Chapter One

Note: This is the third book that I have written. I am posting this book in an unedited format. I make this point because you will notice writing errors as it is a work in progress. After it is completed it will be edited and published in printed book format.

Chapter One -

Just to give you a little background on this book of the bible, Luke is believed to have been a doctor and an educated man who wrote in a higher form of the Greek language. His book was well planned out with a preface, dedication and accounts of sources used. He traveled with the apostle Paul who called him "the beloved physician" and it is believed by some that Luke did much of Paul's writing for him. Luke also wrote the book of Acts and between these two books much of our specific knowledge of Christianity comes from these gospels. Written around 90 A.D. this "social gospel" as it is called because it is part biography, proclamation and theological history tied with social history. Specific to the book of Luke is the birth of John the Baptist, the Christmas story of the shepherds, the parables of the Good Samaritan, the lost sheep and the prodigal son and both Acts and this book account for a quarter of the New Testament.

Now, those who do not believe in the bible, point to the time lag between the end of the ministry of Jesus and the first written account of what He accomplished. These critics say that too much time may have passed and the authors may have embellished their writings. While some may have problems with the word of God for this reason, they seem to have no problem with books written on secular history that are written thousands and hundreds of years after the fact. I believe that the reason that the new testament books were written 60 and 70 years after the fact is because the writers were involved in ministry, doing what God called them to do and as they approached an advanced age they decided to write an account of their work. Another reason is that they were living in that historical time with people who had a fresh accounting of details and facts and books like Luke and Acts were written to give an accounting for future generations. After all, a majority of the new testament was made up of letters of encouragement and correction, written by Paul, to the Christian churches of his day. In the very beginning, Luke states that he is writing a careful summary to reassure the reader of the truth that we are taught.

As stated in the introduction, Luke opens with the birth of John the Baptist. Like other times in the bible, God uses the impossible situation, in this case the infertility of Elizabeth, who was old and barren and without child. From an economic standpoint, not having children meant that you had no one to take care of you in your old age. Since there were no government programs to fund a retirement, your sole source of protection and support in your old age came from your children. From a social standpoint, not being able to bear children was considered to be an example of God's disfavor and without a doubt those around Zechariah and Elizabeth must have wondered what they had done wrong to have been so cursed. Luke tells us that both Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous in God's eyes and that they were careful to obey all of God's commandments and regulations.

Once a year, Zechariah would leave Elizabeth and walk to Jerusalem and would perform his duties in the temple with the other priests. He lived at the temple for a week lighting candles, burning incense, participating in the sacrifices. Each morning all of the priests would cast lots to see what their duties were that day and on this day Zechariah drew the prize that everyone else lived for, the lighting of the incense in the sanctuary just outside of the holy of holies, at days end. This duty was so special that a priest was limited to being able to do it just once in his life and most priests were never fortunate enough to do it at all in their whole life. When a priest performed this duty he would know that a large gathering of worshipers were gathered outside to watch the incense rise up to God and they would pray while breathing in the wonderful fragrance that came from the house of worship. And after the priest performed his duties in the temple he would emerge and bless the awaiting crowd. It was in the middle of this once in a lifetime experience that destiny visited Zechariah in the form of the angel Gabriel.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to him, the bible describes that he was overwhelmed with fear. I think that would be an understatement as the angel tells Zechariah that he will have a son who will be "great in the eyes of the Lord". "He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah, the prophet of old and he will precede the coming of the Lord, preparing for his arrival". While this was processing in his head, Zachariah did what most of us seem to do when we are on the spot, we ask a dumb question. His was, "How can I know this will happen? I am old and in case you haven't noticed, so is my wife?" Now, this was a logical question, but given the fact that you are talking to an intimidating angel of God, in the temple, and he is telling you good news you might just want to say "thanks" and leave. But no, the words were out there and Zechariah, I'm sure knew he goofed up when he heard the angel tell him, "since you don't believe me, you will not speak until after the child is born and my words come true at the proper time".

