Like 2:1-19 The Real Christmas Story

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¹And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

²(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

¹⁵And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

¹⁶And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

¹⁷And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

¹⁸And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

¹⁹But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

The Daily Spurgeon: The Incarnation is a Promise

The Daily Spurgeon: The Incarnation is a Promise.

Want the job? Gotta attend a ‘gay’ parade #OneNewsNow.com#

Want the job? Gotta attend a ‘gay’ parade #OneNewsNow.com#.

Credible threat to the Internet (OneNewsNow.com)

Credible threat to the Internet (OneNewsNow.com).

Christmas story: Insight into parental roles (OneNewsNow.com)

Christmas story: Insight into parental roles (OneNewsNow.com).

Let’s Stop Ignoring Joseph By Russell D. Moore

I played a cow in my first-grade Christmas pageant, and I had more lines than the kid who played Joseph. He was a prop, or so it seemed, for Mary, the plastic doll in the manger, and the rest of us. We were just following the script. There’s rarely much room in the inn of the contemporary Christian imagination for Joseph, especially among conservative Protestants like me. His only role, it seems, is an usher-to get Mary to the stable in Bethlehem in the first place and then to get her back to the Temple in Jerusalem in order to find the wandering12-year-old Jesus.

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But there’s much more to the Joseph figure.

Real Father

When we talk about Joseph at all, we spend most of our time talking about what he was not. We believe (rightly) with the apostles that Jesus was conceived in a virgin’s womb. Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father; not a trace of Joseph’s sperm was involved in the formation of the embryo Christ. No amount of Joseph’s DNA could be found in the dried blood of Jesus peeled from the wood of Golgotha’s cross. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit completely apart from the will or exertion of any man.

That noted, though, we need to be careful that we don’t reduce Joseph simply to a truthful first-century Bill Clinton: “He did not have sexual relations with that woman.” There’s much more to be said. Joseph is not Jesus’ biological father, but he is his real father. In his adoption of Jesus, Joseph is rightly identified by the Spirit speak­ing through the Scriptures as Jesus’ father (Luke 2:41, 48).

Jesus would have said “Abba” first to Joseph. Jesus’ obedience to his father and mother, obedience essential to his law-keeping on our behalf, is directed toward Joseph (Luke 2:51). Jesus does not share Joseph’s bloodline, but he claims him as his father, obeying Joseph perfectly and even following in his voca­tion. When Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, he cites the words of Deuteronomy to counter “the flaming darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16). Think about it for a moment-Jesus almost certainly learned those Hebrew Scriptures from Joseph as he listened to him at the woodworking table or stood beside him in the synagogue.

Difficult Deed

Our contemporary cartoonish, two-dimensional picture of Joseph too easily ignores how difficult it was for him to do what he did. Imagine for a minute that one of the teenagers in your church were to stand up behind the pulpit to give her testimony. She’s eight months pregnant and unmarried. After a few minutes of talking about God’s working in her life and about how excited she is to be a mother, she starts talking about how thankful she is that she’s remained sexually pure, kept all the “True Love Waits” commitments she made in her youth group Bible study. You’d immediately conclude that the girl’s either delusional or lying.

When contemporary biblical revisionists scoff at the virgin birth of Jesus and other miracles, they often tell us we’re now beyond such “myths” since we live in a post-Enlightenment, scientifically progressive information age. What such critics miss is the fact that virgin conceptions have always seemed ridiculous. People in first-century Palestine knew how babies were conceived. The implausibility of the whole thing is evident in the biblical text itself. When Mary tells Joseph she is pregnant, his first reaction isn’t a cheery “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” No, he assumes what any of us would conclude was going on, and he sets out to end their betrothal.

But then God enters the scene.

When God speaks in a dream to Joseph about the identity of Jesus, Joseph, like everyone else who follows Christ, recognizes the voice and goes forward (Matt. 1:21-24). Joseph’s adoption and protection of Jesus is simply the outworking of that belief.

Same Faith

In believing God, Joseph probably walked away from his reputation. The wags in his hometown would probably always whisper about how “poor Joseph was hoodwinked by that girl” or how “old Joseph got himself in trouble with that girl.” As the stakes grew higher, Joseph certainly sacrificed his economic security. In first-century Galilee, after all, one doesn’t simply move to Egypt, the way one might today decide to move to New York or London. Joseph surrendered a household economy, a vocation probably built up over generations, handed down to him, one would suppose, by his father.

