Morning Musing: Matthew 1:21

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“She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The first Christmas involved faith. A lot of faith. It involved a great deal of individuals no different from you and me being willing to trust God on a series of adventures they didn’t plan on, and which – if they were being honest – they didn’t even want at first. But in the end, they were all willing to take their plans, hopes, dreams, desires, and set them aside in favor of His. The result was nothing less than the world being irrevocably changed. We talked about one of these stories yesterday in Mary. Today, let’s take a look at Joseph’s story.

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Digging in Deeper: Luke 1:34-38

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“Mary asked the angel, ‘How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?’ The angel replied to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth – even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ‘See, I am the Lord’s servant,’ said Mary. ‘May it happen to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been asked to do something that seemed impossible? How about this: Have you ever been asked to do something that was going to cause serious disruption to your life? The first you can’t do. The second you perhaps can, but you don’t want to. It is not impossible for you to accomplish, but rather is impossible for you to consider. Mary was asked to do both. What the angel asked of her on God’s behalf was both impossible as far as she knew, and the furthest thing from what she would have wanted to do given the plans she no doubt had for her life. How she responded has something powerful to say when God calls us to do hard things in our own lives. Let’s continue our Advent journey this morning by looking at what Mary was called to do, and what she did about it.

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Sidelined

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Have you ever felt like you’re sitting on the sidelines when you want nothing more than to be in the game? Sometimes life does that to us. As we continue forward in our Advent series, The World Turned Upside Down, this week we are looking at some characters who spent a lot of time on the sidelines before their moment came. Let’s see together how they handled it and talk about how we should.

Sidelined

I played basketball when I was in school for three years. Fourth through sixth grades. I remember when my folks got me a basketball goal for our driveway at the house where I grew up. We had a friend come over and help pour the cement foundation for it. We even got to put our handprints in it. And I dominated the driveway games for a while. So when I finally reached the age I could play a sport other than baseball (which I was generally pretty awful at), I was as excited as I could be to join the school’s basketball team. 

Then I got on the court. 

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Songs of the Season

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“This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ – and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15 – CSB – Read the chapter)

When I was in high school, I was first introduced to a cappella music. This came by way of an invitation to try out for a new a cappella group the new choir director was starting. Thus began a brief career with The Patriots. It was a ton of fun and something totally new in the district which made us all little celebrities around town (which itself was hilarious as we were all band and choir and orchestra nerds of the highest order). That was toward the beginning of a cultural moment when a cappella music generally was catching on. It reached its highest point a few years later with a brief TV series followed by a trilogy of films celebrating the art. This morning, let me introduce you to a Christmas song that came out of all of this cultural movement.

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Morning Musing: Isaiah 61:1-3

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“The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Who did Jesus come to save? I know the “right” answer to that question is everyone. But let’s actually think about it for a minute. Who did Jesus come to save? Here’s an answer that’s just as correct but isn’t in terms we usually use. Jesus came to save people who are in need of saving. Now, if that seems tautologous, it is, but that doesn’t make it any less important to understand. In this prophecy from Isaiah that Jesus claimed for Himself, we get a better sense of just what this means.

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