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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?
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.
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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….
The flood waters prevailed, but God remembered and brought him to dry land.(1)
His enemy intended it to harm him, but God intended it for good.(2)
The battle is not yours, but God’s.(3)
Your flesh may fail, but God is your strength.(4)
We were dead in sin, but God saved us.(5)
i have come to believe that those two words – “but God” – are actually a powerful promise to those of us who are His children – particularly when we are facing the impossible….
As we journey through the wilderness of our lives, God will often lead us, just like He did the Israelites, toward our own “Pi-hahiroth” (“the place where the reeds grow”).(1) It lies on the west bank of our Red Sea, between Migdol (the high place) and the sea and is opposite from Baal-zephon (the place where the idols are worshiped). It will appear to those watching that we are confused or disoriented, but take heart – the LORD has led us right to the place He intends – the place He will use to bring glory to Himself through our lives.
He has not led us to Migdol - the high place – the mountaintop. Occasionally He does lead us to enjoy that mountaintop experience where He will recharge our spirits and give us rest as we bask in His glory. But we weren’t created to stay in Migdol, though He knows we can easily be tempted to stay, just like Peter, James and John were at the Mount of Transfiguration. No, His mission for us is in the valley at Pi-hahiroth….
In Exodus 2, God was preparing to go global with the announcement of His glory to the entire world – and He had chosen a people through whom He was going to accomplish His purpose. But even though they were His chosen people, they found themselves in bondage to Pharaoh. And they groaned under the weight of their oppression – they groaned to the point that they could no longer endure. Then, they turned to the One who could deliver them from their bondage.
The people cried out to God. Their deliverance began with the people calling upon God. Deliverance will always begin with our recognition that the solution to the problem is beyond ourselves and dependent upon God – that we are powerless in and of ourselves. Repeatedly throughout Scripture, God tells us to call upon Him – that we must come to the end of ourselves and call out to Him. The first step of deliverance is admitting we have a problem and we cannot fix it ourselves – and only God can….
i saw a piece of graffiti on the boarded windows of a store today. It read, “I’ll stop breaking your windows when you stop hurting my friends.” i’m not posting the statement to stimulate debate on the statement itself. That debate doesn’t solve the problem. i’m posting it as an example of the turmoil all of us are walking through right now. Unless you live under a rock at the top of the highest mountain in the middle of the most isolated island, you are dealing with the implications of this upheaval.
You may be on the front lines risking your life as a first responder. You may be one of the peaceful demonstrators that are seeking change. You may be one of those who has been on the receiving end of unjustifiable violence against your person or your property. You may be one of those who, like the author of the graffiti, is on the “giving” side of that violence. You may be one who is asking when things will calm back down so we can return to the way things were. You may be one who is responding that we will never go back to the way things were, because we can’t go back there.
We’re struggling with where our identity comes from in the midst of one of the most divided times in history….
One of my favorite stories in my novel Through the Eyes of a Shepherd is about a fictional little boy who was encountered by two of the seventy-two disciples Jesus sent out into the villages throughout Galilee. i thought it would be fun to connect him with another little boy we actually see (though he is unnamed) in the Gospels. It became a very touching account that reinforces foundational biblical truth.
i originally told the story through the eyes of the shepherd Shimon. But in the book i am releasing next year, i retell the story through the eyes of the little boy himself. i’m posting the new story here this week because i think it is a truth that we all need to be reminded of again and again – particularly as we walk through these challenging days. As in all of my stories, some of the events and some of the people are fictional – but the truth they tell is trustworthy! This is longer than a blog post; it is a short story. But i pray you will find it worth the read.
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My name is Jonathan and I am ten years old. My parents and I live in the village of Chorazin in northern Galilee….
The apostle Paul closed his letter to the believers in Corinth with those simple words almost two thousand years ago – do everything in love!(1) And those words couldn’t possibly be more relevant to us today. The strength of the message not only lies in its simplicity; it lies in its completeness.
DO – It’s not a passive word; it commands action. It means we don’t just sit and watch; we get up and act. It’s not a reactive word; it’s a proactive word. We need to initiate. It’s not enough to simply agree. Now is the time to act.
EVERYTHING – It doesn’t leave anything out. It includes our words – those that we speak, those that we post, those that we tweet and those that we think….
“The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”(1) Some things never change: “The man wanted to justify his actions.” That practice goes back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned, and they tried to justify it! And we have been trying to justify our sin ever since! What sin? Every sin – including the sin of racial bigotry, ethnic discrimination and inhumanity against our fellow man.
Over the past week, we have been bombarded with tragic reminders of the continuing destruction that results from the sin of racial bigotry and ethnic discrimination. But it didn’t just start in recent weeks, it goes back hundreds of years in this nation, and thousands of years in human history. Each one of our previous generations has made its own feeble attempt to ignore, deny, justify or even advocate for its existence. But as we have again been reminded this week, it is still with us in all of its destructive ugliness. Pastor Tony Evans has been quoted to say, “Racism isn’t a bad habit. It isn’t a mistake. It is sin. The answer is not sociology, it’s theology.”
Mile markers along the side of the road can be very helpful – particularly when you are on an extended journey. They can help you keep track of where you are in your journey and the progress you have made. They can provide you with a reference point for something you saw or experienced along the way. They can sometimes help you get a better view of what may be coming up ahead. And they can help you keep the longer view versus the myopic view of only that which is immediately in front of you.
Mile markers are helpful in all kinds of ways – but not only on physical journeys. Mile markers can also be very helpful on our spiritual journey. This week has marked two notable mile markers for me. One was 24,000, and the other was 29.
As i finished writing this short story today, i was impressed that it is a reminder for this very hour. There are many in our midst who are struggling with isolation and depression, or just the circumstances of life – some brought on by COVID-19 and others by recent changes or sudden events in their lives. You may be one of those who is struggling. If so, i pray this story – a fictional account of the woman with the issue of blood – is a reminder to you that you are not just another face in the crowd to Jesus. You’re why He came!
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My name is Deborah. I am my parents’ eldest daughter. They named me after the prophetess who served as the fourth judge of Israel in the pre-monarchic days. She was a strong woman and a formidable leader who brought peace to the land through the defeat of the mighty Canaanite army led by their feared general, Sisera. My parents were hopeful I would emulate the strength, courage and wisdom of my namesake….
Earlier today i was listening to the worship song Worthy of Your Name (lyrics below). As I listened to the words, I was reminded that our God is worthy first and foremost because of who He is, but also because of what He has done. He is worthy because He is our hope, our strength and our anchor. So it caused me to ask myself – in the midst of these ever-changing days – who do i say that He is?
In my mind, i went back to the day that Jesus asked His disciples that very question – “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:20). i believe the way we answer that question immediately gets to the heart of who we are. The answer gets to our beliefs, our convictions, our life trajectory, and even our eternal destiny….
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