Mariane Doktor, servant and writer

A journey in creativity and faith

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The Word became flesh

February 12, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Isaiah 40,6-8 (ESV)

“A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All flesh is grass,

and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

7The grass withers, the flower fades

when the breath of the LORD blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

8The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Why are people like grass?

The word of God is all the book of our Bible. How and why are words of a certain book eternal?

Read the Bible. The Bible explains about the word of God.

Read John 1, for instance. Here is much to dive into, especially in the context of the rest of the Bible. The chapter makes a connection between the creation and God the Father and the gospel and Jesus, the son of God.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1,14)

What is the meaning of this phrase? How could the Word or God’s word become flesh?

Jesus walked into a synagogue, and he stood up and read from the book of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Is 61,1-2)

Then Jesus said:

“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luk 4,21

A new year is coming

December 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

It may look dark and the shore might seem far away, but darkness cannot overcome the light. Darkness cannot turn off the light. Take the anchor with you, so you don’t get lost when you take a rest or go on land. Maybe you can’t see it, but there is hope.

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrew 6,19-20)

Hold on, pray for endurance. The hardship will give hope:

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom 5,3-4)

Father, thank you that you’re with us in every season. We want to fix our eyes on the invisible. Jesus lives! We want to trust your power, plans and timing. Thank you that you will give us joy and a new beginning, amen.

Hold on to the hope for the new year.

Isaiah prophesized this about Jesus:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;a
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;b
2to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.c
4They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.” (Is 61,1-4)

The battle is God’s

December 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

God is our rock and fortress and shield (Psalm 18). He protects us.

God fights our battles and wars. What we can do, isn’t because of our own power and strength, but because God is with us. His Spirit gives life and power:

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zech 4,6)

From the Pentateuch and from the book of Joshua, we learn that God fight the wars for Israel.

“let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.” (Pent 20,3-4)

Lessons from King David

How did David win over Goliath? Goliath was a very strong giant, and David was a little shepherd boy. David did not win by his own strength. He won because he knew that it was God who helped him kill lions and bears when David was a shepherd. He had faith that it was God who rescued David from those dangers, and he trusted that God also would rescue him from Goliath.

David didn’t have any sword, but he won over Goliath anyway. To Goliath he said:

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Sam 17, 45-47)

He didn’t come in his own name; he came in name of the Lord. The battle is God’s. David gave all honor to God.

God had anointed David, and he was not only with David on the battlefield. King Saul was jealous of David and an evil spirit rushed upon Saul, but David played the lyre, and Saul was refreshed and well and the evil spirit departed from him.

We see that Faith in God and worshipping God in song and music are some of the weapons God uses against our enemies.

David knew he got his strength and protection from God. We see that expressed in the psalms, for instance psalm 3 and

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4,8)

“For he will hide me in his shelter

in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will lift me high upon a rock.

6And now my head shall be lifted up

above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the LORD.” (Psalm 27,5-6)

Remember David was not a perfect man. He made mistakes and he did sin. He fell in love with another man’s wife and killed this man.

All the good times and victories Israel experienced while David was a king, was not because of David as a person, but because David loved and trusted God. All glory and honor are God’s.

What about adversity? David had many enemies, and he met a lot of adversity. There were dark times. He trusted God was with him, also in dark times:

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.” (Psalm 23,4)

Faith in Jesus overcomes the world

When you meet adversity and struggles, it doesn’t mean God has left you or abandoned you. Jesus met a lot of adversity! Everyone goes through hard seasons, and God is still with them.

Remember there is a lot you can’t see. We live by faith:

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”  (2 Cor 4,17-18)

Indeed, it’s often hard to be in the world, but everyone, who believes Jesus is the son of God, will overcome the world:

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5,4-5)

Jars of clay

December 14, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The power, we have in us, is not ours, but God’s.

“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (ESV Gen 2,5-7)

In the beginning, there was no water, but God sent rain. He made a mist go up from the land.

He formed man of dust from the ground, and he breathed in his nose, so the man became a living creature.

We are dust, we are nothing without God. We’re dependent of Him. We need the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6,63)

Adam and Eve listened to the devil and disobeyed God, and then they were separated from God. He wasn’t close to them anymore. It’s not good to be separated from God – the Creator and source of life.

God wants his children in hands, so he can take care of them and form and shape them according to his good will and plans.

God is like a potter

In Jeremiah 18, we read that God’s people were clay in his hands. They chose wickedness instead of God’s goodness. They followed their own plans and hard hearts. They were like cups with busy legs. They forgot God. They stumbled on their paths, and they walked in a wasteland where God had not built any roads. The well in God’s people was about to dry out, because they chose themselves in stead of God.
He wanted them to repent and return to him. He wanted them to trust his strong hands. He wanted to form them as clay in his hands.

The Samaritan woman

In John 4, we meet the Samaritan woman, who was about to dry out. She had a jar and wanted to fill it with water. Maybe the jar was made of clay. She was like the empty jar she carried. Jesus saw right trough her. He knew that she lived in sin. She didn’t know that water she needed the most, was not the men she had or the waterof Jakob’s well. Jesus told her the truth. He told her that he could fulfill her and give her a well inside of her:

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.b The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4,13-14)

The water Jesus gives is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes from faith in Jesus.

The woman knew Jesus told her the truth. He is the truth. She believed that Jesus is Christ, and he wanted to give her life and hope. Jesus is the life. She believed he could fill her empty jar, her empty heart. And she left her jar at Jakob’s well and went into the city and told the people that she had met Christ.

Fragile jars of clay

Human beings are fragile jars. The apostle Paul knew that. He knew that Jesus comes with new life, while the old man, the sin, still lives in us. Paul knew that we are just jars of clay, and the treasure, the power, that is inside of us, is not ours. It’s the Holy Spirit.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Cor 4,7)

We have not deserved it, but Jesus is our good shepherd. He died in stead of us, and He want to fill our cups and anoint us with the Holy Spirit.

“you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23,5)

In Jeremiah 18, in The old testament, God’s people were often in trouble. They forgot God and disobeyed him. God our heavenly father is holy and can’t be together with sin.

Also today, many people are children of disobedience, but they have a chance to repent and come close to God, because they have been given a door to God’s holiness. That door is Jesus. By his clean, holy, precious blood, he has opened a gate to life, to God.

It’s not because of what we have done or who we are. We have nothing to be proud of. It’s because of God’s great mercy and love for us, that he sacrificed his beloved son and saved us by grace.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the bodya and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.b 4Butc God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2,1-8)

Fruitfulness

December 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (ESV John 15,1-11)

We all want to be good persons, but we can’t bear fruit by ourselves. Many people make promises at New Year to change their lives one way or another, but they often fail, because they try to do it without God’s guidance.
We’re powerless without God. Apart from Jesus you can do nothing. (John 15,5) Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and it led to sin and death.
Everyday we’re tempted to make the wrong choices and “eat” fruit that cause sin and death.


We’re thankful that Jesus came and restored the relationship between man and God. He is the true vine. God gave us a way out of temptations.
He loved us first. It is wonderful to have a personal relationship with your heavenly Father. Remain in faith in Jesus and remain reading the Word and seek Him always. God must always come first. The Holy Spirit guides God’s children. God prunes every branch, so it can bear more fruit. The pruning are many things. He longs for you and wants to be close to you and show you his love, and He will teach you the right way, as a loving father teaches his son.“

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Heb 12,5-6)

“Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15,5)

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