Good morning! Sometimes, it is hard to find a reason to rejoice over your situation or circumstances. That's why it's important to shift your focus to the Lord. I may not be able to rejoice in what I'm going through, but I can always rejoice in the Lord. His goodness and character doesn't change just because my circumstances are less than ideal. I hate being cooped up. I like being active and doing things productive. I started feeling a little ill last Tuesday. I took some zi

Good morning! The Father really knows how to give the best gifts. Jesus is the best gift anyone could ever give or receive. It's not a gift that looks good but once you dig into to it, you find flaws and discover it wasn't what you thought. He is perfect. God doesn't lie or oversell His gifts. What He gives is perfect and better than anything and everything else anyone could ever give in a thousand lifetimes. He doesn't play shadow games with us or make empty promises. He is

Good morning! It is always amazing to me how fast people move on from such big holidays. I saw in a store Valentine's Day gifts up while we hadn't even hit Christmas, let alone January! Jesus is such a big deal, that it's hard to move on past Him so easily. I mean, we now tell time by His birth. We have many church calendar days dedicated to His life, death, resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Sometimes, I think we rush past important thin

Good morning and Merry Christmas! The greatest story ever told is that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus came to redeem all of humanity from their sin. A King born as a baby, not in a palace, but in a barn. God's Lamb born in a barn, the horn of salvation, the one Abraham saw that God Himself would provide to be the sacrifice. The ram whose horn was caught in the thicket

Good morning! It's Christmas Eve! As a kid, I remember the anticipation of what was to come Christmas morning. There was a scramble for those last minute tasks, baking and wrapping to get done. I was glad when Dad would finish work and was finally home. As a kid, I didn't have the level of stress my parents did. I didn't understand it until I became a parent and my kids were old enough to know what Christmas was. But, none of the stress I felt could compare to what happened o

Good morning! This is more of the prophesy by Zacharias. This portion talks about his son, John who would be the one preparing the way for Jesus. He would pronounce the work Jesus would do and that He is the promised child they have been waiting for. Even though this was given nearly 2000 years ago, they still ring true today and we have the same responsibility as they did in that day. Will we believe Jesus is the one or will we see Him as too common to be God? Will we receiv

Good morning! Zacharias had been visited by Gabriel the messenger angel of God months before Mary was. Unlike Mary, he didn't immediately accept what was delivered to him about he and his wife having a child because of their age and his wife's condition. It cost him his ability to speak for months. His son would be John the Baptist who would be the cousin of Jesus and the prophetic messenger to announce Jesus. When John was born, they were wanting to name him after his father

Good morning! So, imagine that you are a man about to marry your fiancé and you learn she is pregnant. Then, she gives you a story about still being a virgin and God had sent an angel to her to tell her she would be impregnated by the Holy Spirit with the Son of God. What would you do? Joseph was faced with that scenario and instead of blowing his top, exposing her, having her stoned for adultery and bringing shame upon her, he settled to quietly divorce her so as to keep her

Good morning! Mary's words sealed the will of God for her. When the angel told her all that God had planned, she said, "May it be unto me as you have said." That is what the angel reported back to God in heaven. There was joy in heaven and it filled Mary's heart. That joy brought a praise and worship session in the midst of her day. She hadn't planned on an angelic visit or to receive such a calling from God. But she had it, agreed to it and aligned herself with God's will. J

Good morning! So, imagine that you are just going about your day and a large, imposing spiritual being shows up and calls you by name. There's a reason the angel told her not to be afraid. It would have been a frightening experience for sure. But the angel needed her to not be afraid so she could clearly hear what the message was he had for her. It was imperative that she absorbed what was spoken to her because it would require a response. She needed to make a clear decision

Good morning! Typically, the lineage is traced through the father and Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, was from that lineage. But many scholars say she was also from the lineage of David to ensure Jesus was in the bloodline of the prophesies about Him. He was the Horn of David the Scriptures pointed to that would come from David's lineage to be a Horn of Salvation to the world. When Mary heard the messenger, Gabriel, what she knew about the prophesies had to make her wonder

Good morning! When the time was right, God sent His Son as a child to pay the ransom for our sin, so that we could become His children. He brought Him through the right lineage, the right tribe, the right woman's womb at the right time. God knows what He is doing! He brought Jesus into the world under the law to redeem those under the law to become adopted as legitimate children. This is the gospel. He sent Him for the children of Israel first, but not only for them, but for

Good morning! Jesus came for all. That means all, no one is excluded from the love and grace of God. You have to believe in Him, receive His finished work of the cross as payment for your sin, repent of your sin and choose to live for Him. He is the way of salvation for the Jew but also the Gentiles. That covers everyone. I am very thankful that I don't have to be of a certain race, nationality or lineage of people to receive salvation. All I need is Jesus! In Jesus, not only

Good morning! Multiple times, we see the lineage of Jesus mentioned to point us to the right person and to recognize Him when He came. Yet, despite all this, people still refused to see what was plain as day right in front of them. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among them. Jesus gave us indications of what it would be like when He returns again, yet so many people deny His second advent. I think conviction is hard for people to deal with when they know they are stuck in s

Good morning! There is a specific lineage of people from which Jesus would come. God spoke through the prophets to point us to the ancestry so we could clearly follow the line that points us directly to the right one when He comes. It also says He would walk in power and anointing to do the specific thing for which He was sent to do. The word "Messiah" means anointed or anointed one. God prepared Him, equipped Him and appointed Him to do a divine work that only He could do. T

Good morning! Today, I think about the song, "What Child Is This?" in response to this verse. An ordinary child would not bring such controversy, but this was no ordinary child. It was the Son of God coming to earth in accordance with the prophetic words He spoke through the prophets. The rulers of the day studied the Scriptures so they would know when this baby would come as a king. They didn't know it would not be as an earthly ruler in His first advent so they felt threate

Good morning! Whenever God has a message, He raises up a messenger to release it. He used many prophets to announce and/or pronounce what He is doing, going to do or wants to do at a particular time. It is meant to get our attention and point us to Himself. He spoke all throughout the Old Testament through many different prophets to give us details about the coming of Jesus so He would be recognized when He showed up. Those prophesies gave specific instructions and indication

Good morning! Not only did God give a sign of how Jesus would come and be born, but He also specifically named the place it would happen. Jesus was born exactly there. The circumstances were not easy and the way He made it happen was not fully understood in the moment. But God was seeing to His word. A census came that forced Mary and Joseph to a place that had not thought to be, especially as Mary was in the last trimester of her pregnancy. But it put them exactly where they

Good morning! The Lord wanted to give definitive signs to make sure people wouldn't miss the Messiah when He showed up. A virgin becoming pregnant and giving birth is a major sign. It's only happened once in history and will only ever happen this one time. God with us through a baby. Isn't it amazing how He came as the most vulnerable of people in the humblest of circumstances? Yet, through adversity, He rose to the full stature of a Man and showed us what it looks like when