My Post-Holiday Funk

January 12, 2012 3 Comments

Financially speaking, this month of January tends to be a more trying month for Tonya and myself than other months. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce the reason: Christmas hangover. It’s not that we go wild with Christmas shopping and cross the line into sin with it. It’s just that spending any amount of any month’s “extra” income on presents affects the next month’s checkbook. That’s simple math.

A preacher reminded a financially strapped church-member that 1st Thessalonians 5:18 says: “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” The church-member said, “I don’t see what I have to be thankful for, preacher. I’m buried in debt. I can’t pay my bills. I can’t make my payments, and on top of it all I just lost my job.” The preacher thought for a moment and answered, “Well, be thankful that you aren’t one of your creditors!”

No, it’s not that bad with my family’s finances, but it’s not helping matters that I’m also suffering from some kind of post-holiday, winter malaise. For whatever reason, I’ve been having trouble getting energized this new year. During the holidays, with Tonya and the boys home from school, we all got off schedule by sitting up later and sleeping in later. When school started back up, they got back on track, but I’m still having trouble breaking out of that pattern. I’ve got to fix that. Also, I had been doing an excellent job of getting in thirty minutes of daily exercise leading up to Christmas. But I’m now on my third week or so of taking a break from that. I’ve got to fix that too and get back on that exercise machine.

I was listening to the radio a few days ago and actually heard a disc-jockey address what I’ve been experiencing. He said the post-holiday letdown is very normal and that it is brought on by eating too much, not getting enough exercise, and sleeping too much. I thought, “Wow, he must be following me around with a camcorder!” At least I was encouraged that my problem is fairly typical.

Oh, and another thing that isn’t helping my mood or energy level these days is the weather we’ve been getting here in the mountains of western North Carolina. Like a lot of other folks across the country, we’re mired in one of those winters that doesn’t know it’s a winter. Since the beginning of December we’ve had unseasonably warm weather and a lot of rain. Such weather just kind of wears on you when you’ve grown up in these mountains and are used to subfreezing temperatures and snow. As I recall, we’ve only had two snowfalls so far this winter. One was a barely measurable trace that got the grass white for a little while, and the other was a couple of inches that didn’t exactly get everyone buzzing either. The forecast does call for the possibility on an inch or so tonight, but, again, that’s not enough to really get our juices flowing around here.

Anyway, I just thought that I’d share some of this info with you guys, my readers, today. Maybe someone else out there is experiencing some of the same post-holiday funk that I’m experiencing. If you are, I invite you to join me in slipping back into gear and getting back up to speed. 2012 is a big new adventure that is just lying there waiting for us. If you believe certain doomsday interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar, it’s even our last year. (I don’t believe those interpretations, by the way.) What I do believe, though, is that God wants to do great things in us, for us, and through us this year. So let’s stop sulking around, overeating, oversleeping, and worrying about our finances and start living with the faith, energy, zest, zeal, and confident expectation with which He would have us. And, yes, I’m preaching to myself on that.

Filed under Attitude, Christmas, dieting, Gluttony, Money, New Year, Personal, Thankfulness, weather Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

A Little Fun At Christmas

December 24, 2011 1 Comment

A little boy decided that it was time that he started wearing a watch, so that he could look grown up like his dad. Several weeks before Christmas he started telling his parents, “I want a watch for Christmas.” Day after day he would find some way to work that request into a conversation. It finally got to the point where his dad was tired of hearing about that watch. He said, “Son, knock it off. We know that you want a watch for Christmas. We’ve heard.” So the boy hushed about it.

Three days before Christmas the family sat down to a typical evening meal. The boy said, “Daddy, may I say the prayer over this food?” The father was stunned because the boy had never offered to pray before, but he proudly consented. Once everyone had bowed their heads, the boy began: “Oh Lord, we thank You for this food. We thank you for all Your other blessings too, blessings such as Your word. And we know that in Mark 13:37 Jesus says something very important. He says, ‘And what I say to you, I say to you all: WATCH!’”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Filed under Christmas, Humor Tagged with , ,

The Peace That Jesus Brings

December 23, 2011 1 Comment

In my last post I explained that even though Christ’s birth didn’t actually usher in a time of “peace on earth,” prophecy teaches that one day He will bring in such a time, one thousand years worth of it to be exact. Now, with this post, I want to explain that Christ’s birth did usher in a time when the individual who believes in Him as Savior can come to know a personal peace.

First, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with God, his Maker. The classic verse on this is Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith (referring to faith in Christ), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m reminded of that story about the preacher who asked the man, “Have you made peace with God?” The man answered, “I didn’t know that we were fighting.” Well, the fact is that every member of the human race is born fighting with God. Romans 3:10-12 says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

Yes, the sinner is at war with holy God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus, through His shed blood (Colossians 1:19-20), has laid a peace treaty on the table for any individual who will sign it. Isaiah 53:5 describes it so beautifully:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Second, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with himself. Christ’s words from John 14:27 refer to this kind of inner peace. He says to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In a recent series of devotions, my friend Malcolm Woody has been dissecting Philippians chapter 4, specifically as the verses relate to the inner peace of the believer. The devotions have driven home to me afresh and anew the fact that inner peace is there for the taking if the believer desires it. But even as I read those devotions each day it didn’t dawn on me that there was one particular area of my life concerning which I didn’t have an inner peace. It wasn’t until my brother Richie pointedly said to me the other day, “You just don’t a peace about you right now,” that I came to grips with the truth of that statement. I feel like the Lord worked through Malcolm’s devotions to set me on a tee and then He worked through Richie to whack me out of the park. Since my conversation with Richie, I’ve really been working hard at accessing the inner peace that I am afforded in Jesus as it relates to that one troublesome area of my life.

Christian, I gave you that bit of personal testimony to let you know that I speak from personal experience when I ask you if your heart is troubled about something right now. Is there some circumstance, some situation, some problem in your life for which you have no inner peace? If there is, you are, as I was, living beneath your privilege because you aren’t abiding in the peace that Jesus has given you. You need to repent of your worrying. You need to give up on trying to control things you can’t control. Most of all, you need to put your complete trust in your sovereign Savior and let His peace well up from inside you and begin to dominate your life as it should. A troubled heart and the peace that Jesus has given you just can’t coexist. We, as Christians, should obey the command of Colossians 3:15 and “let the peace of God rule in our hearts.”

Third, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with others. Ephesians 2:14 plays off the fact that in the Jewish temple there was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the areas that were exclusively for the Jews. The verse says of Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

In Bible times, it would have been impossible to imagine too more different people than the Jew and the Gentile. They were completely different races. They came from radically different backgrounds. They had strikingly different customs. And yet, through Jesus, the Jew and the Gentile could now be at peace with each other. This proves that, through Jesus, the Christian can peaceably get along with others. Jesus Himself says in Mark 9:50, “…have peace with one another.” Hebrews 12:14 chimes right in with that by saying, “…Pursue peace with all people.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, Paul says to the Christians of Thessalonica, “Be at peace among yourselves.”

On the heels of such verses, you know what I’m going to ask you. Are you fighting with someone right now? Is there a person with which you currently are not at peace? If there is, let me encourage you to do all that you can to make peace with them, whoever they are. Remember that in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that His followers (whom He called sons of God) should be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). That means you, Christian. I’ll also quote Paul again here too. In Romans 12:18, he says:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

These words certainly ring true for any time of the year, but surely they ring all the more true for this season of Christmas. How can a Christian properly celebrate the birth of his Savior, the Peace-Giver, if he is at war with a fellow human being? I know, I know, Paul said “If it is possible…”, and maybe you are saying, “It’s just not possible with that person.” Well, maybe it isn’t, and maybe you and that person will never want to climb into a car and take a road-trip together, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t at least do your part to make peace. At the very least, you can stop throwing gasoline onto the fire and making the relationship worse. Ask Jesus to help you to know exactly what to do and what not to do, and trust that He will. Take heart in the fact that peace between yourself and others is one of the kinds of peace that He died to bring you.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Christ's birth, Christmas, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Inner Peace, Personal, Personal Holiness, salvation, The Sermon On The Mount, Trusting In God, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Peace On Earth?

December 22, 2011 3 Comments

What was it that those angels said on the night of Christ’s birth? The New King James Version renders it: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14) That translation simply follows the classic King James Version. Other translations, however, do a better job of conveying the meaning of the original Greek. Consider the following:

-The New America Standard: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

-The New International Version: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

-The Revised Standard Version: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

-The Holman Christian Standard: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!”

