A Wild Ride at Disney World

A Series on Advent
The candle of hope – Joseph
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Matthew 1:18-25

[Advent is the period of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Tradition includes lighting four candles: hope, love, joy and peace. To celebrate Advent, we will be looking at four people plus one who were intimately involved in the Christmas story, and then relating their part of the story to one of the Advent candles.]

  

Recently, my wife and I went to Disney World with our daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, ages 12, 8 and 4. It was Magical! Where else could you do any of these?

 

Eat in a restaurant where Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Grumpy or Snow White might stop by your table for a photo op.

Go to “Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party” where we dressed up as the Seven Dwarfs. (After all, there was seven of us.)

Go on the roller coaster ride Expedition Everest, where during part of the ride you’re in total darkness going backwards! It's wild!

 

I would imagine that Joseph might have felt like he was on a roller coaster ride with all the ups and downs; flying around turns; abruptly changing directions with no control over where he went; riding in total darkness, not knowing where he was going. It was unchartered territory.

 

After all, Joseph was your “average Joe” – nobody special. He was just living life. He had started his carpentry business and was engaged to be married, when suddenly the roller coaster went off the rails. His fiancé was pregnant… but not by him.

 

An angel appeared to him in a dream, telling him an unbelievable story. That Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit; that he should still take her as his wife; that she will have a son and they should name him Jesus. Why that name?

 

²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”    NLT

 

You could imagine when Joseph woke up the following morning the thoughts that were running through his mind. “What just happened? Did I have bad pizza last night? Was the dream even real? The angel couldn’t have said all those things. Surely, I misunderstood.” But he didn’t.

 

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.             NLT

 

Like Joseph, sometimes life can feel like a roller coaster… out of control, even hopeless. But, there is a plan; there is hope. For Joseph, that plan included the extraordinary fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah.

 

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”            NLT

 

As you contemplate and celebrate the birth of Jesus, keep in mind that God has a plan and that he is sovereign. And, because of this, there is hope. And, because of that hope, we can live faithfully like Joseph.

 

Copyright 2022 Joseph B Williams

 

 

 

Two Men and a Truck

A Series on Living in the Wilderness: Part 2
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Matthew 1:18-25 

[This is Part 2 in a series of looking at people who lived in the wilderness. Not necessarily the wilderness of nature, but the wilderness of life. In fact, there are times when we all feel like we are living in the wilderness. During those times, it’s important to remember that the Lord is faithful. That He loves you and is always with you.] 

 

“Two Men and a Truck” is the name of a national moving company. It makes moving sound so simple. Like all you need is… two men and a truck. But moving is anything but simple. Moving… is stressful!

 

After eleven years of marriage, my wife, daughter and I moved to Columbus, Ohio from Lansing, Michigan. We only knew a few people through my job. Basically, we were starting all over.

 

So, we had to find a place to live, a new church, make new friends, find new doctors, and learn how to get around the city and where to shop. The move impacted every aspect of our lives. It was very stressful!

 

Joseph, the husband of Mary, knew what it was like to live through the stress of moving. Caesar Augustus decreed a census which required, what Joseph thought, would be a temporary visit.

 

The timing couldn’t have been worse as his pregnant fiancé was due at any moment. The 90-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem probably took four days for them to walk… his first move.

 

Then, following a visit from astrologers from the east, he was warned that King Herod was going to try and have his infant son killed. So, Joseph took his young family and escaped to Egypt… his second move.

 

Finally, he was told that Herod had died and that it was safe to return to Israel. However, King Herod’s son was in power, so Joseph had to be very careful as he moved his family back to Nazareth… his third move.

 

For the first few years of his family’s life together, the stress of the unknown must have been palpable. Joseph had to deal not only with all the logistics and changes of moving, but also with the fear of losing his son. He was living in the wilderness but not without faith; not without affirmation; not without a sign.

 

When he first learned that Mary was pregnant, even though he knew it was from the Holy Spirit, he was still going to divorce her quietly so as not to disgrace her publicly. But an angel appeared to him.

 

²⁰ “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”            NLT

 

Then the angel quoted from the prophet Isaiah about a sign.

 

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’” NLT

 

How could he protect his young wife from the spitefulness and pain of gossip? How could he protect his son from a powerful, ruthless ruler who wanted him killed? How could Joseph provide for his family when his carpentry business was continually disrupted?

 

Joseph faced living in the wilderness by faith in the Lord; faith in the Living God who was with him. And… who is with us today.

