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...

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Jesus  (Mark 12:30-31 ESV ) Ahh, this has been the prayer of my heart for some time now. I think that I have prayed it almost daily for my family for over 8 years now. It is usually what I pray when I wake up in the middle of the night. Many times when asked if I have any prayer requests this is what I ask for myself and my family. My prayer has gone something like this: Father God, please help Cary and I, Kayla, Katina, Keanan and Kenton to love You with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves -beginning with one another. Why have I made this my almost daily prayer? Because Jesus said that this is the greatest commandment and if I love God and love man I will fulfill all the commandments. ...