In case you are wondering why it’s important to nail down the translation so precisely, it’s because there are those who try to make something of the fact that Christ’s birth really didn’t bring peace on earth. Obviously, there have been untold numbers of wars since His birth, just as there were untold numbers of them before His birth. But as we see in these various other translations of the angels’quote, this argument reads something into the quote that actually isn’t there. The angels weren’t saying that there would be peace on earth. That wrong idea sprang from the inferior translation of the cherished King James Version. If the angels really were saying that Christ’s birth would bring peace on earth, why did Jesus Himself prophesy that the future would bring “wars and rumors of wars” and that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”? (Matthew 24:6-7) Even more than that, why did He flatly say, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword”? (Matthew 10:34)

Still, what we need to understand is that there will come a time when there will be peace on earth, and Jesus will be the cause of it. That time will be His 1,000 year reign upon this earth. Isaiah 2:4 describes it this way:

He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Of course, Christ’s 1,000 year reign isn’t here yet, is it? And according to Bible prophecy, a lot has to happen before it gets here. A detailed list of events and proof texts would go on for pages, but here at least are the major highlights:

-There has to be Christ’s snatching away of His people in what is called the Rapture. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

-There has to be the rise of the Antichrist and his right hand man the False Prophet. (Revelation 13:1-18)

-There has to be a seven-year Tribulation period. (Daniel 9:20-27, Revelation chapters 6 through 18)

-There has to be a battle of Armageddon that climaxes the Tribulation period. (Revelation 16:12-16, 19:19)

-There has to be Christ’s Second Coming to literally walk this earth again and win the battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 19:11-21)

-There has to be the capturing of the Antichrist and the False Prophet and their banishing to the eternal lake of fire. (Revelation 19:20)

-There has to be the binding of Satan and the imprisoning of Him in the bottomless pit for the 1,000 years of Christ’s earthly reign. (Revelation 20:1-3)

-There has to be the great dividing between the living “lost” (those who took the so-called “mark of the beast” during the tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period) from the living “saved” (those who accepted Christ as Savior during the Tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period). (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 13:11-18)

-There has to be Christ’s formal establishing of His Kingdom throne in Jerusalem. (Psalm 2:6-12, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Daniel 2:44)

And so, you see, this world isn’t anywhere near ready for Jesus to reign over it in peace. As a matter of fact, the death tolls that will come from the battles and wars during the Tribulation period will be almost beyond belief (Revelation 6:3-8, 7:9-17, 9:13-19). This isn’t to say, though, that world peace isn’t one day coming. And who will bring it in? Not surprisingly, it will be the One who was born on that starry night so long ago. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Filed under Angels, Christ's birth, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Return, Christmas, Coming Judgment, God's Timing, King James only, Prophecy Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

An Underappreciated Part Of The Gift

December 20, 2011 2 Comments

In Africa a missionary teacher did her best to explain the meaning of the Christmas holiday to her children. As a part of her explanation she told them that Christians give presents to each other at Christmas as a way of symbolizing that God the Father gave mankind the greatest gift of all in Jesus Christ. One boy in particular seemed fascinated by her words.

When Christmas day came, that boy brought the teacher a gift, an extraordinarily beautiful sea shell. When she asked him, “Where did you find such a beautiful shell?” he told her that shells of that kind could only be found in one place, in a bay several miles away. She said, “But you shouldn’t have gone that far just to get a gift for me.” He answered in his broken English, “Long walk part of gift.”

I can’t read that illustration and not think of how Jesus left the glorious splendor of heaven and His throne at the right hand of God the Father to descend down into time, history, and the human race and have an animal’s feeding trough as his first crib. As 2 Corinthians 8:9 puts it:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

And because Jesus was the “gift” in the famous words “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16) I suppose we might loosely say of Him as well, “Long walk part of gift.”

