MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/3/2026
9:58 AM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “The Divine Blessing”
Bible
Reading & Meditation
Reference: Luke 1:29-30
Message of the verses: “And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings,
favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement,
and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,
Mary; for you have found favor with God.”
I begin by writing about the phrase coming in,
as this clearly implies that Mary was in her house, apparently alone, when the
angel Gabriel appeared to her. Mary was undoubtedly
doing the normal domestic chores of a girl who was perhaps 12 or 13 years old,
and being Jewish and what we know about Mary we know she was doing exactly what
she was suppose to be doing. Gabriel
gave Mary the standard introduction of that time “Greetings.” Now since Zacharis panicked when Gabriel
appeared to him, his low-key introduction and immediate statement of blessing
was likely intended to calm and to reassure Mary.
Now by addressing Mary as favored
one, Gabriel indicated that May had nothing to fear, but was to become the
recipient of God’s grace. MacArthur
writes: “There was nothing intrinsically worthy about her that set he above
other believers, as if she were perfectly holy; like all people, she was a
sinner (cf. Job 25:4; Psalm 14:1-3; Eccles. 7:20; Isa. 53:6; Rom. 3:12, 23) in
need of God’s grace (Acts 15:11; 18:27; Rom. 3:24; 5:15, 17; Eph. 1:7; 2:5, 8;
2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:7). The
salutation was best confiscated from the basis of the familiar Roman Catholic
prayer known as the Ave Maria (‘Hail Mary’).
The erroneous premise of that prayer, based on the Latin Vulgate’s
rendering of favored one as gratia plena (‘full of grace’), is that
Mary has been granted and possesses fullness of grace, which she then bestows
on others. In his encyclical Ad Diem
Illum Laetissimum, Pope Pius X, in a bizarre distortion of truth, has
called Mary not the recipient of grace, but the ‘Dispensatrix [dispenser] of
all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by His death and by His Blood;
the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces; the distributor…of the
treasures of His merits.’ Pope Leo XIII
agreed, declaring in his encyclical Octobri Mense that ‘Mary is the
intermediary through whom is distributed unto us the immense treasure of the
Catholic Church’s belief that Mary is ‘the seat of all divine graces…adorned
with all gifts of the Holy Spirit…an almost infinite treasury, and inexhaustible
abyss of these gifts.’ Summing up the
Catholic view that Mary is the mediator of all graces Ludwig Ott writes, ‘Since
Mary’s Assumption into Heaven no grace is conferred on man without her actual
intercessory co-operation’ (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma [St. Louis;
B. Herder, 1954], 209).”
I want to go back to some of the
verse references that MacArthur has in his commentary that we are looking at,
beginning with the ones that follow the statement “like all people she (Mary)
was a sinner.”
(cf. Job 25:4; Psalm 14:1-3; Eccles.
7:20; Isa. 53:6; Rom. 3:12, 23)
“4 How then can man be in the right before God?
How can he who is born of woman be pure?
1 ¶ «To the choirmaster. Of David.» The fool says
in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable
deeds, there is none who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the
children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have
become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”
“20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth
who does good and never sins.”
“6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned— every one— to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.”
“12 All have turned aside; together they have
become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”
“23 for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God,”
The next
set of verses we will look at comes after MacArthur’s statement “in need of God’s
grace.”
(Acts 15:11; 18:27; Rom. 3:24; 5:15,
17; Eph. 1:7; 2:5, 8; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:7)
11 But we believe that we will be saved through
the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.’”
“27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the
brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he
arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed,”
“24 and are justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”
“15 But the free gift is not like the trespass.
For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God
and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”
“7 In him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
“5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made
us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”
“8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”
“9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling,
not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he
gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,”
“7 so that being justified by his grace we might
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
These are very important verses to
look at showing us that we are all sinners and we are all in need of God’s
grace in order for us to be saved.
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life today: I could never do anything on my own
in order for God to allow me to come into His presence, only through the blood
of Christ can I be saved, and the Holy Spirit opening my heart to receive the
forgiveness that God offers to me through His Son, Jesus Christ.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Holy Spirit of God to get
this message out to He brings onto my blogs to read it and be saved.
3/3/2026
10:39 AM
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