So, now our man, Zechariah, wins the spiritual lotto of his day and knows that right after he is done with his duties that he will be able to walk out and bask in his fifteen minutes of fame, share a few pearls of wisdom with the adoring crowd maybe give a few autographs but instead his world is turned upside down and he can't speak to anyone at all. The bible says that he was unable to confer the blessing and when he emerged he just stood there with a bewildered look on his face. I always wondered why Zechariah was struck dumb by the Angel. I accepted it as truth but didn't understand that by having his voice taken away, Zechariah had his glory taken away that day. Kind of like Babe Ruth hitting a home run but breaks an ankle before he can touch home plate and receive the glory attached to the act. It wasn't until after the birth of his son, who he wisely followed the words of the angel and named him John, that Zechariah could speak and give an accounting of that day in the temple. There is an old saying that "Old Zechariah may not have been able to talk when he got home from temple duty, but apparently he could do something else!" Christian humor, who knew? It should be noted that any scepticism that lived with Zechariah did not exist in Elizabeth. She was happy to be pregnant and thanked God for removing the disgrace of being childless. After all she just had to put up with a non speaking husband, not a terrifying angel.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to appear to Mary. The bible says that Mary saw Gabriel and she was troubled, confused and disturbed. This seems to be a consistent reaction of people who see this archangel, going all the way back to the days of the Babylonian captivity, where Daniel said that he terrified and fell on his face in the presence of Gabriel. Mary was told that she was favored by God and was going to have a son who she would name Jesus. The bible says that Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph who was a descendant of King David.

In doing my research for this book, I read commentary from several sources regarding this important event. I have read articles saying that Matthew and Luke were wrong and that the old testament was misquoted, that this was an invention of the early church and other articles and papers that document a loss of faith among some and others who have gained faith as a result of the account of the virgin birth. The virgin birth theory can be found throughout history starting with Greek mythology where Zeus, in the form of a serpent, cohabited Olympus, the wife of Philip of Macedon. This scenario is repeated several times in Greek legend and Zeus is always depicted as some form of animal or even as an inanimate object like foam on the sea. In regards to the earlier account, the child of Zeus and Olympus was Alexander the Great and as much as the authors try, Alexander is hardly worthy of being compared to Jesus. It is interesting that when I read critical papers of the virgin birth, the author always seems to demand that you accept their interpretation to be the correct one and invariably they ask that you reject the idea of Christ based on their interpretation. Another thing that strikes me is that when someone like Alexander is mentioned, or a theory relative to Greek mythology is brought forward, it is done with assurance that the written historical word is correct and the discussion related to it is usually dispassionate and measured. It is only when the name of Jesus is brought up that the discussion become animated and heated.There are few things that can get people really riled up by simply mentioning them and the name of Jesus seems to be one of them.

According to a Newsweek article from December 2004, 79% of all Americans believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father. 67% say that they believe that the entire story of Christmas including the Virgin Birth, the angelic proclamation to the shepherds, the star of Bethlehem and the wise men from the East is historically correct. In general, 55% of all those polled believe that every word of the bible is literally accurate. In that same poll, 93% of Americans say that they believe that Jesus Christ actually lived, 82% believe that He is God or the son of God, 52% believe that He is coming back and 15% believe that, that will happen in their lifetime.

These are astonishing numbers when you consider that the bible has been eliminated from the classrooms of the public schools for over fifty years.

Lets get back to Mary and her predicament. Here she is, a young girl who is engaged to be married, living a pretty normal life for the times and with the appearance of a terrifying angel has her world dumped upside down. She finds out that she has been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah and will be pregnant before her marriage to Joseph.
In biblical times, any married woman who was proven to have had premarital sex was stoned to death at the door of her father's home by the men of the city. If an engaged woman was seduced by one other than her fiancee, she and the man who seduced her were also stoned to death for not screaming for help, and because he'd violated the virginity of another man's fiancee. It is with these realities that Mary answered the angel with a logical question, "But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin? Gabriel answered that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and pointed out that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant, a miracle that Mary understood.

