Ken Winter
They Raised A Generation Who Did Not Know Him

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

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In these days of my life i find myself reflecting on the fact that God has blessed me with a godly heritage.

The question before us is, what are we modeling for the generation that we are raising up? Is our relationship with our LORD one that we desire for our children and grandchildren to mirror? Are we passionately pursuing our LORD with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and actively walking with Him in His mission? Or are we merely going through the motions?

They Raised A Generation Who Did Not Know Him
Ken Winter
I Look To the Mountains

It has been several weeks since i posted. Many of you know that i have been walking through health challenges. By God’s grace, and in His strength, i am now able to share with you that He has carried me through these most recent developments. He has used this time to remind me just how faithful He is, and just how dependent i am upon Him.

I Look To the Mountains
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.

* * * * *

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)

Thankful

Thankful

My journey as a novelist began less than a year ago. The idea for my first novel began to take root in my heart and mind at the end of 2018. It was the beginning of what continues to be a great adventure and a tremendous learning experience.

One of the elements i have enjoyed the most is learning how to create “fictional” characters within a novel – to visualize their appearance, to bring their personality and history to life, and then to begin to empathize with them. One of my mentors encouraged me to identify a muse for every character i write about. As i write, i picture that person in my mind’s eye, and his or her appearance and personality begin to help shape that of my story’s character. Through that process, the characters become as real to me as the “real” characters that i place alongside of them….

Praise Before My Breakthrough

Praise Before My Breakthrough

Our Lord is the same today as He was yesterday, and as He will be tomorrow. Don’t take my word for it – take His! He has said it through His Word: “Jesus Christ never changes! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 CEV).

i always shudder whenever i hear someone say, “God doesn’t work like that anymore.” If that’s the case, then who changed? Because God said He never changes. So on whose authority do we make that statement? It obviously isn’t on the authority of God or His Word, so it must be on our own authority.

And what is the basis of our authority? It can’t be our position – because we are the created beings. What created being ever had the authority to say what its creator can and cannot do? The painting doesn’t have the capacity to tell the painter what he or she can or cannot do. The painting doesn’t select the color, the size of the canvas, the stroke, or the subject. The painting has no say in the matter. Through its position as the painting, it has no authority over the painter!

So if it’s not our position….

Sing A Little Louder

Sing A Little Louder

As many of you know, i am currently writing a novel about the faithfulness of God as seen through the eyes of the Israelite spy – Caleb. In the course of my writing, i am endeavoring to see the events of the exodus and the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land through his eyes. One of those events is the magnificent display of God’s power at the Red Sea.

You and i can only imagine what that day was like. The most powerful army on the face of the earth in that day was advancing on the Israelites to attack them. The sea was at their backs. And they were trapped in between. There was nowhere to turn. They were gripped by terror and fear. i am mindful that most of us – if not all of us – have had that moment where we are standing between an approaching enemy and an unmovable obstacle. Some of you may be in that very place right now. Allow me to share a few excerpts from my writings of their experience:

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…Then Moses called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. Watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm” (Exodus 14:13-14)….

Who Are You?

Who Are You?

Sometime this week most of us will meet someone we do not yet know. It may be at school or through work or at the gym. It could be at the mall or the doctor’s office or even in our own neighborhood. And soon after you meet, the conversation will turn to an explanation of who you are or what you do. Interestingly enough, we often equate those two things as being synonymous – who we are and what we do.

That can become a challenge when “what we do” changes. Because what we do is constantly changing. Over my adult life i have been an accountant, a businessman, an administrator, a pastor, a ministry leader, and now i find myself in the unlikely role of becoming an author. But “who i am” in reality did not change with each of those career shifts.

Sometimes we equate who we are in light of our most valued relationships. i am a husband or a dad or a grandpa or a son or a brother or a best friend, etc. But even our most valued relationships can sometimes change due to circumstances way outside of our control. So does that mean that who we are changes?

I believe it was that very core of who we are that Jesus was speaking to when He taught….

Passing the Baton

Passing the Baton

Yesterday i read that two more of my friends had announced their upcoming retirement. That seems to be occurring with greater frequency these days. If i wasn’t in denial, i might think that it has something to do with my season of life. i can still remember when we were the young “up and comers” with fresh ideas and new perspectives. Somehow it doesn’t seem that long ago!

Coupled with the retirement announcements, i am also hearing a lot of pronouncements. A lot of “batons” are being passed in the relay race of life and ministry. Most of the pronouncements being made by the new leaders who are receiving the baton seem to herald the fact that it is a “new day” at the organization, institution, business or church. i can easily recall hearing those very same words come out of my mouth in the not too distant past.

In many respects, hearing that it is a new day brings fresh excitement and anticipation. I mean we’re groomed from a young age to be drawn to the new. Our senses are bombarded daily to the allure of the new – a new car, a new home, the newest electronic gadget, etc. We like new! And who is it that ever wants “old” when we can have “new”?

