Welcome to Everyday Truth with Kurt Skelly.

We believe the Bible is true and relevant to everyone, everywhere, every day.

This Christmas season, we're revisiting a series called Advent,

where Kurt leads us through the Christmas story in a deeper, more meaningful way.

We hope it encourages you to see that Christmas is all about Jesus.

Now, here's today's episode. We're in a section in We hope it encourages you to see that Christmas is all about Jesus.

Now, here's today's episode.

We're in a section in the Advent story where Mary has received the announcement from Gabriel.

She has made a trip down to Judah to spend some time with her older cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth as well is pregnant and as you know,

Elizabeth in her old age, miraculously has become pregnant

with the forerunner of the Messiah, John the Baptist,

who will come in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Many Old Testament passages refer to the forerunner of

Messiah, but you won't find better ones than Isaiah chapter 40 and Malachi chapter 3, which is my

actual favorite. And so no doubt, Elizabeth and Mary, as we learned, as we learned yesterday,

and Mary was no slouch when it came to her understanding of the Bible, even in the song that she sang, the poem that she

crafted to the Lord. We see no fewer than 10 references to Old Testament scriptures concerning God and the promise of Messiah.

So, wow, that's an amazing thing. So you can only imagine that Zecharias, as he would come home from work,

and Elizabeth and Mary.

What would you do during those three months?

You would spend time talking about the scriptures,

asking questions of Zecharias, looking at the passages that dealt with the coming of Messiah.

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