December 2023 – Welcome

Advent Week 5 – Mary: Promise Keeper

Luke 1:34-35
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Merry Christmas! The moment is finally here! We have prepared, planned, shopped, checked off lists, and anticipated this very day. The last four weeks have been building up to the moment we celebrate the arrival of our promised Messiah. For hundreds of years, Jesus was promised to the children of God and came in a way no one expected, but the promise was kept just the same.

I love that we get to look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, on Christmas Day! Mary is the fifth and final named woman in the lineage of Christ and is a well-known part of the Christmas story and nativity. Mary was a young, common girl chosen by God to bring forth the long-awaited Messiah.

What a task and calling! It is only natural Mary asked the question, “but how” when the angel told her the news. She was an unmarried virgin promised to have a very special baby. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33).

The angel’s response is powerful, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). God had chosen her for a task well beyond her human ability, but it would be His Spirit and Power that would consume Mary to make this happen.

There will be times in our lives that we are faced with something much bigger than what we are capable of on our own. A calling, task, or assignment well beyond our own ability and strength. You may be in that season now. Each day takes a new amount of courage and strength than you have ever had to possess before, but we have the promise of the Spirit of God Himself to help us. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Mary is a beautiful example of the surrendered life to a seemingly impossible calling. “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her” (Luke 1:38). She didn’t understand all the details of how this would happen, but she trusted in her Mighty God to work it all out for His glory and good.

If something you are called to do seems far more than you are capable of, remember the example of Mary. How grateful we all can be today because of her obedience. Her task was daunting, and her life was very hard but the eternal impact her role plays can still be seen two thousand years later. God equipped her to fill this huge role in human history and He does the same for us today.

God’s promises always come true. Even when things seem impossible and hopeless, God will orchestrate every detail to deliver His promises to His children. Just as the people of Israel waited hundreds of years for the promised Messiah, we too wait for the return of our Savior. And just as the promises were fulfilled in Jesus, we can trust our faithful, promise keeping God, that Jesus will return to claim His bride.

May this be good news to you today as we celebrate the promised birth of Jesus and eagerly anticipate His return to set all things right. Merry Christmas, I hope you walk in His providence today and everyday because of this hope!

Advent Week 4 – Bathsheba: Our Great Comforter

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

As wonderful as Christmas is, it can also amplify the brokenness in our lives and our families causing grief and pain. The holiday season can be a sharp reminder of loneliness, separation, loss, hurt, and longing. But I have good news. The very reason Jesus came to Earth is to heal and restore His children.

Bathsheba is the fourth woman named in the lineage of Christ. Her story is usually told from the perspective of King David in 2 Samuel 11 &12, but I think a lot can be learned from Bathsheba’s viewpoint. Keep in mind she was a woman with no rights and no voice in a patriarchal society. One evening, while performing the mundane task of bathing, David saw her from the palace. King David inquired about Bathsheba and learned that she was the wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah, who was off fighting in battle.

Knowing she was a married woman; Kind David summoned her to his palace (2 Samuel 11:4). We don’t know the intricate details of the consensual nature of the encounter, but she was a woman summoned by her king and her husband’s commander. Maybe she was terrified of saying no, maybe she felt honored to be noticed by the king, or maybe she felt it could benefit her husband’s military position if she was agreeable with the king. Whatever was going on in her mind, we do know that the entire event was initiated by King David who was supposed to be with his army instead of creeping out the window in the palace.

Bathsheba became pregnant and sent word to King David. Being pregnant while your husband is at war would have been a capital offense punishable by death for Bathsheba. David tries to cover up the pregnancy by inviting Uriah to return home to his wife, but when Uriah didn’t cooperate, King David had him placed in battle where Uriah would be intentionally killed (2 Samuel 11:14-15). Now a widow, Bathsheba mourned for her husband (2 Samuel 11:26).

David brought Bathsheba to the palace as his wife, saving her life and his honor (2 Samuel 11:27). Although David thought he had covered his sin, it was still seen by God. God uses the prophet Nathan to confront David’s sin explaining that the consequences would be the death of the child that Bathsheba was carrying (2 Samuel 12:9-14). Bathsheba had lost her husband Uriah, her child, and the old life she had before that night with the king. It can be so easy to look at her story and label her an adulterer, but when you take a closer look, it is a deeply tragic story full of death, secrecy, and decisions outside of her control.

As we look at the lineage of Jesus, we see that He comes from a long line of dysfunctional sinners. Many of us can relate to this. We may have a past that is full of shame, pain, and hurt. What is so important to see is what God did, despite the brokenness of this family. God used these very people to bring us our promised Messiah. The One who would not only empathize with our grief but also be the Comforter in our sorrow.

Hebrews 4:14-16 reminds us, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is not only able to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has also been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Whatever shame, guilt, or pain you may have in your past, Jesus is our Healer and Comforter. Just as this was not the end of the story for Bathsheba, it is not the end of the story for you and me. Bathsheba later became the mother of King Solomon, the wisest and most successful king in Israel’s history. God had a plan to use her for His glory and good regardless of her broken past and the path leading her to the palace. God has a reputation of taking the broken, shattered, and hopeless and working things out in amazing ways and He is faithful to do this for you and me.

We can boldly enter the presence of God repenting of our own sin and asking for restoration from the pain inflicted by others. This is why Jesus came, to give healing and hope, to restore and redeem, and to show compassion and new life to those who trust in Him.

Advent Week 3 – Ruth: Kinsmen Redeemer

Galatians 3:26-29
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Have you ever been an outsider? Someone not in the crowd or accepted by the majority? I am learning that this isn’t an issue for just adolescents and that this insecurity stays with you through adulthood. A people pleaser by nature, I battle the need to feel included and accepted even as I approach middle age. But I have great news! The Bible is full of outsiders and the unlikely being used by God in amazing ways.