 

Copyright 2022 Joseph B Williams

 

 

 

 

Who Has Your Back?

Personal reflections on Advent: Christmas
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25

  

During the 60’s, in small town America, about the only the thing to do on a weekend for fun was to cruise around “the strip”. That’s what they called the main drag where teenagers drove round and round looking for excitement. For me, that town was Alma, Michigan.

 

On one such occasion, shortly after getting my driver’s license, I was driving around the strip in my parents Buick Wildcat. It had a 325 horsepower and 425 cubic inch motor. Although it was as big as a boat, it had a lot of power… and it was fast!

 

Apparently, it was too fast because I was stopped by the police and given a ticket for pulling out of a parking lot in an “unsafe manner”. As a result, I had to appear in court with my Dad before a judge. It was all a very frightening experience but knowing that my Dad would be there with me helped a lot.

 

Growing up, I always knew that my parents had my back. They never told me that in so many words. They just did it.

 

One central theme that persists throughout the Bible is that God promises to always be with His people; to have their back. He promised Abram, Isaac and Jacob. He promised Moses and David. He even promised Gideon who was hiding in a winepress. Then in the New Testament, he promised Joseph… only not exactly.

 

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).       NIV

 

These words were written about 700 years before Jesus was born, as a promise to Israel that God would be with them. But they were also spoken to Joseph to convince him to take Mary as his bride. In fact, God was promising to not just be with Joseph and Mary, but to be with you and me.

 

In The Message, Eugene Peterson puts it like this.

 

^14a The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.      John 1

 

I’m sure my Dad wasn’t happy about me getting a ticket. There’s a lot of different ways that he could have handled the situation. The spectrum could’ve ranged anywhere from painfully punitive to superbly supportive. He was supportive. He didn’t make me face it alone but was there by my side.

 

God with us. What an amazing promise.

 

Copyright 2021 Joseph B Williams

 

 

 

O Holy Night

A Series on Advent – The Christ Candle

John 1:1-5; John 3:16-17

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1-5%2CJohn+3%3A16-17&version=NIVUK;NLT

 

Advent is a time to meditate on the meaning of Christmas; the birth of Jesus; the birth of Immanuel, which means God with us.

 

Traditionally, churches light a candle each of the four weeks before Christmas, remembering a different aspect of Advent. Hope, peace, joy, love, and tonight, The Christ Candle.

 

At the church I attend, the Christmas Eve service always includes a touching rendition of “O Holy Night”. Usually it is done by a soloist, but this year the choir is singing it. As we rehearsed, I realized that I had never really paid close attention to the words.

 

O holy night the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

It doesn’t paint an idyllic picture of a baby laying in a manger swathed in rags. It doesn’t conjure up images of an angelic Mary with her loving husband Joseph and their newborn baby in a sterile stable. It doesn’t describe the three wise men traveling from the east to bring him gifts.

 

But it does paint a picture of a world, weary from sin; a world that desperately needs a savior; a world that has nowhere else to turn.

 

We received a Christmas card this year from some good friends. The card had one of those idealistic pictures on the front. But the message said it all with a poem by Roy Lessin titled, “God’s Gift”.

 

Little baby on the hay
soon there'll be another day
when nails shall pierce
Your hands and feet
as you provide our sin's defeat.

This poem reminds us that Jesus came as a baby, but died on the cross for our sins. It truly was a holy night.

And how should we respond over two thousand years later?
 

Fall on your knees
O hear the angels' voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born

You can listen to O Holy Night as sung by Carrie Underwood by clicking on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxJxU6VYkUY&app=desktop

 

 

 

Hope for Humpty Dumpty

A Series on Advent

Leviticus 25:8-12; Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:14-19

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2025%3A8-12%2CIsaiah%2061%3A1-3%2CLuke%204%3A14-21&version=NIV;NLT

 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

This famous English poem is about a character who apparently is quite clumsy. As a result, he is broken beyond repair. It’s hard to relate to Humpty Dumpty on a personal level. But, as a metaphor to real life, because of our sinful nature, we are all broken beyond repair.

 

The nation of Israel was certainly not exempt from this. Even though they were God’s chosen people and He made a covenant with them to lead them to the Promised Land, they failed time and time again. They were truly a broken people. They were a Humpty Dumpty nation that only God could put back together again.