Filed under Christ's birth, Christmas Tagged with , , , , ,

What Two Boys Can Teach Us About Christmas

December 19, 2011 1 Comment

One of my favorite Christmas illustrations is a true story that took place many years ago in Paines Hollow, New York. There was a thirteen-year-old boy who attended Mohawk Central School in that city. One year, at Christmastime, he heard an appeal for contributions to Santa Claus Anonymous, a group that provided gifts for poor children who would otherwise not receive any Christmas presents. The boy truly felt for the underprivileged children and desperately wanted to contribute some money to the cause. So he scrimped and saved wherever he could and managed to come up with fifteen cents to contribute. He figured that it wasn’t much but at least it was something.

But on the last day before school dismissed for Christmas vacation a blizzard buried the area in snow. The buses couldn’t run, which meant that the boy couldn’t get to school to put in his fifteen cents. Undeterred, he made the long walk through the deep snow to personally deliver the money to the school principal. As the principal graciously accepted the meager offering, he could barely hold back the tears in his eyes. You see, that boy was one of the impoverished children on the list to receive a Christmas present from Santa Claus Anonymous.

Last Thursday night our oldest son Ryan had a j.v. basketball game. Tonya and I went to the game, but we left our ten-year-old, Royce, with Tonya’s parents. When we got back, I went and picked up Royce. It wasn’t long before I learned that he had surprises for me, Tonya, and Ryan. He wouldn’t tell me what the surprises were. All I knew was that he had them hidden in a bag. I would have to wait until we got home for the big revealing.

Once we were home, Royce excitedly got us all gathered into the bedroom and began handing out the surprises. They were Christmas ornaments that he had gotten Tonya’s parents to buy when they had taken him to a store that night. Ryan got the ornament that looked like a fish because he loves fishing. Tonya got the one that said “World’s Greatest Mom.” I got the one that had the Bible on it because I am a preacher.

Were these ornaments expensive? No way. We’re not talking Hallmark collectibles here. Had Royce used his own money to pay for them? Not a chance. Grandpa and Grandma wouldn’t hear of him paying for anything! But were those ornaments wonderful? Absolutely. The fact that they came from our little boy’s giving heart made them priceless. I was so proud of him for somehow instinctively understanding something that most of us forget: It is better to give than to receive. By the way, if that sounds familiar, it’s a quote from Jesus. Go read Acts 20:35 for your Christmas homework and let its words keep you in the right spirit this holiday season.

Filed under Attitude, Children, Christmas, giving Tagged with , , , ,

A Little Bit Of Rambling From A Tired Parent

November 29, 2011 Leave a Comment

It’s been a week since I last posted anything. The delay hasn’t been because I’ve run out of anything to say, but rather because I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write. Last week, of course, featured Thanksgiving day and Black Friday. That put the boys home from school, which doesn’t exactly help the writing process. We also had the big family meal at our house Thursday. Wednesday saw a lot of preparation for that and Friday saw a lot of recovering from it. I spent much of Saturday finishing up my Sunday morning sermon, and then yesterday featured a lot of errands topped off with Ryan’s j.v. basketball game.

I could say that it’s a busy time of year, but that would imply that there is one that isn’t busy. When you have two boys who each play three sports, you don’t get an off season. I sometimes find myself looking forward to the time when they’ll be out on their own. Then I have to remind myself that I should be savoring these days when we are all under one roof.

When I take a bird’s eye view of my life, the days of having the boys at home are a relatively small percentage of it. Since Ryan is three-and-a-half years older than Royce, let’s approximate those days at 25 years. Even that is giving both boys credit for checking in at home occasionally while they attend college. (And, yes, I do expect them to go to college.) So if I live to be 75 years old, 25 years would be one-third of my life.

But isn’t it funny how that one-third is intense enough to dwarf the remaining two-thirds? It kind of reminds me of what I said about our big family meal last Thursday. It takes you a while to prepare for it and it takes you a while to recover from it.

Please understand that the last thing I’m doing here is complaining about having kids. Truly, I’m in full agreement with Psalm 127:3-5, which says:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The Fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

I’m merely pointing out the obvious fact that the daily grind of raising kids can wear you down. For example, for Christmas to be a magical season for them, moms and dads have to make it happen. And there’s certainly nothing magical about shopping malls, traffic jams, and spending money, is there?

It’s interesting that those verses from Psalm 127 describe grown children as being both weapons and protectors for their father. The passage refers to them as arrows, which makes them weapons. But what does it mean that they “shall speak with their enemies in the gate”? Well, in Bible times they didn’t have courthouses, law offices, or register of deeds offices. A city’s legal transactions were conducted at its gates by the elders. Disputes were settled there as well. So speaking with an enemy in the gate would have amounted to representing your father in a legal dispute between your father and his enemy. That, you see, covers the idea of children playing the role of protectors.