Are We Turning The World Upside Down?

Are We Turning The World Upside Down?

One day the apostle Paul and his traveling companions arrived in the city of Thessalonica. (You can read about it in the 17th chapter of Acts.) The city was named in honor of the step-sister of Alexander the Great, and was a prominent city of its day. Three rivers flowed from the city into the Aegean Sea which made it a major seaport for trade and transportation. It was declared to be a “free city” by the Roman government – which meant that it had an elected assembly that governed local matters and it had no occupying military force stationed within its walls.  

There was a synagogue in the city. Paul labored at his tentmaking trade through the week, and on three successive Sabbaths, he went to the synagogue. Every day he used the Scriptures (the Old Testament) to share the gospel message of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.

After three weeks of ministry, Paul saw a large number of people believe….

A Wilderness Blessing

A Wilderness Blessing

Journeying through the wilderness is never easy. It takes a lot out of you. When you’re on a journey through the wilderness there is often no place to really call home. Whatever there was, is no more because you’ve left it behind, and whatever is ahead, you have yet to experience. You feel displaced. You tend to feel disconnected from the world around you. (Sometimes that’s why God leads us on a wilderness journey – to disconnect us from those things that would otherwise distract us from Him and what He wants to teach us.) But even knowing that, there can be a disquieting in your spirit. 

When i first wrote a portion of this post, my family and i were nearing the end of the fourth month of a similar journey. At the time it seemed like an eternity. We have been on other journeys since that have lasted much longer. Though we counted the time as precious and were thankful for the Lord’s faithfulness, we were ready for our journey to be over! We never expected the journey to take as long as it did. We expected to arrive in our Land of God’s Promise much sooner. We hungered to put down roots in the new land God had planned for us. As grateful as we were for God’s provision and His protection, we were ready for the journey to be over. We were ready to share the testimony of what God had done through the journey, instead of what He was doing….

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou My Vision

We live in a day when we have become jaded and critical. Our first reaction is most often to distrust and deride. We often call truth a lie and a lie the truth. That with which we disagree is fake and only that with which we agree is real. There are no longer absolutes, only what I label to be true. It is a time heralded by meanness and callous disregard expressed toward one another. Too often we look upon compassion as weakness and bullying as strength. Instead of blessing we curse. Instead of offering respect, we show contempt. Instead of offering forgiveness, we condemn. Instead of choosing to love, we choose to hate.

For a moment last week social media celebrated a few minutes of captured video when Brandt Jean extended Christ-like compassion and forgiveness to Amber Guyger, convicted of fatally shooting his older brother. Though most chose not to mention Christ as the source and the reason for his compassion, few could ignore the heartfelt sincerity of the one who had extended it.

Even Judge Tammy Kemp who adjudicated the trial, after its conclusion was moved to extend a moment of heartfelt personal compassion to the one upon whom she had just pronounced sentence….

All or Nothing

All or Nothing

To many of us, I Surrender All  (lyrics below) is a familiar song. Perhaps, like me, it is a song you have sung on many occasions. But how many times have we sung it without really thinking about what we are singing? How many times have i sung this and yet lived in a way that looked completely different? What does it really mean to surrender all?

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews there is a listing of Old Testament saints frequently called the roll call of faith. We read about the great patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith – Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, David and many more. God commends them for their trust and faith in Him by including them in this listing. But if we study what Scripture tells us about many of the folks in this great roll call, we find that most of them did not “surrender all”. There was a part of their life they insisted on holding onto. Abraham was a liar. Noah was a drunkard. Jacob was a deceiver. David was an adulterer and murderer. We’d be somewhat hard-pressed to say that they surrendered “all”. Gratefully that is where God’s grace and mercy come in. Their faith wasn’t borne out of their works; it was borne out of His grace. i, for one, am grateful – because i know that left to my own devices i too am a sinner – saved only by His grace….

Desperate for God

Desperate for God

“Just stand where you are and watch the LORD rescue you” (Exodus 14:13). Did anyone ever say to you – “Don’t just stand there, do something”? We are raised with that admonition from childhood – that as long as we keep pressing forward, everything will work out. We’ve even been known to spiritualize it with the statement – “God helps those who help themselves.” (i venture to guess that many of us have grown up believing that is a verse in the Bible – perhaps in the Book of Hezekiah.) And yet, throughout time, God has said to His people, stand still and see the deliverance of the Lord.

Imagine the scene. The Israelites’ backs were against the Red Sea. There was no way for almost two million people to cross that body of water – let alone do it quickly. They just didn’t have the resources. 

Up until Pharaoh’s army had appeared on the horizon, it had been a pretty tranquil and relaxing place. But now, Pharaoh was leading an army of his best charioteers at break-neck speed to destroy the Israelites. In a matter of minutes Pharaoh’s forces would be upon them. That beautiful, peaceful Red Sea had now become an imposing wall standing between them and their escape….

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