 

Therefore, in Leviticus, God gave them a routine that would bring them hope. The Year of Jubilee, and the preceding Sabbath Years, were to be a vision of hope that would regularly remind His people that He would always be with them. It was to be a cycle of life that would help the people to realign themselves with the kingdom of God.

 

Unfortunately, the people of Israel did not take kindly to realigning their lives. As a result, they were sent into exile. As indentured servants and slaves in Babylonia,

Isaiah reminded them about the Year of Jubilee. It was a promise to return to their homeland; a promise of hope; of the Messiah that was to come.

 

Into this historical setting, Jesus went to the town where he had grown up – Nazareth. And on the Sabbath, he read from Isaiah in the synagogue.

 

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”                    NIV

 

By quoting Isaiah, Jesus was reminding them of the Year of Jubilee. Following his reading he sat down, and with all eyes on him, pronounced that he was the fulfillment of this promise; that he was the Messiah; that he would heal the brokenhearted; that he would put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

 

 

COMMENT:

Hope is the theme of the first week of Advent; four weeks of preparation; four weeks for us to be reminded of the historical setting of the birth of Christ; of the coming of the Messiah; of God with us; of hope for a broken people.

 

The Year of Jubilee, found in Leviticus 25, came once every 50 years. At that time, slaves were freed, debts were canceled and ancestral property was returned to the original family. By referring to these verses, Isaiah predicted primarily the liberation of Israel from the Babylonian exile; but Jesus proclaimed liberation from sin and all its consequences.

  

There is hope for all of us who are broken. Click on the link below to listen to the song by Matthew West called Broken Things.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUu6ZsdVfM

 

 

 

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Matthew 2:1-12

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A1-12&version=NIV;NLT

 

 
 

According to our consumer oriented society, the “Christmas season” begins in November well before the over commercialized Black Friday. It includes a big push for Santa Claus and the “spirit of Christmas” until December 25.

 

In contrast to this, the traditional Christian celebration of Christmas begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas with the season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation for the birth of Christ. Christmas Day then ushers in 12 days of celebration ending on January 6 with the celebration of Epiphany. 

 

The word epiphany is a noun that refers to “the manifestation of a divine or supernatural being”. In the Christian church Epiphany is “the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi”.  

 

I always thought The Twelve Days of Christmas was just a cute little song that referred to the twelve days before Christmas. But the real twelve days of Christmas is a time of reflection on the incarnation of the Living God through Jesus after Christmas.  

 

In Matthew 2, the incarnation means different things to different people. For the Magi, it was a quest to find the “King of the Jews”. For King Herod, it was “disturbing news” that sent him into a frantic paranoia. For Mary, it was extremely personal. She had carried Jesus for nine months, gave birth to him and nursed him as a baby.  

 

What does the incarnation mean to you? Will it be a quest; a disturbing time; or something personal that will change your life? How will you respond to Christ incarnate? 

  

 

 

(If God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others through social media, email, etc.) 

 http://lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com/ 

 

 

 

What Does Your Life Communicate?

1 John 4:1-6

 

Do you open your Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

 

Growing up, my parents made us wait until the morning. It was sheer torture. I was so keyed up the night before my Dad would read the Christmas Carol just to put us to sleep. Even then, I found creative ways to stay awake like, hiding in the downstairs closet or hiding under my bed with a light to stay awake.

 

There are a lot of messages at Christmas time, and many of those messages come through time honored traditions, like gift giving. In Sweden, there is a tradition of watching a 1958 Disney Christmas special at 3:00 p.m. on December 24. The program consists of Jiminy Cricket introducing a series of vintage cartoons.

 

What message does this tradition communicate?

 

“¹Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around, ² and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: Does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God.” TLB

 

That’s what John wrote to the believers about how to determine if a spirit - or message - is genuine. He wrote that we should put messages and beliefs to the test; to make sure that the message you are hearing holds up to the truth of the Gospel.

 

Messages are normally communicated by word of mouth, but oftentimes messages are communicated by written word or body language, actions and even inaction.

 

This makes me wonder if our lives aren’t a message. And if that is true, what message are we communicating? What would happen if our message, our life, was put to John’s test?

 

As a child, I knew that Christmas was about Jesus, but the message that I heard, that came across loud and clear, was that Christmas was all about gift getting.

 

John wrote in his Gospel the true message about Christmas. “¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”        NIV

 

Jesus Christ came in the flesh from God. This is what we as believers celebrate, not just in December, but throughout the year. This is the truth. It may not be popular. It may not be PC. But it does pass the truth test.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does your life communicate?