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Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: It’s Go Time

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Read 1 Timothy 4:7-11

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27)

This past week I started a new exercise program that one of my parishioners let me called T25. It was developed by Shaun T of “insanity” fame, and each workout is only 25 minutes long. Just twenty-five minutes, five days a week, for ten weeks. Each day is a different workout and the order of those workouts alternate week to week. By the end of it all, Shaun T claims that you will shed weight and gain muscle, stamina and endurance. All in ten weeks time. Sounds easy, right? I mean, all you have to do is workout for twenty-five minutes, five days a week? That’s it? For real?

Well, if you are thinking, “Gee, that sounds too good to be true,” then you are both wrong and right. You see, you are wrong because it is true that the work out only lasts for 25 minutes, and that one is supposed to do those workouts five days a week and that the program lasts for ten weeks. It is true that if you follow Shaun T’s plan you will end up shedding weight and gaining muscle, stamina, and endurance. I have seen what his “Insanity” program has done to my friend, and I trust that Shaun’s newest program T25 delivers just well.

But you are right in thinking that this sounds to good, to easy, to be true. While these exercises last only twenty-five minutes, they are an intense and grueling twenty-five minutes of high impact, focused interval training (F.I.T.) that get you the same results as an hour long workout. The sweat starts pouring out within the first ten minutes and the workout is over in twenty-five, but those are the longest twenty-five minutes for someone who is not conditioned to it. In fact, I had to do the modified workout because I am not quite used to all of that hopping and jumping around, and it still owned me!

Shaun T. is famous for saying, “You don’t get results by resting, you get results by working hard.” And that is very true. If we truly want something, we have to be willing to put the effort into what it is we want. If we can easily understand this regarding a work out, if it makes sense in our careers, if it makes sense in the things we want to accomplish, why does it seem to be lacking in our spiritual lives? Why is it that we will give it our all in certain things; however, we slack off on stuff as important as our spirituality and our relationships with God and with our fellow human beings. And then we wonder why we feel out of sorts, lost and a profound emptiness in our lives.

Today’s challenge is for you to step up your game, as it were, when it comes to your spiritual well being. It’s time to become spiritually fit, as well as physically and emotionally fit. Join a faith community, read and actively study the Holy Scriptures, pray regularly, partake in the sacramental life of your faith community, observe as sacred day of rest, and invest yourself in works of charity or, as I like to put it, in works of hope, healing and wholeness. If you do this, if you begin to make these a part of your daily/weekly routine, you will find that the results are amazing! It’s go time!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“You don’t get results by resting, you get results by working hard.” – Shaun Thompson

PRAYER

Lord, build me up into a whole person who is spiritually fit. Give me a desire to work for a stronger and deeper relationship with you, one that seeks to do your work of hope, healing and wholeness in the world around me. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: Who Can Be Against Us?

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Read Romans 8:31-39

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Anyone who listens to My teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.” (Matthew 7:24)

Sunday, February 3, 2013 was an all-American holiday…a sacred day of sitting on the couches and chairs, a day of huddling in the living room. It was a day of chips and dip, plenty of beverages and the sounds of guys and gals the country over shouting at the top of their lungs.  This holiday has forever become known a Super Bowl Sunday and has a larger attendance than all of the churches in America combined.

In this past Super Bowl the Baltimore Ravens went up against the San Francisco 49ers in a game that was bound to be a crowd pleaser.  In the first half of the game it seemed like nothing could stop the Ravens. The 49ers were down 28 – 3 and seemed to have no chance to comeback. Yet, they did and almost destroyed the Raven’s dreams of winning the Super Bowl. But as the phrase goes, “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”  In the end, the Ravens narrowly won the game, with the final score being 34-31.

But how were the Raven’s able to stop the raging moment that the 49ers picked up in the second half of the game? How were the Raven’s able to conquer their foe and lay claim of the iconic Vince Lombardi trophy?  According to Ray Lewis, God was how they were able to win.  When asked how they were able to pull off the win, Ray Lewis proclaimed, “If God is for us, who can stand against us?”  It seems that God was certainly a Raven’s fan that day.

