Ken Winter
Advent – We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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Introduction to this post:

This is the fourth of this year’s weekly Advent posts. Those of you who have followed the blog for more than a year know that it is my annual practice to post a weekly story for the season of Advent about the incarnational birth of Jesus. My hope is that the stories have become a part of your Advent tradition as you remember and celebrate the Good News of the advent of our Lord and Savior.

This year’s posts are as follows:

Week #1 - November 27th: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s Story)

Week #2 - December 4th: Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)

Week #3 – December 11th: Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)

This week - December 18th: We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)

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My name is Balthazar and I am a lifelong student of the science of the stars….

Advent – We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)
Ken Winter
Advent – Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

Introduction to this post:

This is the third of this year’s weekly Advent posts. Those of you who have followed the blog for more than a year know that it is my annual practice to post a weekly story for the season of Advent about the incarnational birth of Jesus. My hope is that the stories have become a part of your Advent tradition as you remember and celebrate the Good News of the advent of our Lord and Savior.

This year’s posts are as follows:

Week #1 - November 27th: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s Story)

Week #2 - December 4th: Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)

This week – December 11th: Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)

December 18th: We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)

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I am a shepherd named Moshe.

Advent – Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)
Ken Winter
Advent – Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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Introduction to this post:

This is the second of this year’s weekly Advent posts. Those of you who have followed the blog for more than a year know that it is my annual practice to post a weekly story for the season of Advent about the incarnational birth of Jesus. My hope is that the stories have become a part of your Advent tradition as you remember and celebrate the Good News of the advent of our Lord and Savior.

This year’s posts are as follows:

Last week - November 27th: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s Story)

This week - December 4th: Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)

December 11th: Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)

December 18th: We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)

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My name is Achim. My family and I live here in Bethlehem, the town of our ancestor David, the shepherd king….

Advent – Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)
Ken Winter
Advent - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s ...

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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A preface to this post:

Dear family, friends and faithful readers of this blog,

This week is my 321st weekly blog post—not a huge number for many, but for me it has been a sharing of my heart with you. Those of you who have followed the blog for more than a year know that it is my annual practice to post a weekly stories for the season of Advent about the incarnational birth of Jesus. My hope is that the stories have become a part of your Advent tradition as you remember and celebrate the Good News of the advent of our Lord and Savior.

This year, i am repeating four of the weekly Advent posts from 2019 for two reasons. First, i have made changes to the posts, and have a higher quality audio recording of the posts in the event you would like to listen to them on audio—feel free to click the link above to do so.

The second reason is that i will be bringing my season of posting to an end as of the end of December. As many of you know, i have been diagnosed with metastatic (stage 4) lung cancer and am now being placed on home hospice care. Thus, it has become more difficult for me to produce these post. I hope and pray you receive these as my gift and expression of love to you.

The remaining five posts are as follows:

November 27th: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s Story)

December 4th: Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)

December 11th: Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)

December 18th: We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)

December 25th: A Christmas Celebration (My Story)

Advent - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s Story)
Ken Winter
His Dwelling Place

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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What does it mean to live in the shelter of the Most High and to find rest in His shadow? This is how Psalm 91 begins—a psalm many attribute to Moses. i believe that attribution is fitting. Moses is the one who carried Jehovah God’s instructions to His people for constructing the Tabernacle in the wilderness. He witnessed the fabrication of each part and completed the last of the work.

The Tabernacle was completed exactly as the Lord specified and was erected on the first anniversary of Israel’s departure from Egypt. That day, the Lord’s glorious presence descended upon it, covering and filling it with His awesome glory. His presence, previously seen in the guiding pillar of cloud, now took residence within His dwelling place among the people. From that day on, as His Spirit led, the people moved forward; when His Spirit remained in the Tabernacle, the people encamped.

His Dwelling Place

God's Timing

Get Ready! We’re Leaving in Three Days!

Get Ready! We’re Leaving in Three Days!

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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The Israelites had been camped on the plains of Moab on the east side of the Jordan River for many months. During that time Moses had written the book of Deuteronomy. God had taken him up onto Mt. Nebo to see the land that the Israelites would inhabit. Moses had died, and God had made Joshua their new leader.

The Israelites had planted crops and were augmenting their meals of manna with fresh produce from the land. They had begun to put down modest roots. As a matter of fact, the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had petitioned Moses to make their permanent dwelling place on this side of the Jordan, and God had permitted them to do so.

So, when Joshua sent out word that they were leaving in three days, it was very short notice for a move of that magnitude….

The Hour Will Come

The Hour Will Come

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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God’s timing is perfect. It always has been and it always will be. He is eternal. He’s not constrained by such things as time or space. He created it all. Time is as much His creation as we are. He can turn it backward, as we see recorded in the days of the prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah. And just as easily as He could have turned time forward, He can make it stand still, like He did on the day He gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites.

 

He does everything according to His own perfect timing. He chose to create heaven and earth, and all of its inhabitants within six days. He put the rotation of the earth, the sun and the moon in motion to create a day in time through each rotation. He determined that each orbit of the earth around the sun would equate to one year with four seasons. He created time, as He did all of His creation, for His purpose and to bring Him glory. And nothing and no one can frustrate His plan, His purpose, or His timing.

What Is God Waiting For?

What Is God Waiting For?

If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.

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Frequently in response to my weekly posts, i receive comments or questions about why God didn’t intervene in a specific tragedy. If He is sovereign, why didn’t He keep that tragedy from occurring? The comments, in most instances, are from people crying out for an answer with a sincere and broken heart. On occasion, it is pouring out from a heart that has become bitter and hardened by the tragedy. Some have even gone so far as to conclude that since God didn’t act in the way we think He should have that He must not exist.

i will confess that i too struggle with some of those very same “why” questions. Why does God permit pain and suffering to continue? Why hasn’t He returned to earth and ended the disastrous consequences of our sin? To quote Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof”: “Wouldn’t now be a good time for the Messiah to come?” (And i would hasten to add the word “again” to the end of that question.)

Why Now and Not Then?

Why Now and Not Then?

i am currently writing the final book in the series Lessons Learned in the Wilderness. The book, entitled Until He Returns, focuses on the truths that God teaches us through the early church as recorded in the Book of Acts. In the third chapter of Acts we come across the man who was born lame. Each day his friends or family brought him to the Beautiful gate so he could beg from those who were entering the Temple. That had been taking place for a long time – so it got me to thinking…

Two months earlier, Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and was greeted by the multitude who was praising Him with shouts of “Hosanna!” Jesus’ journey ended at the Temple where He dismounted. He then entered the Outer Court and quietly walked around, looking, but not saying anything. He then made His way through the Beautiful Gate into the hall of prayer. There were a number of people begging at the gate. Some were lame. Some were blind. The lame man was more than likely one of them. Each had been brought by family members or friends in the hopes that their friend or loved one would receive charity – or possibly a miracle of healing. Jesus looked on the people with compassion. He didn’t ignore them, but on that day He didn’t stop to heal them. He continued on into the Temple and spent time in prayer. He and His disciples then quietly left.

Jesus returned the next day which was Monday….

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