What a Disgrace!

Luke 1:1-25

That old familiar curse - the phrase, "What a disgrace!" Who wants that said of them? No one. Yet, eventually we all face disgrace from time to time. Being outcast is a lonely, depressing, heart-crushing experience.

Sometimes, the disgrace we face is culturally imposed. It was for Elizabeth. Luke 1:1-25 tells the story. Chosen by God, yet for most of her life unaware of it, she was barren until late in life. Most women past the child-bearing years (about 45) do not conceive. Miraculously, some have. Others require the miracle of God - having past menopause and ceased their periods for several years. In Jesus' day, failing to have children was a serious failing. Women often feel that way today - at least when they WANT to have kids. It makes them feel deficient, defective; it's like their lives are worthless. They feel unable to do their biological duty.

Perhaps you have felt disgraced. Maybe you got fired from your job. Perhaps you struggle with depression for some unknown reason. Drugs and alcohol trap people all the time in disgrace. Pornography and sexual addictions disgrace more and more every year. Gambling is just as dangerous. There are many ways to find oneself in disgrace.

There are also a myriad of "lesser" offenses that are just as disgraceful, even if they are not as socially disgraceful. Consider jealousy. It leads countless people into serious issues. How about envy or being disrespectful to parents? Consider the disgrace in simply not trusting the Lord. Millions are putting aside simple faith for sophisticated unbelief. Proverbs 14:34 says, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people." The truth is - all sin is a disgrace. Unbelief is the key sin. That means lack of trust.

Disgrace is a hopeless condition, indeed. The wages of sin is death because it is so hopelessly unchangeable. It is one's nature; it is one's condition.

But, like all conditions, the person is not hopeless. The barren, as well as the addict has hope. The deformed as surely as the disabled has hope. The sinner has hope! That hope is the same hope that Elizabeth and Zacharias had - hope in the Lord. When God does miracles, He does them for hopeless people. Those who need Him will find Him - and find His touch more than enough to take away their disgrace - whatever it is.

He removes the disgrace from the disabled by making them marvels. He removes the disgrace from the deformed by making them beautiful characters. He removes the disgrace from the barren by making them mothers and fathers. He removes the disgrace from the sinner by making them saints! These disgraceful conditions are changed by Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ.

Now you have hope. You will not be forever disgraced. You will be redeemed and you can say with Elizabeth, "The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people."

Holler for Jesus,

Greg Yount

Check out my blogs:

Just-a-Thot - Devotional thoughts - http://justa-thot.blogspot.com

As I See It - Biblical perspectives on current events - http://asiseeit10.blogspot.com