Now, on the surface nothing seems wrong with Ray’s proclamation.  In the midst of the great moment, in the midst of all of the emotions welling up inside of him and his fellow teammates, there seems to be nothing wrong with give God the credit for a job well done; however, when one thinks deeper about the implications of such a comment, perhaps the credit give to God is credit God would rather not take.

For instance, is it safe to say that God had it out against the 49ers? What did God choose the Ravens over and against the 49ers? What makes the Ravens more deserving of a Super Bowl victory?  What did the 49ers do to deserve to lose the game after rallying their team to such an amazing comeback?  And what does it say about God’s will regarding the rest of the teams in the NFL?

The danger in this type of theology comes into play when we start applying to other people, places and things of more import than American Football.  For instance, when we win a war, should we credit God with that win? Does God wish us to fight each other and pick sides as to who should conquer and who should be conquered and/or wiped out? Or how about countries with plenty versus third world countries? Why would God choose to give prosperity to some (especially when those prosperous nations are far from perfect), while allowing other people to live in oppressed and deprived states?

The reality is that God is not a puppet master in the sky who tweaks the performances of one team over that of another, nor is God on the side of one people over that of the other. Rather, God is present with us all. God is on all of our sides, nudging each of us to move closer and closer into a divine relationship with our Creator.  If we were to listen to God, if we were to stop for a moment and actually listen, we would hear God telling us that we are all the children of the most High and that we are all loved.  If we would only listen, we would realize that God is calling us to be that love in the world. And what’s stopping us from doing that? After all, if God is for us who can stand against us?

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

God doesn’t play favorites. There is radical equality in God’s love.

PRAYER

Lord, teach me to love in a way that truly gives credit to you. Use me as your instrument of love. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: Trashing the Time Machine

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Read Exodus 3:1-14; Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Have you ever read the novella, “The Time Machine”, or are at least familiar with the film adaptations of the same name?  In the novella, H. G. Wells develops a character called the Time Traveler who believes he has invented a machine that can travel through time. Indeed, he had developed such a machine and travels to the year 802,701 A.D. where he runs into the Eloi, which he theorizes are a peaceful communist society and the result of nature being overtaken by human technology, in which humanity learned to adapt to an environment where they didn’t really need strength or intellect.

He also runs into the Morlock who are ape-like in appearance and who live underground. The Morlocks attack the Eloi and, to make a long story short, the Time Traveler comes to the realization that they are hunting and eating the Eloi, who are too carefree to doing anything about it.  The Time Traveler eventually has to make an escape as he too falls prey of the Morlock and he moves 30 million years into the future and sees what appears to him to be the end of the world.  Eventually, he returns back to his own time and tells his disbelieving dinner guests all that he has seen in the future.

Often, when we think of God and of God being eternal, we think of a timeline. We think of a linear line that stretches from beginning to end, one that can be looked back upon and can be travelled into the future on, much like the way the novella “The Time Machine” is set up.  When we think of the word “eternal”, we think of something that stretches on and one forever.  What’s more, we believe this to be backed up Biblically because, after all, doesn’t both God and Jesus claim in Revelation to be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end?

Yet, that is a misunderstanding of what it means to be the beginning and the end. It is true that in God is both the beginning and the end of all things; however, God never began and never ends. In eternity there is no beginning and no end. There just is. In other words, God was not in the past, nor will God be in the future, rather God is always in the present.  There is only ever presence in the present.

In Exodus, when Moses asked God to tell him who he should say sent him to the Hebrews, God replied, “I AM WHO I AM…tell them that I AM sent you.” God’s own self-definition is that GOD IS.  Notice that God did not say to Moses, “Tell them that I WAS or I WILL BE sent you.”  What kind of hope is there in a God that WAS or a God that WILL BE?  God is not a God of the past or the present. Such things do not truly exist. All that really exists is the PRESENT…right here and right now.

God is not calling us to dwell in our past or worry about our future. Rather God is calling us to live in the present.  It is in the present that we inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. It is in the present that we are enveloped by the presence of God. It is in the present that we enter into eternity. It is in the present that we live and that is exactly where God meets us. While we as human beings may measure time in three tenses (past, present and future), God is calling us to live in the present in a way that reflects the reality of God’s present presence. Remember that eternity is at our door, we only need to open up the door and let it in.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
How much of the present is wasted living in the past and/or worrying about the future?

