How is this going to happen? We are told that God is going to do it, and because God was going to place His son in her womb “Therefore”, he says, the child would be holy.  The virgin birth is a miraculous part of the Christmas story but so little is really said about it I fear we might miss its importance.  In many ways, this part can be quickly ran over. We can be too subtle or cursory in our explanation  out of fear our children will ask MORE questions about what it means for Mary to be a virgin. There is a need to apply wisdom in this area, and engage in the right age-appropriate dialogue for the child and situation. However, don’t let your anxiety push you into missing an opportunity to understand and explain in greater detail our problem of sin.

Two miraculous pregnancies are part of the Christmas story, one with Elizabeth and the other with Mary. Zechariah questioned the more probable pregnancy(Elizabeth’s) which might be surprising given he was serving in the temple as a priest. He would have had the respect of others and be considered a wise and devout man. We are told that He and Elizabeth were righteous before God, so we can be sure he had lived a long, faithful life according to scripture. However, when it came time to believe the angels’ news we find him to be less trusting than Mary! Zechariah’s answer to the angel reads innocently enough, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” But there comes with it a lack of reverence. As a consequence, Gabriel tells Zechariah that he will be unable to speak,  “Until the day these things take place.”

The next woman mentioned is Ruth. Ruth was also graphed in. She was a Moabite woman who married one of the sons of Naomi.  She was a widow like Tamar, who also lost two sons before following her mother-in-law back to Israel. In Ruth’s famous words she tells Naomi, “Where you will go I will go, where you lodge I will lodge, your People shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.”  ….

Essentially, may nothing but death part me from you.

Onto the “Begats”!  Begat means to bring something (or in this case someone) about. It means that when Abraham begat Isaac, that Isaac was the son, or offspring, of Abraham.  There is a long list (42 names) of who gave birth from Abraham to Jesus in Matthew chapter 1.  In fact, there are 3 larger groups; the first, Abraham to David, the second David to Josiah, and the third Jechoniah to Jesus.  This list is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all dependents but one we can follow through Israel’s history to indeed verify that Jesus was from the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.  This is important to establish that Jesus is the Messiah since the one who comes must be able to show these lines if prophecy is to be fulfilled. For many years this list was precisely just that to me- a family tree.

Ever wondered why Matthew starts out the Christmas story with the genealogy of Jesus? You may not be aware of the fact that the Bible spoke many things about Jesus and his coming thousands of years before he was born to Mary. In fact, the first clue to what God was planning is located in Genesis right after the fall of mankind into sin. As God gives out the consequences to Adam, Eve, and the Serpent’s disobedience to He includes this proclamation; God says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

With the holidays, fast approaching, most of us are, in some way, focused on…

The trimmings of the season; what we will cook, how we might decorate, and what gifts we will give. I also know that with the rising cost of living having the discretionary income to handle the ‘extras’ can be tricky.

Having the assurance of God’s love means I am able to take correction positively. I can see failure as a learning opportunity because my relationship with God is secure, and I am loved even when I experience or choose failure. Having a strong relationship with the Lord also helps us to take responsibility of our sin because there is no fear of judgement. As a Christian we have an amazing opportunity, thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, to confess our sins and restore lost fellowship with God and others. (1 John 4:18, Romans 8:1) Our identity, our strength, our circumstances, and all our resources come from God. This is not self-efficacy but a God-directed, God-efficacy. Faith and trust in God will never disappoint. They will produce a harvest of hope, and not one of hope alone, but one of courage and freedom. (Romans 5:3-5, Gal. 5:1) Only christians have a guarantee of success(in their faith) because that guarantee rests in Jesus, Himself.

I think a lot of us are suffering from spiritual motion sickness.

  We are busy and focusing too much on all the things around us.  We are inundated with so many details and so much information we aren’t able to grasp or process it all.  We strive to keep up with others and stay current with their daily posts. We are obsessed with the latest trends or following our favorite influencers. If I’m not careful I will spend hours scrolling through short videos on my media feed and making plans for way more than I’m capable of doing in my lifespan. Maybe we’re just distracted, tending to the very real responsibilities of our families, friends, and churches. These obligations can stack up fast and neglecting to count the cost even once can bring the whole house of cards crashing down with schedule-altering clarity. Sprinkle in old wounds, past failures, and other spiritual warfare and you, like me, will begin to look just about everywhere but ahead to the distant horizon.

Auxano

7 common ways we error in our desire to do ministry well.

1. When your sense of security relies on the ministry’s success.

2. When your identity gets wrapped up in the success of your ministry.
3. When it has to happen your way and you can no longer be flexible.