One logical question that may be asked at this time is, Zechariah asks a question and is struck dumb, Mary asks a question and nothing happens? The way that I see it, Zechariah, a trained priest who was in the temple and should have anticipated a Godly encounter at a moments notice asked his question in disbelief and might have been ready to ask more questions before the angel struck him dumb. Mary, being a lay person asked her question out of fear for her personal safety and the honor of her family, and accepted God's promise after receiving the answer from Gabriel. In both cases God had a plan to move forward with His promise despite the reaction of the intended receiver of that message. As has been pointed out by other authors and bible commentaries, when Mary accepted His promise to be the mother of the Messiah, she became the very first Christian by accepting Jesus literally. Soon after her angelic encounter, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and the bible says that the baby "leaped in her womb" and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit upon seeing Mary. This is an excellent example to use when we are in a discussion regarding abortion as it shows the cognizant nature of a baby in the womb.

When John the Baptist was born, it was a big event in the village where they lived. People praised God because He allowed Elizabeth to become pregnant at that stage of her life, and the bible says that everyone got together for the circumcision ceremony and celebrated the arrival of the baby. At this gathering Zechariah followed the "suggestion" of the angel and wrote down the name "John" when asked to name his son, and he was then his speech was restored.

In the process of writing this book, I couldn't help but think what I would do if I was visited by an angel and told to do what I thought to be the impossible? Knowing myself, I would have asked much more irritating questions than Zechariah and (if I was a woman) would have totally freaked out if I was in Mary's place. Not knowing what I would do for sure, I did meet a woman in 2001 who told me what she did when God told her to do the impossible. Prior to that meeting, Jackie Hodgkins spent years following the call of God to minister to children in Mexico by establishing orphanages along with her sister, Virginia. My wife, Susan, came home from a gathering at church where Jackie had been a guest speaker and told me that this woman had a great story and that we needed to help her in her mission. I contacted her through our church office and arranged for an interview so that I could see how we could fit in and after a quick meeting we agreed to meet again after she returned from the east coast where she going to speak to groups and churches to raise money for her current child rescue project.

Jackie had the unfortunate timing of visiting the east coast just as the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. Her whole itinerary collapsed and she came back without being able to raise much of anything. It was with this curtain of financial uncertainty as a back drop that "Mommy Jackie" allowed me to interview her on camera and she told her whole story from the beginning.

She told me that she built the orphanages in Mexico simply by heeding God's call for her to go. She had a little support from her friends and her church but as she always said, "these are God's children and it is up to him to provide for them". She told me once, that her and Virginia were sitting and praying for the children because the orphanage was out of food and the children were hungry and a man with a truck full of groceries pulled up and started to unload them. He told the sisters that he had a vision that there were to women and a bunch of children in Mexico who needed food and supplies so he felt compelled to buy the provisions and drive to the main town and asked the townspeople to direct him to the children, which they did. I asked, "are you pulling my leg?" and Jackie laughed and said, "no, it was a true story". She had numerous stories like that that showed the provision of God in her ministry.

It seemed that while the sisters were willing to work in an impossible situation, the Mexican government and influential citizens allowed the orphanage to stumble and survive on its own. When it grew to include a great many children who were taken in by the Hodgkins sisters, all children who had fallen through the cracks of Mexican society, the government and the social elite got involved and encouraged the founders to accept a more detailed infrastructure. Like most adventurers, Jackie did well working on the fly with God but when it came to running an "efficient" social organization with earthly rules and guidelines she tried but found it difficult to be molded into the new organization and with that she turned over the administration and daily duties to a board of directors and moved on to her next project, Africa.

Now, you have to understand my impressions of who I was interviewing, here was a woman who was all of 5'5" and by any medical standards or guidelines had to be considered very overweight and by her own admission had a plethora of physical ailments that included diabetes. As she is speaking, I'm thinking, why God? Why would you choose this woman to do these impossible things and I questioned His judgement as to why He didn't call upon someone who was in perfect health?. For the sake continuity, the same thing could be said for Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary. Surely He could have found a young and fertile couple to be the parents of John the Baptist or located another older lady who would be able to handle the criticism and social pressure better than a young teenage girl. Is it possible that God did and does ask the most qualified but they say no or don't respond at all and the ones that do take the opportunity to serve may be the least qualified? In fact, I know that if God called me to go to Africa, I would probably ask for sign after sign until one of them didn't happen and be relieved that God really didn't want me to go after all. When it came to Jesus earthly ministry, the majority of the well connected and religious people of the time refused to hear His word while the unqualified listeners responded. The end result was that Jesus built his church with less than qualified people who became qualified through the experience.