PRAYER
Lord, help me to recognize your presence with me right here and right now. Help me to reflect the truth of your present presence to all I come in contact with. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: I Am You

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John 8:48-59

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

One of my all time favorite music bands is a band called Demon Hunter. Now I am sure that, judging from the name, you can probably tell that they are Heavy Metal band. If so, you are absolutely correct. I am also sure that, judging by the name, some of you might be questioning why someone like would be listening to a band with that kind of a name. Well, the truth be told, I listen to all sorts of music from classical to heavy metal, from Christian to secular music. In fact, sometimes I find a deeper spirit-filled theology (whether it was on purpose or accidental) in secular music than I do in Christian music.

With all of that said, Demon Hunter is actually a Christian heavy metal band who writes music that really speak to me as a person who knows what it is like to struggle in life. I know what it means to be depressed, to feel hopeless, to feel like the world might be literally crushing me, to feel like I am at wits end, and to feel like no one truly understands me. The lyrics that Ryan Clark write for Demon Hunter are ones that reach out to people who struggle in life, it is their ministry to do so and God certainly has blessed them, and those listening to them, as a result of doing that ministry.

There is a song that they write called, I AM YOU. In this song, Ryan writes, “A new voice for the broken souls in a world awaiting its death—I am you—an everlasting well of life for the hopeless and the wrecked I am the dying self, the narrow path, the calm that conquered the storm—I am you—the cross-hairs on the head of shame, the negation to conform.” For the longest time, I interpreted this to mean that Ryan, the singer, was saying that he was like anyone else and that he, too, has struggled in his life. I am certain that, in part, he is saying that.

This time around, however, I began to see the song in a whole new light. I began to hear God’s voice in it. After all, is it not true that God is a new voice for the broken souls? Is it not true that God is an everlasting well of life for the hopeless and the wrecked? Did Jesus not embody the dying self, the narrow path, the calm that conquered the storm? Did Jesus not set the cross-hairs on the head of shame, and represented the negation to conform? To Moses, God revealed Godself as I AM. In Jesus, God revealed to the world, I AM YOU.

What a wonderfully powerful notion that God is one of us. That God knows what it means to struggle. After all, which one of us has not struggled in this life? Which one of us have remained completely unscathed from childhood to whatever age we are at now? Which one of us has lived a perfect, paradise-like existence without any pain, loss or suffering? I am imagining the answer to be: NONE OF US.

Then how powerful of a message it is for us to receive that God is one of us and knows how to conquer the struggles we face everyday. It is a wonderful message that God is not above us or somewhere out there watching us from afar but, rather, God is with us…God is in us. When we truly embrace that, we will recognize that God is not only with us, but God is with us wherever we go. Once we realize that truth, we will see that when we are in the lives of others…when We reach out to others with compassion and say, “It’s okay, I AM YOU”, we are showing such people that God is with them too…you are giving them the good news of God’s presence and of God’s hope, healing and wholeness.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” – Anne Frank

PRAYER

Lord, fill me with your Good News and send me out to bring it to others. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: Hammer Time

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ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)

Do you remember M.C. Hammer?  He was a rapper who came out in the early 1990s and hit the top of the charts with songs like “U Can’t Touch This”, “Pray”, “Have You Seen Her”, “2 Legit 2 Quit”, and “Do Not Pass Me By”. Donning his trademarked baggy pants, flashy dance moves and an over the top live show, it seemed like Hammer was a force to be reckoned with. Yet, almost as fast as he exploded onto the charts, he was gone.

Just the other day I was listening to a song on his second album entitled, “Do Not Pass Me By”. As I was listening to it I noticed how the song fit even more perfectly in the Gospel genre than it did in the rap and hip-hop genre.  So, I put the song on again, this time really listening to the words. It wasn’t just Gospel, it WAS THE GOSPEL!  There he was, M.C. Hammer, a huge mega-star who had all the money, girls, and fame in the world and he was totally “Shouting out” to God on one of his highest selling albums during the peak of his career.

