To Bring Him Joy

“ The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1 Abraham was the father of the nation so that is where Matthew started. David was God's chosen king- the only one of whom He said was a man after God's own heart. Though neither was perfect as is recorded in their stories in the Old Testament. But the women mentioned in this genealogy are what caught my attention this time as I was reading and starting writing this almost four months ago, sometime around Christmas. I was reading the passages pertaining to the birth of Christ and Matthew 1:1-17 arrested my attention. These women in the genealogy occupied my thoughts for a number of days. Women were not usually included in a genealogy in this day and time and so it is rather unusual that Matthew did include them. They are not included in the begets in Luke's gospel. Of course, the scriptures are God breathed and thus God had a purpose in each author writing what they did...

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His names sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23  esv This may be the most well known Psalm of all time. I would think that most people have heard it at a funeral or in relation to someone facing the threat of death. It is understandable that Psalm 23 would be used in this way given the line mentioning “the shadow of death” but it is not what this song is all about. This is a bragging psalm! David is in essence saying, Hey e...

He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:7 ESV Isaiah 53 is a chapter of the Bible that the Lord takes me to again and again and again and again. Do you get the idea that I've read this chapter a lot. I should have it memorized by now.  I have written about this passage before but with a different focal verse. So here I am again, back in this chapter of prophecy and love.  As I said in the previous post, my reaction to the Lord directing me to this chapter isn't always one of excitement which was the case again, though I am not proud of that fact.. Too often I want the Lord to give me something new from a new passage. But His Spirit reminded me that it is not all about me, this life is about knowing Him and making Him known. If that is your goal, which it is mine, then this passage is a great place to ...

I really felt that the Lord would have me get another blog post out and wasn't sure what to write, so I looked in my journal for inspiration and felt as though I should just share a journal entry. It is my "twiG" journal, twiG standing for "time with God". In the past, I have called it a quiet time, but I have since landed on this acronym because it is fitting to what I want to accomplish and reminds me that Jesus said: I Am the vine, you are the branches . I feel that I am but a twig and there is no way that I can live this life without life from The Vine.  So here is my twiG journal entry: [I usually write the date, centered in the page with the year written in the top corner of the page.  Sometimes I fill up just part of a page sometimes several pages. It depends on the time I spend. I sometimes start out writing an opening prayer to the Lord, sometimes I start out writing the reference to the passage I'm reading and then the verses that stand out to me....

“ And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.” Nehemiah 8:9-12 ESV The women's ministry in our church, like many other churches, has women's Bible studies throughout the year. Recently, I had the honor of leading a small group discussion on our study through Nehemiah. Nehemia...

I was invited to a baby shower not too long ago in which all the attendees were assigned a letter to bring along with a usual shower gift. Evidently it is a new thing to have the alphabet on your baby's wall in all different styles, colors and fonts. So this was the idea. If you know me very well, you know that my creations very often have a deeper meaning than what you just see on the surface. So when I was assigned the letter "M", I thought; "Messiah - I could print out all the verses in the Bible that contain Messiah, over and over until I've covered the letter."  Well, when I went to research those verses, in the version that I use and that my friend uses there were only two verses!! So I then wondered if there were any names of God in the Old Testament (you know the Jehovah something names like Jireh and Rapha) that started with an M. So I searched and there is - Jehovah Mekoddishkem or the variant spelling that I went with Jehovah M'kaddesh which ...

  "And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." Matthew 2:12 ESV As I told you in my previous post, I've been trying to read the story of the birth of Jesus around Christmas time for over thirty years now, asking God to show me something new.  I'm hoping to share some of those things with you over the next few weeks.  I'm so excited as I have been reading and remembering different things that the Holy Spirit has spoken to me about through His word and this particular story over the years.  I want to say that just because I call it a story does not mean that it didn't happen. It is not a fairy tale. It is a biography, the story of the living God that He has chosen to reveal to us in written form. Wow, what a blessing that He would want to share His story with us and even more that He would want to share Himself with us. Of course, this is why He wrote this history. The whole Bible has been written...

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ” Philippians 2:5-8 ESV   Every year I struggle with just exactly how to celebrate Christmas. In fact, I probably struggle with how to celebrate every holiday, even birthdays! My husband says that holidays will never be the way that I want them until I'm in heaven! I so badly want them all to be about Jesus and I struggle with how to create that atmosphere for each member of my family. I remember when I was a freshman in college deciding that I kind of hated Christmas and holidays because I had the misconception that they were supposed to be about family and my family was broken with no hope of being whole. D...

     " Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."   Colossians 2:6-7 ESV How often do we "abound in thanksgiving"?  It actually means: to overflow, to excel still more, to increase in excellence. I don't think that I can claim to excel in thanksgiving much less excel still more or increase in excellence. I am way behind when it comes to thanksgiving. It should be my daily attitude and practice but to often it is not. This is telling of a couple of major things: that I don't really know God, who He is and what He has done and I don't know myself, how sinful I am and what great need I have. Or I have lost focus, forgotten these most important things, it is the Gospel, after all. Throughout the Old Testament this phrase is repeated in some form over and over again: “Oh give thanks to the LORD for He is good, H...

"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.   He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn't value Him. Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions,  crushed because of our iniquities;  punishment for our peace was on Him and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep we all have turned to our own way: and the LORD has punished Him for the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:3-6 HCSB                                                 So many times I take for granted all that Christ suffered for me, not that I totally...

I am not a huge sci-fi fan in general but I have gotten into some because of watching a few shows with my teenage sons and my 20 something daughters  (sometimes dad gets in on the watching action as well). We pick a show and start at the beginning and watch through as many seasons as are available.  The sci-fi started with Stargate Atlantis but now we are on Dr Who. Many times over the years after we have watched a movie or TV show I have asked my kids who was most like Jesus in that show and then we have a good discussion about it.  Sadly, there are more and more shows that there is no one to be found who is like Jesus at all. But what is amusing to me is when a show that is fairly anti-God, pro-super science accidentally gives a fairly good picture of the gospel! It is funny that things that we accept in our heroes we don't like, even hate about God.   This idea hit me when my youngest son was replaying his favorite narrative from one of the  recent shows ...