Again, Joseph was unique in one sense. None of us will ever be called to be father to God. But in another very real sense, Joseph’s faith was exactly the same as ours. The letter of James, for instance, speaks of the definition of faith in this way: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (1:27). James is the one who tells us further that faith is not mere intellectual belief, the faith of demons (2:19), but is instead a faith that works.

James shows us that Abraham’s belief is seen in his offering up Isaac, knowing God would keep his promise and raise him from the dead (2:21-23). We know Rahab has faith not simply because she raises her hand in agreement with the Hebrew spies but because in hiding them from the enemy she is showing she trusts God to save her (2:25). James tells us that genuine faith shelters the orphan.

What gives even more weight to these words is the identity of the human author. This letter is written by James of the Jerusalem church, the brother of our Lord Jesus. How much of this “pure and undefiled religion” did James see first in the life of his own earthly father? Did the image of Joseph linger in James’s mind as he inscribed the words of an orphan-protecting, living faith?

It’s a shame that Joseph is so neglected in our thoughts and affections, even at Christmastime. If we pay attention to him, though, we just might see a model for a new generation of Christians. We might see how to live as the presence of Christ in a culture of death. We might see how to image a protective Father, how to preach a life-affirming gospel, even in a culture captivated by the spirit of Herod.

This post originally appeared at The Gospel Coalition Blog on December 15, 2011, under the title, “Father to God, Model for Us.”

http://www.christianpost.com/news/lets-stop-ignoring-joseph-65480/

Men: Is It OK to Fantasize? By Alex Murashko

My personal note on this subject:  This can happen to women, as well as to me, so women shouldn’t feel excluded when you read this write up.  The devil finds a way to come between every husband and wife, destroying marriages, and making any kind of cheating seem like it’s okay, when it’s not.  We all need to be vigilant in these days against all outside attacks of Satan, keeping our hearts, and minds on God, and he will always see us through.

 

Men engaged in fantasy football leagues may be a rather benign activity, but when it comes to males creating imaginary sexual relationships, the results can be devastating,said the founder and president of Every Man Ministries.

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  (Photo: Every Man Ministries)
  Every Man Ministries founder and president Kenny Luck recently tackled the question, “Is it OK to fantasize?” Luck’s next book, “Sleeping Giant,” will be adapted as a men’s ministry resource for the Southern Baptist Convention, November 2011.

Author and pastor Kenny Luck, who has written more than 20 books about issues that men need to deal with while using biblical principles, told The Christian Post that the severity of the fantasy problem for men is on the same scale as the epidemic of immaturity seen among men today.

The seemingly growing acceptance of men that refuse to mature past adolescent behavior has been well chronicled in the media during the last few years and amplified by a “cultural uncertainty about the social role of men.”

In confronting the problems men face today, Every Man Ministries recently posted a video clip of Luck addressing the question, “Is it OK to fantasize?”

Luck went into even more detail with CP about the problem men can have with unhealthy fantasy.

“Fantasy is a replacement for not having the character to meet the demands of reality,” Luck said. “An example would be [a man thinking], ‘I don’t have the emotional maturity and character to resolve conflict.’ The reality is that there is ‘conflict in my marriage.’

 

“Because emotional maturity and character is missing, then ‘I’m failing at meeting the demands of my reality, which is that I need to work through this with my wife to get intimacy and connection again.’”

Luck, who is also the men’s pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., explained, “When men recognize that they don’t have the emotional maturity and character to do relationships right they resort to fantasy because it feels better.”

The realization that comes when a man discovers he is inadequate to handle relationships on a mature level foster low self-esteem and have him looking for relief from the painful feelings, Luck explained.

“Then he reasons that ‘I don’t want to feel bad about myself.’ Guess what’s waiting for him to create this world where he doesn’t have to feel bad about himself and he can feel like a man again? It’s fantasy,” he said.

While looking to escape through fantasy, online pornography and seductive imagery can become a real problem for men.

“He can pop on the Internet and those pixelated women are not going to ask him any questions that demand character. They let him do in his mind whatever he wants to with them and it gives him a sense of power in the moment that is fleeting,” Luck said. “That feeling of power and control that is absent in his reality is [to him] worth going back to again and again even though its fantasy.”

Having developed workshops for men dealing with sexual addiction, Luck said he knows the struggles with fantasy well.

“Men need to learn how to not act selfishly in relationship. Isn’t it interesting that Satan’s solution when the pressure is on, and a man is not managing conflict well, is to make him be selfish and pursue fantasy and self-gratification which keeps him immature?” he noted.

“It enslaves men to emotional immaturity. You can’t love fantasy, especially sexual fantasy, and pursue personal maturity at the same time because it’s immature behavior.”