Then it also occurred to me that each of his best selling albums had similar songs on them. In fact, each of his albums had at least one song dedicated to God on them. His first album had “Son of the King”. His second album, “Pray”. His third album, “Do not Pass Me By”, and His fourth album, “Help Lord (Won’t You Come)”.  It also turns out that M.C. Hammer, who’s real name is Stanley Burrell, became an ordained minister during the late 1990’s and has since devoted his life to prison and youth ministries.

Now, I have no clue what his theological approach to ministry is, nor is that ultimately important. What is important to note is that here is a guy who knows the heights of success, here’s a guy who knows what means to fall from that success, here’s a guy who knows what it’s like to be judged and ridiculed for going bankrupt, and yet this is the same guy who I hear praising God through the airwaves. There is something infectious about his faith. There is something uplifting about his willingness to let people know what he believes. There is something inspiring about his willingness to use his own resources to visit the “least of these” in the prisons and on the inner city streets. And if I am finding that to be infectious, imagine what others think of it.

It is impossible to guess how many millions, if not billions, of people have brought home his album “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” album and listened to the song pray. It’s hard to imagine what the words “You’ve got to pray, just to make it today” would mean to someone who is surrounded by gang violence, or to a kid who is about to commit suicide, or to a prisoner who just wishes he could be forgiven and move on with his life. Here was Hammer, amid all of the pop songs, pushing a message that spread the hope, healing and wholeness of Christ in the lives of so many different people

This is what we as Christians are called to do. We are called to spread the Gospel; we are called to spread the good news of God’s hope, healing and wholeness in the lives of those who need it. We aren’t called to be silent and quiet about our faith; rather, we are called to shout it, unashamed, from the mountaintops for the world to hear! After all, God’s unconditional love and everlasting presence is Good News worth shouting about, is it not? Then no matter who you are, or how you are are called to “shout”, get to it!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

To shout does not necessarily me to scream with your voice; rather, it means to beam with excitement through all of your being.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to use my gifts and talents for the spreading of your Good News, and allow me to beam, from head to toe, with excitement in the great things you are doing! Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: The Right Side of Wrong

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Read John 8:2-12; Romans 8

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“You judge by human standards; I judge no one.” (John 8:15)

Have you ever read the comic, seen the film, or at least heard of the superhero named Ghost Rider?  He is a hero from the Marvel Comics Universe and is certainly one of their more interesting, and theologically challenging, heroes. The story of Ghost Rider is the story of Johnny Blaze who is a daredevil along the lines of Evil Knievel.  He was the son of Barton Blaze who was a stunt-man. As young child he lost both of his parents, first his mother and then his father who died while performing a stunt.

Adopted by Crash and Mona Simpson, Johnny grew up and learned to be a stuntman himself. Crash, who was his adoptive father, taught Johnny everything he knew, and the Simpsons became family for Johnny.  Unfortunately,  Johnny found out that Crash, who had become his father figure, was diagnosed with cancer and was dying.  Desperate, Johnny turned to the occult and was trying to find a way to magically save his adopted father from dying.

It is at this point, that Johnny does something that will change the course of his life forever. While trying to cast a spell, he accidentally summons Mephisto, who is basically the devil.  Mephisto comes to Johnny and promises that if he only sells his soul to him, and works for him when called upon, his adopted father’s life would be spared. Desperate and afraid, Johnny makes the decision to sell his soul so that Crash’s life would be spared.

The deal done, the pact sealed, Johnny becomes what is known as a Ghost Rider, and when called upon, he turns into a flaming skeleton who punishes the wicked and is forced to carry out the commands of the devil whenever he is called upon. Yet, sadly, while the devil got what he wanted, Johnny didn’t make off so well. Crash was spared from the cancer, but ended up dying in a stunt accident.  Johnny feels lost and completely out of control. After all, his soul is tainted…he is forever cursed in the eyes of God. Or is he?

In the film version of the story, another character who was also a Ghost Rider (played by Sam Elliot), gives Johnny a little pep talk before they ride out to fight against the forces of evil.  He says to him, “Any man that’s got the guts to sell his soul for love has got the power to change the world. You didn’t do it for greed, you did it for the right reason. Maybe that puts God on your side.”