Ruth is the story of a foreign girl who bravely follows her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel after the death of her husband. She leaves her family, her culture, and her life to stay loyal to the Hebrew mother-in-law she loved so dearly.

A widow by chance but a foreigner by choice, puts Ruth in the most vulnerable position of her time. She did not have a husband or son to provide for her, or give her the security of a home, or represent her in society. Then, to enhance the situation she was a Moabite woman in Bethlehem. The Moabites didn’t have the best reputation. Their origins were scandalous (Genesis 19:30-38), and because of their mistreatment of the Israelites when they were traveling to the Promise Land, God commanded that they would not be part of the assembly of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:3-5).

Ruth’s boldness considering her circumstances is inspiring. The moment she decided to go back to Bethlehem with Naomi, she also took on Yahweh as her God (Ruth 1:16), a decision that would change the course of her lineage forever. Ruth and Naomi made a plan for Ruth to glean behind the harvesters to gather barley for her and Naomi to have food. Ruth encounters the owner of the field, a man named Boaz. (We talked about Boaz’s mother, Rahab last week.)

Boaz was a kinsmen redeemer for Elimelech, the late husband of Naomi. It was part of the law of Moses that the nearest relative was required to redeem the property (and sometimes this included women) that had been sold. Elimelech had left Bethlehem during a famine and while in Moab, him and both of his sons died without leaving an heir. Based on Levitical law, Boaz could redeem Elimelech’s property by marrying Ruth and becoming a provider for her and her mother-in-law Naomi and carrying on the family line of Elimelech.

Boaz became Ruth’s kinsmen redeemer, and it is through this family that God ushered in the Messiah. Though Ruth was an outsider and a foreigner with no rights to the benefits of the family of God, her marriage to Boaz is what redeemed all that was against her. She became the grandmother of King David and the third named woman in the lineage of Jesus.

Jesus came to earth to be our Kinsmen Redeemer. It is through His sacrifice that we not only receive the forgiveness of sins but become children of God. Regardless of ethnicity or family lineage, because of Jesus, we all have the opportunity to become heirs of the King of kings. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17). Not only do we have the promise of being made righteous, but we become citizens of heaven. Because of Jesus, we have the promise of His everlasting Kingdom where we will spend eternity in the presence of God our Father as He dwells among His children (Revelation 21:3-4).

Remember friend, when you feel like you don’t fit in, you have the hope of a Kingdom where you do belong, where you are a chosen daughter of the King because of your Kinmen Redeemer. And God has a wonderful plan for you, just like He did for Ruth.

Advent Week 2 – Rahab: The Blood of Salvation

Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

Reckless faith. This is the best way I can describe my past year. As I write this, it has been exactly one year ago that I put my resignation in to leave a fifteen-year career. Reckless because I had no job lined up or any idea of what was next. Faith because I knew without an ounce of hesitation that this was what I was supposed to do and had confidence that God would provide. As I look back on this past year, God has done just that, provided. Not necessarily in earthly monetary ways, but He has given me a deeper understanding of His provision and guidance when I fully surrendered to Him.

Rahab is a biblical example of someone who had reckless faith. She also happens to be the second named woman in the lineage of Jesus. Her full story can be found in Joshua chapter two. Rahab was a prostitute that lived in Jericho, and she became a very unlikely hero to the children of God.

The Israelites had been rescued from slavery in Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for forty years led by Moses. It was finally time for them to enter the promised land. God’s chosen successor to Moses, Joshua, was ready to take ownership of this land, so it was going to take military force since the land was already occupied.

Joshua sent two spies into Jericho to scope out the land. They entered the home of Rahab, and she immediately acknowledged their favor with the One True God. “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you” (Joshua 2:9). Rahab then negotiated a deal for protection; she proposed to hide the spies from the king of Jericho if they protected her and her family when the Israelites raided the city. The spies agreed and gave her an instruction to tie a scarlet cord in her window as a symbol of her protection (Joshua 2:18). Rahab’s home was built into the city wall giving the spies an easy escape.

The spies kept their end of the deal by protecting Rahab and her family when the Israelites invaded Jericho (Joshua 6:17). What Rahab did was reckless. She could have been killed for being a traitor or she could have been killed by the Israelites. However, she had faith in the God of her enemies. The people of Jericho had watched how God protected and provided for the Israelites from a distance for forty years. They were “melting in fear” as God led His children closer to their city.

Rehab’s reckless faith is what saved her life. The scarlet cord was a symbol to the Israelites to protect her home as death came sweeping into the city. The scarlet cord is a similar symbol of the blood from the Passover lamb painted over the door frames of the Israelites homes forty years earlier protecting them from the plague of death in Egypt.

Rahab became part of the community (Joshua 6:25) and it is safe to assume she accepted the One True God of the Israelites as her own. She later became the mother of Boaz, a great man of faith and character. In this amazing story of salvation, a Gentile prostitute became a part of the chosen children of God and the royal line of King David, then later the Messiah himself.

Just as the blood of the Passover lamb is the blood of salvation of the Israelites and the scarlet cord is the symbol of the blood of salvation for Rahab and her family, the blood of Jesus is our blood of salvation. It is His blood that was spilled for you and me that cleanses us of our sins and gives us righteousness before a Holy God. This is what Jesus ultimately came to do, shed His blood for the salvation of sinners, both Jew and Gentile. It is His blood alone that saves us from the plague of eternal death and makes us a part of the family of God.

This Christmas, remember the sweet Baby’s birth we celebrate eventually became the Savior of the world through His sacrifice on the cross. He was sent to us to die. To save us through His blood and the forgiveness of sins. Joy to the world! The Lord has come!

Hebrews 9:14
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!