I have to say that I like the sounds of all that. When I’m older I’ll no doubt need not only some weaponry but also some protection, and these will be two of my rewards for doing a good job at child-rearing. Until then, though, I’m still looking at a lot of work and expense. Are there joys and blessings along the way? Sure, far more than I could name. I mean, it’s not like everything about the task falls under the category of “grind.” And, furthermore, I fully understand that my responsibilities as a parent won’t end when the boys leave home. Trust me, I have no plans to abandon them when they get to be adults. I guess today I’m just feeling a little run down. I probably need a vacation. It would do me and Tonya some good to get away for a while. Then again, the last vacation we took we had Ryan and Royce right there with us in the van. Oh well, forget that.

Filed under Aging, Children, Christmas, Fatherhood, Parenting, Personal, Reward, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized, Work Tagged with , , , , ,

Take The Christmas Quiz

December 23, 2009 Leave a Comment

Here are 20 questions (actually 21) that come out of the Bible’s Christmas story. I gave this quiz to the folks at my church. You take it and see how you do. Each question is worth 5 points and the extra credit question is worth 10. The answers are given after the last question.

# 1. On what day was Jesus born?

a. January 1st

b. July 4th

c. we can’t be sure of the exact date

d. December 25

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#2. Joseph and Mary lived in what city?

a. Dallas, Texas

b. Nazareth

c. Capernaum

d. Jerusalem

———————————————————————————-

#3. In what city was Jesus born?

a. Bethlehem

b. we can’t be sure of the exact city

c. Miami, Florida

d. Nazareth

———————————————————————————-

#4. Why were Joseph and Mary in that city?

a. they lived there

b. it was the closest place with a doctor

c. it was where their donkey broke down

d. they had to be registered for taxation purposes

———————————————————————————-

#5. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, what was the relationship between Joseph and Mary?

a. they were husband and wife

b. Mary was betrothed to be Joseph’s wife

c. they were brother and sister

d. they had dated in college

———————————————————————————-

#6. What was so unique about Mary giving birth to Jesus?

a. she was still a virgin

b. she rode to the hospital in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer

c. she was 70 years old at the time

d. she thought she was giving birth to a girl

———————————————————————————-

#7. What is our best guess as to the specific site of Christ’s birth?

a. a tavern

b. an inn

c. a shopping mall

d. a stall, stable, or cave where livestock were kept

———————————————————————————-

#8. Not long after Jesus was born, what did Mary wrap Him in?

a. her family quilt

b. a new blanket from Babies ’R Us

c. cloths

d. the sheet from the bed

———————————————————————————-

#9. Once Mary had wrapped Jesus up, where did she lay Him?

a. in the backseat of her car

b. in an animal’s feeding trough

c. in a crib that Joseph had built

d. on some straw on the ground

———————————————————————————-

#10. Who were the first people to hear that Jesus had been born?

a. some shepherds in a nearby field

b. the people who helped with the birth

c. Mary’s parents

d. the little drummer boy and his animals

———————————————————————————-

#11. How did they hear that Jesus had been born?

a. they heard a baby’s cry and followed the sound

b. it was a news broadcast that interrupted “It’s A Wonderful Life”

c. they were there on scene when He was born

d. an angel suddenly appeared to them and told them

———————————————————————————-

#12. Once they had found baby Jesus, what did they do with the news of His birth?

a. they kept quite about it because they were afraid

b. they went and told a lot of people in the surrounding area

c. they sold the scoop to the National Enquirer for $100

d. they only talked about it amongst themselves

———————————————————————————-

#13. Then what did they do?

a. they went back to what they had been doing before

b. they sold all their possessions to follow Jesus

c. they began to doubt what they had seen

d. they wrote a Christmas hymn about their experience

———————————————————————————-

#14. When did the wise men come to see Jesus?

a. when they had earned enough money to make the trip

b. at least several months after his birth, possibly even two years

c. when they got laid off from their jobs and had some spare time

d. the night of His birth

———————————————————————————-

#15. How many wise men were there?