This quote should make all of us pause and reflect. Johnny Blaze did EVERYTHING wrong. He tried to do everything right, but kept ending up on the right side of wrong. Yet, perhaps God saw past all of that. After all, he was trying to save the life of the only father he really ever knew. He was trying to do what he believed to be right and, in doing so, perhaps that did put him on God’s side. Perhaps his LOVE spoke much louder to God than his naivety and poor discernment.

In this story, there is hope for all of us. Perhaps we come down much harder on ourselves than God does on us. Sure, it is true that we are not perfect and we do not always make the right decisions, but who does? If we were perfect, would we truly be human? God does not love us because we are perfect; rather, God loves us into perfection. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to separate you from the love of God. All we have to do is open our hearts and listen to the voice of God telling us, “I don’t condemn you! I love you! Go, my child, and sin no more.”

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Do not judge…including yourself.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to see myself through your eyes. While I am not perfect, I am being perfected in your LOVE. Amen.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: Why Imagine?

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Read Matthew 5:1-16; 6:7-15; 13:1-34; Mark 12:28-34

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.'” (Matthew 10:7)

I was just listening to the song “Imagine” by the late, great John Lennon. The song has long since been heralded as the global anthem of world peace and was Lennon’s best selling song of his entire solo career.  The song challenges the listener to imagine a world without possessions, without war, without greed and poverty.  John takes things that are commonly held to be the cause of war and suffering, and challenges the listener to imagine a world where those things didn’t exist, which John assumes would be a world where the “world would be as one.”

At the top of John Lennon’s list of things to imagine the world without, was the notion of heaven, and conversely, the idea of hell.  To the Christian, such lyrics should make us pause. Why would John Lennon want us to imagine a world without heaven?  What would such a world be like? John then takes it one step further and ends that verse with this, “Imagine all the people living for today.”  For John Lennon, the concept of heaven is one that is foreign to this earth. It is a place far, far away; it is a place that is someplace other than this earth.

Christianity has often taught that this world is something to be discarded, that we are to await “a place that is far better than this world.” Heaven has been taught, by Christians, to be the very antithesis of Earth. Yet, in the Bible we find a different understanding of heaven.  Jesus didn’t speak of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place that was far, far away; rather, for Jesus heaven was right here, right now. Jesus taught that not only could we see and experience heaven on earth, but that we could inherit it. All that we needed to do was open our hearts to God and see the world through God’s eyes.

For Jesus, heaven and hell were the opposite sides of the same coin. As he walked the streets of Galilee and Judea, he saw hell all around him. Starvation, extreme poverty, disease, neglect, abuse, and other terrible things are all examples of the hell Jesus witness all around him. His entire country was experiencing the hell of being occupied by the oppressive and tyrannical Roman Empire.

Yet, despite all of the hell Jesus saw, he also witnessed to the very real presence of heaven in the world. When he chose to heal instead of harm, when he chose to love instead of hate, when he chose to forgive instead of bear grudges, when he chose to stand up for right rather than sit down for the status quo, he was not only witnessing to the presence of heaven but he WAS THE PRESENCE OF HEAVEN…the very presence of God in this world.

And we can be the presence of heaven too. We just need to be willing to get a little dirty, to feel a little uncomfortable and to step outside of the boxes we put ourselves in. We need to be willing to reach out and be LOVE in the lives of those around us. We need to be willing to become vulnerable, just as Jesus became vulnerable, for the sake of those around us.  To do such things is to bear witness to the reality of heaven on earth.

While John Lennon is calling for us to imagine there to be no heaven out there in the sky, he is also calling us to imagine a world in which heaven exists here on Earth.  But he has missed an important truth that Jesus has been pointing us to all along: we don’t have to imagine heaven on earth…we only have to live it.  Pointing to others not living it is not proof that it doesn’t exist. It does exist if WE choose to LIVE it!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Imagine what would happen if you stopped imagining and started living what you imagined.

PRAYER
Lord, I thank you for my imagination and for equipping to make what I imagine become a reality. Guide me to be your shining light, witnessing to the reality of heaven! Amen.

