All these kings came out to fight. Their combined armies formed a vast horde. And with all their horses and chariots, they covered the landscape like the sand on the seashore. The kings joined forces and established their camp around the water near Merom to fight against Israel. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them. By this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel…. As the LORD had commanded His servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did as he was told, carefully obeying all the commands that the LORD had given to Moses. (Joshua 11:4-6, 15 NLT) The kings of the northern cities had seen all that had gone on before. They had seen the destruction of Jericho and Ai after those kings had foolishly tried to withstand the Israelites on their own. They had seen the five kings from the south who had joined forces to no avail. But again, instead of seeking peace, surrendering to the Israelites, and submitting to their God, they hardened their hearts and, filled with selfish ambition and pride, chose to fight the Israelites. As Joshua led the Israelites to turn their attention to the north, the northern kings determined that their one chance of survival was for all of the armies of the north to come together.
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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….
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.
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….
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)
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.