4. When your service to God eats away at your one-on-one time with God.

5. When the predominant desire is to be seen and heard by others.

6. When you’re unable to take correction.

7. When you fear man more than God or live for any other reason than God’s Glory.

What places are familiar to you? What things do you allow in your life, not because they are “good,” but because they are comfortable? How are you afraid to step out in faith?

Sometimes we may find ourselves wanting to minimize the difficulty of where we’ve been and sugarcoat our past. We may find ourselves exaggerating our current trials, focusing on the wrong things, and making mountains out of molehills. We remember the past with rose-colored glasses, diminishing the severity of it’s consequences, and even neglect to appreciate the new, God given, blessings in our life.

Perhaps writing letters is not your thing, it’s ok if, to you, it seems antiquated or laborious. Maybe you can’t help but hear the words of Little Women, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, or your bosom buddy, Anne from Green Gables as you write. Whatever the case is for you, let us love each other well, in word and deed, and seek to do {well} all that God has ordained for us, making much of God in our worship as well as the everyday ways we live our lives. 

A heaping pile of pancakes just wouldn’t be the same without the sweet taste of maple syrup to help it go down. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup from a sugar maple tree and upwards of 60 gallons from other varieties. The making of real maple syrup is a somewhat arduous process that can take days to complete. Why would one go through so much trouble?! Well,….because syrup is yummy and pancakes just aren’t the same without it.

Let’s look at the steps we need to properly apply biblical truth to our lives. I give you the Syrup Method!

Step One: Collect the sap, gather all the truth you can in one place.

In case you have ever wondered, just WHAT exactly was in all of those biblical reference books, here is your guide in laymen’s terms.

Parenting is the training ground and crucible where you grow into the person that your child needs. It’s an apprenticeship of sorts with God as the Master Carpenter.

Becoming a parent won’t automatically make you a better person. But parenting under the submission of Christ will produce a greater selflessness than you can imagine. So, if your desire is to have children, but you feel as though there is a long list of prerequisites before you can proceed, be encouraged. That’s not how parenting works.

When you look at your child now, they might not be your mini-me, you might be so different you have trouble relating, or so similar you repel. But it’s all in the parenting curriculum. It’s all wrapped up in relationship, the working through of each difficulty, the discipline and transfer of values, the cultivation of a soul.

Regardless of their age, if wisdom rings true; for as much as you teach them, they will have grown you.

Philippians 2:14 says. “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.”

Affectionately dubbed the, “Suck It up cupcake” verse by my childhood youth leader, this verse became the mantra for our immature hearts to do all things that seemed hard with patience and endurance.

Maybe you have a literal pile of socks in your home or maybe your socks are proverbial. Surely, you can relate even if your clutter is of a different variety. What are you avoiding because it’s difficult to manage or hard to have discernment about? It’s likely your procrastination is causing you additional grief as mine was. It’s ok to allow things to be left undone for a season, particularly a strained one. In such cases it’s only natural that what’s important come to the fore-front, but it should only last for a season, and therein lies the rub. When our slow-of-heart procrastination comes from laziness or indecision it will wreak havoc on our lives. So, what can we do to bring about change?

Dwelling on Scripture in this way helps us to understand the ideas and concepts of character and virtue found in the Bible and cements God’s Truth within our heart. Until the words are hidden in the heart, they will likely be unable to be used by the mouth. The Church today, too often, lacks power because it lacks USABLE WORDS. We are Scripturally illiterate–babies who are being spoon fed milk because the effort of feeding ourselves seems too strenuous. If you have not yet discovered the delight of God’s own words to us, pray and ask that it be made known to you, open your Bible, and read.

A lot of us take these festivities to a whole other level, spending on credit and feasting on novelties, we strive to make something for everyone, whether that be to bring something from nothing or to make something out of EVERYTHING. And this brings us to another cultural holiday anomaly- the Hallmark Movie. Who hasn’t seen the quintessential Christmas-loving, odd couple played out by two incredibly pretty people, who have come together only after one’s homecoming from the big city to find they have a shared inheritance *gasp* but only after exchanging some embarrassing or intimate moment, all to hate-and then love one another before finding out that one of them is actually a royal and the other a secret reporter, so that they can come together in the end and make the perfect family!

It’s acceptable to grieve the loss of my well laid plans or my hopes and dreams for the future. But we must never forget that, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Jesus was the first-fruits, He is our guarantee of salvation and a bodily resurrection. He went first–conquering the grave! I think too often we live with the understanding that, to live is gain, to die is Christ. This is what we focus our hearts on the here and now as if it will last forever and trust that what lies beyond the grave Christ has taken care of. To live and live well, is to live Christ.