Online Worship, Previous Post

December 31, 2023 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

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Combined Worship Service in the Main Sanctuary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 9:00 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Combined Worship Service for December31, 2023. Today we prepare for a fresh start with hope.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

Online Worship, Previous Post

December 24, 2024 – Newton UMC – Sunday Worship Livestream

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Combined Christmas Eve Service in the Main Sanctuary: 10:30 a.m.

Worship service streams live at 9:00 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Christmas Eve Candlelight and Carols Service in the Main Sanctuary: 7:00 p.m.

Worship service streams live at 10:30 a.m. EST (-500 GMT)

Welcome to our live-streamed Sunday Worship Services for December 24, 2023. Today we discover that God invites us to face the unknown with courage, like Mary did, and that as we go, Emmanuel! God, is with us.

Please support us by giving online: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1377216 or https://paypal.me/newtonumc Or you can make and mail a check out to First UMC of Newton, 111 Ryerson Ave., Newton, NJ O7860

God bless you all for your generosity which is vital to our mission and ministry.

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: The Nativity Stor(ies)

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Read Luke 2:1-16

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“[The Wise Men] entered the house and saw the child with His mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11 NLT)

We all know the Nativity Story, right? The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her that she will be with child, who is to be named Jesus, and that her barren cousin is already 6 months pregnant. She humbly accepted it and went on a road trip to visit her cousin. When Mary arrived, the baby in Elizabeth’s baby jumped for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice. Mary praised God and texted a psalm to Elizabeth as a keepsake. okay, she didn’t do that, but she did sing a new psalm to God. Have you ever wondered how that got recorded if no one was there to witness it or write it down?

Anyway, Mary returned home and Joseph noticed that she was pregnant, which was obviously pretty big surprise to him. He thought about quietly dumping her, but an angel came to him in a dream to tell him that the Holy Spirit got Mary pregnant and that her child was actually the SON OF GOD. Joseph took Mary as his wife and then set off to Bethlehem to comply with a census that Caesar Augustus made the Jews participate in. There in Bethlehem, Mary’s water broke and the poor couple ended up searching house to house, inn to inn, in order to find a place for her to deliver baby Jesus. With there being no room for her at the inn, let alone anywhere else, Mary and Joseph found a stable and laid Jesus in a manger wrapped in strips of cloth. Following that, she was visited by Shepherds who were told by a choir of angels that the child was being born. She was also visited by three wise men who bore gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Herod, fearing that a new king was born, ordered that all male children 2 years old and younger be slaughtered, but the Holy Family escaped into Egypt. Following the death of Herod Mary, Jesus and Joseph returned to Israel and settled the Galilean town of Nazareth.

While this is the story we all know, the truth is that it IS NOT the nativity story that is found in the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, all of the elements listed above (minus Mary texting Elizabeth) are found in the Gospels…but not altogether. In Matthew, Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant and chooses to marry her after a dream. It is in this Gospel that we find Herod and the wise men visiting Jesus in a house, as well as the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. In Luke, we find the story of Gabriel telling Mary she and Elizabeth are pregnant, of the angels singing to the shepherds who also visit the holy family, of the trip to Bethlehem, and of Jesus being born in stable, wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a manger.

The two stories are actually remarkably different from one another. If this is a surprise to you, if you didn’t realize that Matthew and Luke both had different stories to tell when it came to Jesus’ birth, then it is time for you to read each of the Nativity stories for yourself. Many have looked at the differences and called them contradictions; however, they are not contradictions as if Luke and Matthew were written to be factual histories; rather, the two Gospels were written as theologies and both give a unique insight into the birth of Jesus and the significance that the advent of the Christ-Child has for the world. Neither story is definitive or complete, but are meant to be glimpses into the activity of a God who refuses to give up on humanity even when humanity has given up on God. Today’s challenge is for you to search the Gospels, read them closely and make note of their commonalities and differences. In doing so, you will have a much deeper and dynamic view of the Christ who came as a Savior for the world.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!” – Benjamin Franklin

PRAYER
Lord, stir in me a desire to study Scripture; however, also spark in me the desire to go beyond just studying Scripture into the realm of living by it. Amen.