The way to combat the temptation of fantasy for men is to become secure emotionally, he said.

“This whole equation about why do men turn to fantasy goes back to their need to be loved and validated,” Luck said. Love and validation “produces the internal security and maturity in a person which helps them stand in the midst of harsh realities that demand more of them.”

He explained that, ultimately, security comes from a man’s relationship with God.

“That’s why the love of God is so important to a man. It’s a father loving a son and the love from a father to a son that makes him feel validated, accepted and secure,” he said. “God’s love creates inner security. Inner security leads to inner maturity. Inner maturity is required to deal with reality in a grownup way.”

Luck said he is working with the Southern Baptist Convention to bring some of the men’s issues onto the forefront. His next book, Sleeping Giant, is due to be released in May 2012. The book will serve as a resource model to SBC pastors and men to be a part of a “global church to church movement,” he said.

The book is about “moving the men of the church from the audience to the army for their local pastor.”

http://www.christianpost.com/news/men-is-it-ok-to-fantasize-65462/

Step Out in Faith and Do It!

“We walk by faith, not by sight.”                                                 2Co 5:7

It’s not that you don’t know this, it’s that you keep forgetting it and need to be reminded of it: God can use you! Yes, the same God who worked through Moses and Esther, Deborah and Paul, works today through imperfect people like you. He can give you victory in the place of defeat and turn last year’s humiliation into this year’s celebration. All the great achievers in the Bible had one thing in common: they were just ordinary folks who took risks in obedience to God, believed Him and ended up doing amazing things.

Can you imagine trying to fill Moses’ shoes? God had used him to dry up the Red Sea, wipe out the Egyptian army, receive the Ten Commandments onMount Sinai, and feed millions of Israelites every day in the wilderness. How would you like to follow someone like that? The thought of it must have shaken Joshua to his core. But God reassured him: “No man shall be able to stand before you…as I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Jos 1:5 NKJV). Once he heard those words he had the confidence needed to pick up where Moses left off. The Bible says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” The Devil doesn’t mind you speaking words of faith as long as you don’t take steps of faith. So trust God. When He says something to you it’s always for a good reason. When He tells you to do something, He will give you the strength and resources to do it. What’s God asking you to do? Step out in faith and do it!

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/step-out-in-faith-and-do-it/

Your Habits Determine Your Future

“Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed.”                             Da 6:10 NIV

Your habits either work for you or against you. Take any habit you practice, multiply it by 365 days, then multiply it by seventy or eighty years and you can write your own obituary. Simply stated: great people have great habits. One billionaire says, “I arrive at my office at seven a.m. It is a habit.” A best-selling author says, “I get up at the same time every day. I start writing at eight a.m. and quit at four each afternoon. I do it every day. It is a habit.” Jesus was a creature of habit. “And he came toNazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his [habit] was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day” (Lk 4:16). Daniel prayed three times a day. His prayer life was so predictable that his enemies used it to trap him. When measured by the same standard, how is your prayer life?

Habit is a gift from God. It’s said that if you can do something consistently for twenty-one days you have proven that you can do it for twenty-one years. Will you slip at times? Sure, you’re only human. But once you have tasted success it’s hard to be satisfied with less. Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples” (Jn 8:31 NAS). Note the word “continue;” it’s the secret of true greatness. Your success can be found in your daily routine. If you’re serious about changing your life you must stop practicing bad habits and start instituting good ones.

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/your-habits-determine-your-future/

Knowing What’s “Right” for You

“It would not be right for us.”                                                 Ac 6:2 NIV

The New Testament church grew so fast that the apostles couldn’t keep up with it. So they said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (vv. 2-4 NIV). As a result the Word of God spread, the church kept growing, and key leaders in the city ofJerusalemwere won to Christ. It’s vital that you discover the area where you add the most value—and stay there. Why don’t we? (1) Turf guarding. We think, “This is my job; nobody does it but me.” Just because you’ve always done a particular job doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. What if God wants to write a new chapter in your life? (2) Being overloaded. People with too much on their plate tend to reject the very thing that will help them, thinking it’s just one more burden to carry. (3) The martyr complex. When complaining about your lot in life gets you the attention of others, you make it a lifestyle. But it doesn’t work. People begin to avoid you because they don’t see you doing anything to change the situation. (4) Not knowing what’s “right” for you. Only when the apostles delegated the administrative side of things to others and got back to what they were called to do, did things start to go right. Think about it.

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/knowing-whats-right-for-you/