a. three

b. none, any woman can tell you that no man is all that wise

c. twelve

d. the Bible doesn’t tell us

———————————————————————————-

#16. Where was Jesus when the wise men found Him?

a. working at WalMart

b. lying in a manger

c. in Mary’s arms

d. in a house

———————————————————————————-

#17. What gifts did the wise men bring to Jesus?

a. gold, frankincense, and myrrh

b. a Playstation III, an X Box, and a laptop

c. a shepherd’s staff, a sling, and a pouch

d. a white stallion, a king’s robe, and a crown

———————————————————————————-

#18. What was the occupation of the wise men?

a. they were shepherds

b. they were astrologers who studied the stars and natural sciences

c. they operated a chain of Christmas tree lots across the land

d. they were kings

———————————————————————————-

#19. What is our best guess as to where the wise men lived?

a. the city of Jerusalem

b. the city of Rome

c. the Babylon-Persia region

d. Los Angeles, California

———————————————————————————-

#20. The star that prompted the wise men to begin their journey was seen in what part of the sky?

a. the section directly over Santa’s workshop at the North Pole

b. the west

c. the south

d. the east

———————————————————————————-

(extra credit question): We find the Christmas story in what parts of the Bible?

A. the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)

B. the gospels of Matthew and Luke

C. the table of contents

D. the books of Genesis and The Revelation

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answers:

1.c     2.b (Luke 2:4)     3.a (Luke 2:4-5)     4.d (Luke 2:1-5)

5.b (Luke 2:4-5)     6.a (Matthew 1:18,22-25)     7.d (Luke 2:7)

8.c (Luke 2:7)     9.b (Luke 2:7)     10.a (Luke 2:8)  

11.d (Luke 2:9-14)     12.b (Luke 2:15-18)     13.a (Luke 2:20)

14.b (Matthew 2:16)   15.d (Matthew 2:1)  16.d (Matthew 2:11a)    

17.a (Matthew 2:11)     18.b (Matthew 2:2)    

19.c (Matthew 2:1; they lived in a land east of Jerusalem)

20.b (Matthew 2:2; they were in the east and followed the star west toward Jerusalem and Bethlehem)    

extra credit question: b

Filed under Bible Study, Christ's birth, Christmas, Christmas Traditions Tagged with , , , , , ,

Logic Demands That We Believe In The Virgin Birth

December 16, 2009 1 Comment

(Post 3 of a series of 3)

We’ve been in a series of posts on the matter of why we should believe in the virgin birth. With the two previous posts, we’ve learned that we should believe in the virgin birth because scripture and Bible prophecy demand it. Now, with this third and last post, we’re going to see that logic also demands it.

Can you name the problem with any man fathering a child? It’s the fact that a sinner can only produce another sinner. This has been the tragic, vicious cycle that mankind has been in since the moment Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and became a sinner.

When Adam impregnated Eve that first time, perhaps he hoped that the baby would not bear the marks of his sin. Sadly, though, it surely wasn’t too long into Cain’s life before Adam realized how ruined his race was. Cain came complete with the inborn nature of a sinner, and that meant that Cain, like his mother and father, was marked for death.

The Bible plainly teaches that sin brings death, and so the moment Cain was born the clock began ticking on his mortality. But it wasn’t just Cain who was born as a sinner ultimately headed for a grave. All of Adam’s other sons and daughters shared in this same fate because they were all products of their daddy’s sin-tainted seed. Then, of course, as Adam’s sons grew up one by one, they themselves took wives and fathered children. But all of those children (Adam’s grandchildren) were born sinners as well.

And so it went, on and on, down through the ages. Why? Because it is an irrevocable, unchangeable fact that a sinner can only father another sinner. Romans 5:12 puts it this way: “just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned.”

Now, it is with this in mind that I want you to put yourself in the place of God. You’ve got to get a Savior into this world, a Savior who will die for all the sins of the world. To die for those sins that Savior must Himself be completely without sin.

But how could any baby be born into the human race without passing through and coming under the taint of sin? How could a sinless child be conceived in a mother’s womb when every potential father on planet Earth was a sinner? I’ll tell you how: the virgin birth.

