Ken Winter
They Raised A Generation Who Did Not Know Him

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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)

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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)

Advent - Miriam's Story

Advent - Miriam's Story

NOTE: Two weeks ago i began posting a series of five short stories surrounding the incarnational birth of Jesus. These stories are fictional first-person accounts of the prophecies and events surrounding the advent of Jesus. Some of the characters and details are fictional, but you will find the truth they convey to be very REAL! My prayer is that, through the telling, you are reminded of the Good News of Advent this Christmas season. To that end, let’s look at the account through the eyes of five very different individuals:

Mary – the virgin (November 18)

Eli – the father of Mary (November 25)

Miriam – the hostess (This week – December 2)

Sarah – the granddaughter of Miriam (December 9)

Levi – the rabbi in Bethlehem (December 16)

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I am Miriam and have lived my entire life here in Bethlehem. In ancient times, the town was called Ephrath, meaning “fruitful.” The first reference to Ephrath in our history is that Jacob’s wife, Rachel, died near here giving birth to their youngest son, Benjamin. That is significant to me because my lineage follows the tribe of Benjamin. As a matter of fact, King Saul was one of my ancestors. My lineage follows his oldest daughter, Merab….

Advent - Eli's Story

Advent - Eli's Story

NOTE: Starting last week and for the four subsequent weeks, i am posting a total of five short stories surrounding the incarnational birth of Jesus. These stories are fictional first-person accounts of the prophecies and events surrounding the advent of Jesus. Some of the characters and details are fictional, but you will find the truth they convey to be very REAL! My prayer is that, through the telling, you are reminded of the Good News of Advent this Christmas season. To that end, let’s look at the account through the eyes of five very different individuals:

Mary – the virgin (November 18)

Eli – the father of Mary (This week – November 25)

Miriam – the hostess (December 2)

Sarah – the granddaughter of Miriam (December 9)

Levi – the rabbi in Bethlehem (December 16)

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My name is Eli, and I am the son of Matthat of the line of King David from the tribe of Judah. I am a carpenter in the town of Nazareth….

Advent - Mary's Story

Advent - Mary's Story

NOTE: Starting today and for the four weeks that follow, i will be posting a total of five short stories surrounding the incarnational birth of Jesus. These stories are fictional first-person accounts of the prophecies and events surrounding the advent of Jesus. Some of the characters and details are fictional, but you will find the truth they convey to be very REAL! My prayer is that, through the telling, you are reminded of the Good News of Advent this Christmas season. To that end, let’s look at the account through the eyes of five very different individuals:

Mary – the virgin (This week – November 18)

Eli – the father of Mary (November 25)

Miriam – the hostess (December 2)

Sarah – the granddaughter of Miriam (December 9)

Levi – the rabbi in Bethlehem (December 16)

* * * * *

I am Mary, the Lord’s servant, and I have truly been blessed….

An Opening In The Wall

An Opening In The Wall

When Saul returned to Damascus after a three-year journey in the Arabian wilderness, the Jews plotted together to kill him. The “hunter”, Saul, had now become the hunted. Having been an ardent persecutor of Christians, he was fully aware of all of the means that were at the disposal of his “hunters”. He may have actually trained some of those Jews in the best way to capture the Christians. He could anticipate the details of the next steps in the playbook of the plot against him. He had written the playbook!

He had two good reasons to be self-confident. First, Saul was a brilliant man. He probably had “plays” in his playbook that these men had never thought of. It would have been very easy for him to be overconfident in his own knowledge and his own ability to thwart the plans of those who were plotting against him. He easily could have determined to rely on his own ability to overcome the problem himself….

The Day The Sun Stood Still

The Day The Sun Stood Still

“Let the sun stand still over Gibeon….”

Though Joshua is the one who voiced that prayer, it did not begin in his heart. It was birthed in the heart of God! The sun standing still was not a part of a battle strategy that Joshua and the other leaders had devised. Even though it was highly effective that day, they never included that particular strategy in any of their future battle plans. They never again used that prayer in some type of last-ditch effort when the tide of battle was not going in their direction – kind of like a “Hail, Mary” pass in the final seconds of a football game.

That prayer was divinely inspired for that specific moment in time by God.

