It’s become a joke.
That’s why we don’t talk about it.
Definitely not at the office or with the guys at the gym.
Try it this week.
Casually comment, in the course of a routine conversation with the gang, how amazing it is that a virgin gave birth.
If they do respond with anything more than uncomfortable silence, it’ll be with eye rolls, snide remarks, and offers to sell you swamp land in Florida. If you travel in polite, politically correct crowds, someone will cough softly, people will exchange knowing glances, and they’ll quickly change the subject.
Go ahead, try it.
Just the notion of virginity has become an endless source of ridicule, cynicism, and scoffing in the media. Even teen-age virgins, never mind adults who have maintained their virginity, are greeted with skepticism and treated like either children or liars.
Don’t be surprised to find that in years to come, single adults who maintain their virginity will discover themselves listed in the American Psychiatric list of diagnoses’ as having some syndrome or mental illness.
Those of us who believe in the virgin birth are probably already there under the category (at least in people’s minds) of so gullible and easily deluded as to verge on mentally unstable.
So, here’s my question, do you believe that Jesus was born of a virgin?
When was the last time you thought of it as anything more than a phrase in a Christmas carol?
Virgin birth.
Virgin birth is a huge deal! Right?
In fact, God packs two legitimate conception miracles back-to-back in history – a woman well beyond child-bearing years and a woman who has never had sexual relations each conceive a son – both after having been visited by angelic beings.
Do you believe that?
If you do, then why don’t you talk about it with others as evidence that Jesus is different than the originators of all other faiths?
It’s HUGE evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. It’s historically documented in Matthew and Luke. It’s a bedrock concept of our faith.
But the enemy has succeeded in diminishing its importance and eroding its potency. We’ve grown accustomed to knowing it’s true but knowing, also, that no one in modern times believes it or sees it as evidence that Jesus is God.
We have entered a dangerous age.
These are the times when we must not only stand for the truth, we must also guard our own hearts and minds from faltering and falling away altogether.
The air is thick with deception.
We’ll be tempted to let our love grow cold, to allow our minds to lapse into unbelief, and to dilute our message.
Jesus was born of a virgin. Conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Mary had a baby, O Lord, and it was the talk of the town.
To defend our hearts and minds, we should maintain constant vigilance against subtle erosion.
Virgin birth. Meditate on it this advent season. Restore your faith in it. Renew its place in your message to others. Speak of it in conversations. Ask people around the lunch table or while waiting in line if they believe it. Get them thinking. Get them talking.
Take some hits. Be snickered at. Be the target of scorn. Know that others will talk behind your back once you’ve walked away. That’s nothing compared to what believers endure in other countries and it’s a small price to pay if even one of those listeners begins to think . . .
a virgin gave birth. Wow. That guy believes that? That woman is willing to say that out loud? Maybe it’s true and if that’s true then, maybe I need to think more about Jesus.
Virgin birth. It’s not just a phrase in a Christmas carol, it’s the opening act of our redemption.
Try it. Like an evangelistic flash mob, see how many of us can work it into a conversation this week and let us know what happens.
Here is a link if you need reinforcement in this truth:
http://www.bethinking.org/bible-jesus/introductory/q-was-jesus-born-of-a-virgin.htm
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Try taking an almost 60-year-old never-married missionary who now has Alzheimer’s to the doctor and see the reaction when you tell them she’s a virgin. In today’s world, deviant sex isn’t shocking; abstinence is.
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Emmanuel, God with us.” Amen and Amen!!
Without the Virgin Birth, Jesus is “just another spouter of wise words”, a “shaman or spirit healer with political incorrectness that got him killed”. He is God or he is not. Nothing more sets the genuine Jesus of Nazareth apart than the virgin birth, from all other “Jesus” figures, and all others who are set up (or set themselves up) as “messiah”.
May God grant all who believe the courage to always stand for this truth, for upon it are all the other claims of Jesus Christ dependent: the Saving power of His laying down His life on the Cross and the victory over death for all who believe demonstrated in his resurrection and ascension into Heaven. May we hunger for His coming again as a deer pants for water in the days of heat!
God bless you, Lori, for you not only listen to the Holy Spirit as He steers your thoughts, you proclaim His truth to an often clueless and frequently derisive and unforgiving world! You are one of the dear treasures in my life for which I give thanks this Thanksgiving holiday! ><> Sharon
I will the challenge of bringing up the virgin birth to see what happens
So true! I’m not afraid to bring it up!