58\u00a0<\/sup>And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord\u00a0had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.<\/span><\/p>\n 59\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,<\/span><\/p>\n 60\u00a0<\/sup>but his mother answered, \u201cNo;\u00a0he shall be called John.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 61\u00a0<\/sup>And they said to her, \u201cNone of your relatives is called by this name.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 62\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.<\/span><\/p>\n 63\u00a0<\/sup>And he asked for\u00a0a writing tablet and wrote,\u00a0\u201cHis name is John.\u201d And they all wondered.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a064\u00a0<\/sup>And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue\u00a0loosed, and he spoke,\u00a0blessing God.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a065\u00a0<\/sup>And\u00a0fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all\u00a0the hill country of Judea<\/span><\/p>\n ,<\/span>\u00a066\u00a0<\/sup>and all who heard them\u00a0laid them up in their hearts, saying, \u201cWhat then will this child be?\u201d For\u00a0the hand of the Lord was with him.<\/span><\/p>\n The crowd is able to recognize that this miraculous birth belongs to God and God’s doing alone. However, what they are not privy to is that God has also already decided a name for this child and the amazing plan He has for him. It was customary for a male child to be named at birth and also to acquire the same name as either the father or grandfather. In this case, God has already revealed what that name will be and out of obedience and faith, Elizabeth and Zechariah go against the cultural norms and follow after God’s choosing.<\/p>\n The name itself is not as important as to what it represents. By choosing the name, God is establishing the plan and purpose that He has for John in the future. It is abundantly clear that even though the neighbors are confused about their choosing in the name, that God’s hand is working in and through the life of John even from birth.<\/p>\n God’s plan for our lives were set in motion even before John was born. Here we see the beginning of a life that is about to be used by God in such a powerful way to bring about the message of the Gospel. Let us be encouraged by the fact that God still works in the same way to use as His tools and vessels. God worked in amazing way to use John and He intends to use us to be a means to also spread the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us.<\/p>\n [Featured image from www.bibleimages.ca<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scripture Reading(s) Luke 1:57-66 57\u00a0Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58\u00a0And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord\u00a0had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59\u00a0And\u00a0on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12227,"featured_media":13850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2280],"tags":[7272,1900,7265,2344,7268,7266,7264,7273,7267],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReflections<\/h2>\n
\n![\"Lydia.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Picture-150x150.jpg\")
The time had now come for Elizabeth to give birth to the child God had promised them. Her neighbors gather around her and are there to share in her joy and support her due to the previous trial of not being able to have a baby. They are there to congratulate her and also witness just how powerful God’s hand has been throughout this entire process.<\/p>\n
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