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.

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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

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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

The Minority Report

The Minority Report

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

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Are you at a place in your life journey right now that you believe God is telling you to do one thing, but the obstacles ahead just seem too overwhelming? Are your eyes of faith saying one thing, but your eyes of fear are saying another?

Eyes of fear will always look up at the obstacles from man’s perspective; eyes of faith will always look down at the obstacles from God’s perspective. Eyes of fear will always gaze out from under the circumstances; eyes of faith will always look over the circumstances in light of God’s promises. Eyes of fear will always be blinded by the visible; eyes of faith will always be illuminated by the unseen assurance of God.

Twelve men were sent ahead to explore the land….

No Matter Where We Are In Our Journey

No Matter Where We Are In Our Journey

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It really doesn’t matter where we are in the journey – at the beginning, the midpoint or the end. God uses it all! As a matter of fact, He assures us that what He begins, He completes – and He ultimately works through all things for our good and His glory – even when we can’t see it, or fathom how that could be the case.

The Israelites had lived in Egypt for 430 years. As a matter of fact, it had been 430 years to the day. If you recall, God led them into Egypt. He sent Joseph, son of Jacob, ahead to prepare for their arrival by using for good that which his brothers had intended for evil. Now, 430 years later, the Lord was leading His people to embark on a journey to the land that He had promised their patriarch Abraham; a journey that would lead through the wilderness.

For centuries they had cried out to God for deliverance.

Is He Worthy?

Is He Worthy?

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This past Sunday as our faith community sang the confessional worship song “Is He Worthy?” (lyrics below), i found myself pondering, “Do i really believe what i am singing? Is God truly worthy of all blessing, honor, and glory? And if He is, am i really living out my life as if He is?”

Those questions caused me to think about the early believers we read about in the Book of Acts.(1) Because they truly believed God is worthy, there was a conspicuous transformation that occurred in their lives. It changed the way they thought about everything – themselves, their priorities, their relationships, their time, and their possessions. They immediately recognized something that appears to be more difficult for us today.

A Journey to Our Well

A Journey to Our Well

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There is a journey that each of us take most every day. It is a journey to a “well” where we go to meet a need in our lives. Its purpose may be to fill an emotional emptiness, provide mental stimulation, meet a spiritual need, or satisfy a physical hunger. The needs we feel may vary and the places we go to appease them may look different, but we all have a “well” to which we go.

Sometimes we go to our well not even recognizing what our need truly is. We go to meet a perceived need, when in reality our need is something entirely different. It may be a need that we openly acknowledge and embrace, or it may be one we deny and reject. It may be a need that leads to our being built up, or it may be a need that leads to our being torn down. Whatever it is, we think the well to which we are going will meet the need.

Such was the case with the Samaritan woman …

Chosen and Called

Chosen and Called

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

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In the Book of Judges we read, “But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a rescuer to save them….”(1) The rescuers were a succession of ordinary men, and one woman, who were chosen and called by God to be used in extraordinary ways. They are referred to as the judges of Israel.

In those days, the people repeatedly chose to turn away from God and do evil in His sight. Their actions led to their enslavement and oppression by wicked kings. The people cried out in their distress, and God in His mercy raised up a man, or in one case a woman, who He chose to use to rescue them from their distress. They enjoyed a period of peace … until they again began to seek their own way.

The Load Is Far Too Heavy

The Load Is Far Too Heavy

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Have you ever found yourself being weighed down by a burden of leadership? It could have been as you led your family, your co-workers, a group from within your church, or a group of friends. Whatever the group was, God had ordered your steps to be in a position of leadership with the group.

At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but then the group encountered some type of difficulty. The “honeymoon” period ended abruptly and the people around you began to murmur and complain. You may be feeling weighed down in your role of leadership even today.

The Israelites often turned to murmuring throughout their journey in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land….

God, You Left Out A Few Details

God, You Left Out A Few Details

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

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The day Moses stood before the burning bush, God gave him a promise. He promised that after Moses had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, he would return to that very same mountain to worship God. God didn’t tell Moses all that he was going to encounter along the way, and that is often true for us as well.

A number of months passed between the day God gave the promise as recorded in Exodus 3, and the day Moses and the people arrived back at the mountain in Exodus 19.(1) During those intervening months, Moses suffered rejection from his wife when the journey first began.(2) He suffered ridicule from the Egyptians when he delivered God’s message.(3) He suffered rebellion from the Israelites almost every step of the way.(4) As a matter of fact, he was subjected to more grumbling, complaining and death threats than anyone before or since has been forced to endure. And God never mentioned any of those details when He gave Moses His promise. God never said, “After you have endured being the object of rejection, ridicule and rebellion, you will return here and worship Me.” God, however, did say, “After you’ve completed the assignment I’ve given you, you will return here and worship Me.”

God didn’t tell Moses all that he was going to encounter along the way….

The Language of the Heart

The Language of the Heart

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

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Thus far in my lifetime, the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity of visiting fifty-five of the nations that make up our world today. In most of those nations, He has further granted me the opportunity to participate in some form of worship celebration that was being conducted in the heart language of the indigenous people. By heart language, i mean the language that is the most authentic expression of the passion of our hearts. In most instances, it is the language that was spoken in our home during our formative years. In many nations today, it is different from the trade or link language that has been adopted by a culture in order for the people to communicate across a wide variety of heart languages.

Each time i have found myself in the midst of a worship experience that is taking place in a heart language other than my own of English, it has been an opportunity for me to experience a hint of what it will one day be like to be a part of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Each of us will be praising God in the language of our heart.

It Really Is Finished!

It Really Is Finished!

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For our orthodox brothers and sisters, the annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the tomb is still a few days away; for the rest of us, it was a few days ago. You may therefore be wondering why i am writing a post about the empty tomb after Easter.

My first reason for doing so is because i believe it is a truth we need to be reminded of every day, not just once per year. That miraculous truth is the foundation of our faith. Without it, we have no hope. As Paul said – if Christ was not raised from the dead, then our faith is futile and we truly of all people are to be the most pitied.(1)

My second reason for doing so is that we might again be challenged by the lives of the men and women who witnessed His resurrection firsthand, and in so doing, live out our lives – everyday – with the same determination that truth prompted in them.

A Resurrection Story – The Man Who Owned The Upper Room

A Resurrection Story – The Man Who Owned The Upper Room

If you would prefer to listen to this story as an audio recording, CLICK HERE.

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NOTE: This is the last of four short stories about four different people who encountered Jesus during the months leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection. You will find each of these individuals in the Gospel accounts, however i have added fictional elements to each of their stories so that we might see each one … as they journeyed through their lives leading up to their encounter … and as they continued their journey in the days that followed. You will read the parts of their stories you may already know … and the rest that could have been. Though some of the other characters and details contained in each story may be fictional, you will find the truth conveyed about the One they each encountered to be very REAL! My prayer is that through the stories, you will see Jesus and be reminded of the Good News of the cross and the empty tomb as we enter into this season of remembrance. To that end, let’s look at their stories:

The Paralytic (March 23)

The Grieving Mother (March 30)

The One Caught In The Act (April 6)

The Man Who Owned The Upper Room (This week - April 13)

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My name is Yitzhak and I grew up here in Jerusalem. My ancestors were counted among the remnant that returned here over five hundred years ago with Zerubbabel from Babylon. Those early generations led the effort in rebuilding Jerusalem from the debris left by the Babylonian destruction of the city. My ancestor Pedaiah, son of Parosh, was charged by Nehemiah with the responsibility of rebuilding the section of the wall leading to the Water Gate….

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