Jackie told me that she went to Africa with a one way ticket and started her ministry in Rwanda during the end of the war in that country. She really couldn't have picked a worst place to be because in a three month period of 1994, 800,000 were slaughtered just because they were from the wrong tribe. Jackie always put her faith in God and really believed that whatever she was doing in regards to the helping of orphans in that country was the will of God and that He would keep her safe. She recalled in the interview an incident where she was trapped in a small hut with children and machete wielding criminals burst through the door just as she hid the little ones from view. Jackie told me that they were there for money and valuables and she didn't have much of either and she was afraid that if they discovered the children, they would take them away or kill them. As she told them repeatedly that she had no money, they struck her with the broad faces of their weapons while they decided what to do with her. She said that she thought just as she was about to die, they gave up and left.

Since there was no stability in Rwanda so as to even rent a building and to start taking in children safely, Jackie felt that she was going to need a safer environment to set up the orphanage. Uganda was a reasonable choice as the situation was much more stable and their were plenty of children in need. Jackie settled in the town of Jinja, north of Lake Victoria and east of the capital city of Kampala. Keeping in mind that Jackie was not backed by any influential organization and basically alone in a strange country, I asked her how she knew where to go and who to talk to? She told me that God took care of everything and as an example she said she got on the plane to fly to Uganda and happened to be seated next to an influential government official who knew the President of Uganda. To top it off, the woman was a Christian and took Jackie under her wing and helped her to obtain a building and start the orphanage. Welcome Home Ministries, Africa was founded in 1995 as a home for dying and destitute babies who were born prematurely, or with AIDS, Tuberculosis, Measles or Starvation. She told me heartbreaking stories of babies being abandoned in dump areas and pit latrines and she said that many of these children died later but she was able to show them love and affection while they lived. The ones that did survive were cared for in a loving environment.

Whenever Jackie came back to the United States to do fundraising and gather support or corral new volunteers, she would always drop by for a visit and I would be in awe of this seemingly disorganized dynamo who was constantly expanding her mission field operation by faith and grit alone. She had no paid staff, (other than the Uganda caregivers) a family friend of hers, Bill Henning, wrote the newsletter and others that believed in her mission helped put together a patchwork of informal support groups of churches and friends. At the time of her last visit in 2003, I saw an exhausted friend who, little did I know, would be dead within the month. She seemed to know that something wasn't right and her focus to get things done had a sense of urgency. This woman who listened to the word of God and let Him direct her to do his work, passed on July 22, 2003 from diabetic complications.

Welcome Home Ministries, Africa has grown since Jackie's death and currently meets the needs of up to 60 babies. This organization helps to arrange adoptions of these orphans and also works to reunite children with their families throughout Africa. Jackie had no real succession plan for her ministry but God did and the organization that Jackie started with the mission "to love children to health or into the arms of Jesus", is thriving today. To find out more about this ministry, you can visit them at www.welcomehomeafrica.com .

In the book of Matthew, Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant and made an effort to break their engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel appeared to him in a dream. The angel told him to not be afraid and to go ahead with his marraige to Mary, that she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, she would have a son and his name would be Jesus and He would save His people from sin. With that, Joseph was on board with this divine plan and brought Mary home to be his wife. I find it interesting that all through the bible, man is so involved with being the doer of God's plan but in the instance of Zechariah and Joseph, they play a somewhat secondary role in this important part of faith history.

In finishing out chapter one of the first chapter of Luke, we find an observation that John the Baptist grew up and became strong in spirit and that he lived out in the wilderness until his public ministry began. In my earlier book, "Doing Business With John", I point out that God used John to be His manager of publicity and marketing with the specific task of introducing Jesus as the Messiah to the nation of Israel. We sometimes miss the logic in God's plans, His example on how to relate to us as humans. The role of introduction that John played was bookended with the role that Paul would play later as he would bring Christianity to the world outside of Jerusalem thereby fulfilling the role of manager of new market development. The relative point that everyone mentioned here has in common is that they were submissive to the word of God and did what He asked of them.

When I hear a theologian or a church tell me that God doesent speak to His people or that there are no more miracles, I think of Jackie and how God worked and continues to work miracles through people like her to this day. Simply because they listen.