The man in the male-female, biological relationship would have to bypassed altogether. And that’s just what God did. Luke 1:35 lets us see as far as we can see into the mystery of the virgin birth. That verse says: “And the angel (Gabriel) answered and said to her (Mary), ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

You see, there had to be something miraculous and supernatural about Christ’s birth. He simply couldn’t be the seed of Joseph and yet still be sinless and perfect. As fine a man as Joseph was, he was defective material. He was a sinner, a sinner who could only father another sinner. That’s why Christ’s birth had to be different. Really, when you come at it from a doctrinal standpoint, the virgin birth was only logical.

Filed under Christ's birth, Christmas, Virgin Birth Tagged with , , , , , ,

Bible Prophecy Demands That We Believe In The Virgin Birth

December 16, 2009 Leave a Comment

(Post 2 of a series of 3)

This is the second post in a three-part series on why we should believe in Christ’s virgin birth. With the first post, I explained that we should believe in the virgin birth because scripture demands it. With this one I want to show that we should believe in it because Bible prophecy demands it.

In Matthew 1:22-23, Matthew weaves an Old Testament prophecy into his God-inspired writing. He writes: “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’which is translated, ‘God with us.’”

This prophecy was given by the prophet Isaiah some 700 years before Jesus was born. We find the story in Isaiah chapter 7. The Lord instructed Ahaz, the king of Judah (Israel’s two southern tribes), to ask for a sign as proof that the allied forces of Syria and Israel (Israel’s ten northern tribes) would not invade and conquer Judah. God said the sign could be anything on earth or in the heavens. Ahaz, however, refused to name a sign. His problem was that he had pretty much already set his heart on getting his help from another group of people, the Assyrians.

The Lord was displeased with Ahaz’s refusal, and He went ahead and named a sign anyway. God said, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” That is the part of the prophecy that Matthew quotes in his gospel.

However, for the rest of the prophecy, God went on to say other things about the child. First, the child would eat curds and honey. Second, before the child would be old enough to know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the kings of Syria and Israel would meet their doom and the king of Assyria would invade the land of Judah.

There is much debate as to how God’s sign actually played out in the life of King Ahaz. It seems clear, though, that if the sign was only fulfilled in Christ’s birth that wouldn’t have been any sign to Ahaz. After all, Ahaz lived centuries before Jesus was born.

Therefore, the sign surely had some kind of partial fulfillment in Ahaz’s time. Perhaps a virgin that Ahaz knew got married shortly after God gave this sign. Perhaps then the newly married virgin got pregnant by her husband and gave birth to a son in less than a year. Some even contend that the woman was Isaiah’s second wife, his first wife having died.

Frankly, we just don’t know the exact details of how God’s sign played out to King Ahaz. What we do know is how the sign was ultimately and perfectly fulfilled. Matthew leaves no doubt about that. That final fulfillment came when Jesus was born to the virgin Mary.

And here again we see in the careful wording of the Old Testament text that Mary was a virgin when she bore Jesus. The Hebrew word that is used to define the young mother in the Isaiah passage is almah. This word comes from the root word alam, which means “to hide or conceal.” This shows us that the word specifically refers to a virgin. One writer has said: “The name was given to a virgin because she is said to be hidden or concealed in the family of the parents.” And so, based upon Matthew’s use of the prophetic passage from Isaiah, we can say assuredly that Bible prophecy demanded the virgin birth.

Before we move on, though, let me tell you about another prophecy that Christ’s birth fulfilled. This one goes all the way back to the garden of Eden. According to Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden, God said to Satan (who was inside the serpent at the time), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He (her Seed) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

What jumps out at us as we read this prophecy is the strange idea of a woman having reproductive seed. That isn’t the way the human reproductive system works, is it? So why did God prophesy to Satan about the Seed of the woman?

He did it as a way of telling Satan about the virgin birth. Thousands of years from that fateful day, Jesus (the One who would strike a blow to Satan’s head) would be conceived in the womb of a virgin. He wouldn’t be the product of the seed of a man; He would be history’s only seed of a woman. This is why that Genesis 3:15 prophecy is called “the first gospel.” And that prophecy, along with the one from Isaiah chapter 7, is undeniable proof that we should believe in the virgin birth because Bible prophecy demands it.

Filed under Bible Study, Christ's birth, Christmas, Prophecy, Virgin Birth Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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