Trustworthy

Trustworthy

From the very beginning, God has chosen to work through ordinary men and women to accomplish His work. There is a quality that is glaringly consistent among all of them. It’s not that they were the smartest, or the strongest, or the richest, or even the bravest. They weren’t all the best educated, or the best looking, or the best positioned, or even the best equipped. They weren’t the most well-spoken, the most experienced, the most creative, or even the most athletic. It wasn’t their talent that set them apart. It wasn’t their achievements or their pedigree. Each of them may have had one or two of these traits, but there is only one characteristic that was true for each and every one. God looked on their hearts and saw that they were trustworthy.

They were by no means perfect. As a matter of fact, every one of them was flawed. Noah was known to drink too much. Abraham was known to lie whenever he thought it was to his advantage. Jacob was a deceiver. Moses had a bad temper. David committed adultery and even murder. Solomon was blinded by pride. Isaiah had a foul mouth. Peter denied his Lord. And Paul refused to extend grace when he should have….

Greater is He

Greater is He

When the Word of God is being proclaimed through word or action, you can be assured that the enemy will make every effort to try to oppose and pervert the truth, and try to discourage the proclaimer. That’s a good reminder as to why God hasn’t called us to be loner Jedi warriors. He has wired us to be in fellowship with other believers. And most often, He sends us out in teams of two or more, just like He did His disciples in Luke 10 – so that we can encourage, exhort and uphold one another.

But even more importantly, Jesus has uniquely equipped us so that we will never stand alone. He has given us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us – so that by Him we are empowered to be His witnesses.(1) And John wrote to remind us: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”(2) Jesus knows who and what we will encounter. He has known it since before the beginning of time and He has given us all that we need to overcome it.

Such was the case in Paphos, one day about two thousand years ago….

Way Maker

Way Maker

The big day was just one day away! Over fourteen thousand days (40 years) had passed since the Israelites had begun their journey. The next day they would finally cross over into the Promised Land.(1)

i don’t know the details of your particular journey, but i would venture that you have not been waiting for forty years to cross over into God’s promise. i also do not know where you are in your journey – you may be at that place that you are preparing to cross over into the place God has promised you – or you may still have a ways to go. But be mindful that no matter where you are, you have not passed this way before.

Just like the Israelites, we are journeying into the unknown. There are barriers ahead – those we can see (like the Jordan River and the walls surrounding the city of Jericho), and those we have not yet seen. There are adversaries ahead – those that will be obvious (like the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites and the rest of the “ites”) and those that will not be so obvious (like the Gibeonites(2)). God has never said that His promise ahead would be absent of barriers and adversaries. However, He has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us.(3) And just like His promise to the Israelites as they stood on the banks of the Jordan River, He has promised that He will go before us and go with us. He had always gone before them – and once more He was promising to always be – their Way Maker….

Boundaries

Boundaries

Boundaries can be good things. They can protect us. They can help define us – as to what we believe, what we will stand on, and what we will stand for. They can unite us in a common effort.

Yes, like any good thing, boundaries can also be misused. Others can attempt to use boundaries to control us and abuse us. That’s why it’s important that we understand the reasons for the boundaries. We need to understand why they’ve been established. British writer and philosopher G. K Chesterton wrote, “Don’t remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.” There are some fences that need to be taken down – but there are many others that need to stand strong.

From the very beginning, our Creator established boundaries for us – boundaries for our good. But our prideful and sinful nature resists those boundaries….

The Journey's End

The Journey's End

Two men wandered through the wilderness with the Israelite children for forty years; one led them through the wilderness, the other would lead them into the Promised Land. Both had an assignment from God. One was to stop here(1), the other was to lead the people the rest of the way.

I must confess that on the surface this is one of the most perplexing incidents in Scripture for me. God’s hand was conspicuous on the life of Moses from his birth. God rescued him from the hand of Pharaoh as a little baby in a basket in the bulrushes. God prepared him for his assignment in the walled palace during his first forty years, and then took him to the wilderness pasture to continue his preparation for the next forty years.

Then God gave him one of the toughest assignments He has ever given any man – to shepherd His people out of Egypt and to shepherd Egypt out of His people….

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