The Christmas Story

About 2,000 years ago, in a culture where having a baby out of wedlock was absolutely unacceptable, a young teenaged girl who loved the Lord with all her heart found herself pregnant. She was unmarried although engaged to a man who she loved very much. When it came time for her to give birth to the baby, she could not find anywhere to give birth in privacy. At her wit's end and in labor, she and her husband found a stable. It was small and dirty. And smelled a lot like the dirty animals that lived in it, but it was warm enough and provided enough privacy. There in that stable on a cold and clear night in Bethlehem, a girl much younger I am, gave birth to a son. Like many girls, Mary probably thought a lot about what it would be like when she got married and had kids. I bet she never imagined the birth of her first child like that. In the midst of a bunch of barn animals and manure. She probably thought her mom would be with her. She probably thought her baby would be born in the same room she had been born in. Most of all, I bet she really didn't count on being the mother of God's son. But she loved God. She was no one special. Just like me and you. She had flaws and bad days and her hair got messed up and she got stressed out. She was normal. And yet God used her to give birth to His son, and He grew up to save the world. If God can use Moses, a murderer and a runaway, to set an entire race free, if he can use Abraham, an old man whose wife was barren in her old age to be the father of nations, if he can use Paul, an enemy of Christ as the first recognized missionary and author of nearly half the bible, He can use YOU. He can use YOU to change someone's world. Make them smile. Give them something to eat. Teach them about a God who loves them and give them back the hope in their life. He wants to use each of us for an AMAZING purpose, and all of it is centered around REDEMPTION that came through a baby boy born to a virgin in a stable. Be encouraged today that God's plan for your life is not mediocre. It is GOOD and it is EXCITING, and even if you are totally and completely nothing out of the ordinary, He can use you to do incredible things that you would not believe. Merry Christmas to all!

Parents, if you teach your children ONE thing.....

Teach them to think about others. Teach them that justice is not an option, it's a commandment. Teach them that the righteous anger of God is REAL and that the same Jesus who overturned tables in the temple when He was displeased with what He saw in His Father's house is coming again to overturn our tables. Our obsession with wealth and comfortable lives. We have taken what rightfully belongs to the poor and have given it to ourselves.

"The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?" - Isaiah 3:13-15

No, the best day of my life wasn't at a concert or a party or a crazy night out with my best friends, the worst thing I've experienced was not breaking up with the "love of my life" when I was 16, and my summer breaks were rarely spent relaxing by the pool or shopping all day at the mall. The hardest thing I've ever done was not win a cheer competition or take my school's football team to state championships. The best day of my life was spent in a dirty little room with a dying child, the worst thing I experienced (and still experience every single day) was the anxiety of knowing the life the children I loved so dearly were destined for if someone did not step in and make sure they didn't become another statistic of prostitution and drug abuse. My summer breaks were spent raising money to spend a little bit of time in destitute places just hoping that my presence somehow made an impact and the hardest thing I ever did was peel myself away from a precious baby girl who was fast asleep in my arms, knowing that I would never see her again on this side of eternity, and that I could only PRAY that I would see her in the next.

When we commit our lives to Christ, we are committing ourselves to a life of heartache. The Jesus of the bible didn't promise us that walking out a life with Him and His Father was going to be an easy road filled with nice stained glass buildings to look at along the way, He only promised that in everything, darkness would last for a night, but joy would come in the morning. Making God our rock is not an option if we want to spend eternity with Him. And because it is not an option, doing what He bids His children to do is not an option either.

"For this is what the high and lofty One says- He who lives forever, whose name is holy: 'I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.'....I was enraged by his sinful greed, I punished him and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways, I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort of him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners (in Israel)." Isaiah 57:15, 17-18 NIV

"The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit; you will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God" Psalm 51:17 NLT

For all the MOMS reading this post, I beg you to teach your children these things. The most important thing they will ever learn in their lives is how to press their ear against the heart of God and hear what He cries over, what He rejoices over, and what strikes a righteous anger into His being. It shows them more of who He is, and who they are supposed to be, it enables them to hear His voice and to use their gifts and talents to do something great in the world for the name of our savior.