women) will be sporting red shoes of some kind. I also know, for me at least, that when I think of Sue's red shoes I hear in my head the constant refrain, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home." So, I will wear my red shoes, share a story or two and then click my heels three times and rejoice in the fact that my dear friend is truly home.

Earlier this year, my mother in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Given her age and the prognosis, she opted out of surgery. She knows where she is going and feels she made the right decision.

Recently, a good friend was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Her prognosis is not good and she has been given a few months to live.

In November, I'm going in for surgery to remove a lump on my leg that has been a "thorn" in my side (or should I say leg?) for more than two years. I'm told the operation is risky, but it needs to come out - the lump is so big I run into it with my other leg!

On Sunday, my mother had a stroke. She couldn't walk or talk. Everything that came out of her mouth was gibberish. She became quite agitated in the hospital because we couldn't understand a thing she said. She lost the use of her right leg. She was understandably confused at what was going on. The doctor's said the next few days will determine if she gets better or not. I immediately put out a call for prayer to my writer friends in The Word Guild.

I needed some good news.

On Monday morning my father walked into my mother's hospital room to discover her sitting up in bed reading the paper! She was also talking normally. The doctor's and nurses were astounded. We all were. Today is Thursday and I'm happy to say Mom is still doing well. She is walking with the help of a walker and her aphasia has not returned.

Does God still hear our prayers today? Yes! I believe my mother was healed by God through the power of prayer. I may be alone in that assessment, but nothing else can explain her remarkable recovery. Some may ask, "Why did God heal your Mom and not your friend or your mother in-law? Didn't you pray for them?" Yes, and I still am praying for them. In fact, my mother in-law hasn't been given long to live and should be in a lot of pain right now. But she's not. She's doing great. My friend however, is not doing so great and this makes me very sad. But, I don't stop praying for any of them. God knows the plans He has in mind for my Mom, my friend and my mother in-law and He answers my prayers for all three of these women accordingly.

Sometimes we don't get the answers to prayer that we want and other times we are astounded over God's goodness to us. Right now I'm celebrating the good news of my mother's healing. Tomorrow I may be mourning the loss of a good friend and yes it does make me question "why", especially when I see how much my friend has to live for (she's still so young). Is God fair? Yes, He is. We don't know the future, but He does and He alone knows what is best and that is where trust comes in.

Prayer can only have two outcomes - "Yes or no." Positive answers are what we long for and they make our faith stronger. Negative answers will cause many to ask "why?"  and it may even cause many to struggle with the goodness of God. But, don't let it. God sees beyond what you can see and knows what is best for you and for those you are praying for. Keep on trusting Him. He knows what is best for you and your loved ones. He sees their future clearly. Just keep praying and let Him take care of the rest.

This week we dropped my daughter Sarah and her friend Annie off at the airport, where she took her first plane ride over the Atlantic to Scotland.

They arrived in Glasgow and then had to take a bus to get to Edinburgh - their home base for the week. As they left the bus terminal they looked everywhere for a cab but couldn't find one, so they decided to walk. They each had two pieces of luggage on wheels. One small carry-on and a larger case that weighed no more than 55lbs. The cobblestones in Edinburgh make pulling two suitcases difficult and when you add in rain, no umbrellas and no idea where they were, well...let's just say they were a little frustrated. It wasn't long before they stopped into a pub to ask where they could find a taxi, after getting directions they made their way and found the cab they so desperately needed.

After putting their luggage in the trunk and they were all settled in, Sarah told the cab driver the address of their hotel.

He immediately started laughing, pulled a U-turn and took them across the street.

Like my daughter's adventure in Scotland, we can sometimes miss things that are staring us straight in the face. God can be telling us to go somewhere or do something, but we are never sure where or what. He even tries to send us directions through His word or His people but because we aren't looking in the right direction, or possibly not asking the right questions, we can miss His leading. That's when you need to stop, ask for direction again and look carefully for His signs.

May God grant you eyes to see Him this week and wisdom to know what to do when He calls.

Read Exodus 14:1-31

The Israelites are on the verge of freedom. They have finally been given permission by Pharaoh to leave and so they set out, only to be pursued by Pharaoh who has once again changed his mind. But even after all the miraculous ways that God has displayed His power to the Hebrews they still shake in fear.

The situation did look hopeless of course. Pharaoh's army was behind them and in front of them was the Red Sea. They had no way of escape, but they did have the knowledge that God was with them because He sent a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide them. It would have been impossible for them  not to realize this pillar was God with them. Yet even with God in their midst they turned on Moses, blamed him for leading them out of slavery and began to complain once again. They were overwhelmed by their fears. Scripture says they were terrified (vs.10). 

Sometimes, life can be terrifying. Losing our children in the mall, losing our jobs, finding out we have cancer - there are so many things that can make us afraid. But God says this, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still" (vs. 14). Remarkably, that is the hardest thing to do when our fears become reality.  To be still. To wait on God. To trust Him.

Yet, that is what He asks of us and it is the hardest part of living for Him. Learning to be still, turning everything over to Him and waiting.

Take some time today to be still before the Lord and ask Him to deliver you from your fears.

Read Genesis:41-57;  Romans 8:28:30

When Joseph's brothers conspired to sell him into slavery, they had no idea their actions would one day eventually save them all from a famine that came upon the whole world. Before that happened however, Joseph had to endure a lot from the hands of his brothers, from being sold into slavery, to false accusations, to imprisonment for 13 years! But, God had a plan. He blessed Joseph with wisdom and Joseph rose in prominence in Pharaoh's kingdom until he was in charge of the whole land of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

Sometimes we cannot see God at work when we are beset with troubles or sickness. We are often too close to the situation and like Joseph, it may be years before we realize that we were being prepared for something greater. Unfortunately, we can often become discouraged and lose faith that God is even hearing our prayers. Take heart! He is very aware of what you are going through right now and while you may not be able to see where your momentary troubles are leading, God sees it all. Rest in the knowledge that He is preparing you not only for work in His kingdom, but for the day when you will meet Him face to face.

Joseph trusted in God everyday. He did not lose his faith, but rested in the fact that God knew him, loved him and was aware of his situation. God knows your situation too. Trust Him...He has great things planned for you.

Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."