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She rode into town on a donkey, nine months pregnant. Her husband hadn’t wanted to make this trip, but it was a commandment by the government that each family go to the town of their ancestry to pay taxes, and since Joseph was a descendant of David, they had to go to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was normally a tiny town, but with the influx of taxpayers, all the inns were full. Joseph must have knocked on every door in Bethlehem trying to find a place to spend the night.

Mary knew somehow that she would have the baby tonight, even though this was her first child. Within hours of the time that Joseph found them a place to stay in the stable, Mary delivered her first-born son, the baby Jesus.

As she held him in her arms, her mind went back to the day the angel Gabriel appear to her and said, “Behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. “ Luke 1:31

Jesus, what a precious name. Yet there were many men in Israel named Jesus, a common name, also called Joshua.

Jesus is the English version of the Greek word, “Iesous,” pronounced ‘ee-ay-sous’.

The Hebrew word Jesus, or Joshua means ‘Jehovah is salvation.’

Joshua in the Old Testament was a type of Jesus. He led the people of Israel, those who would follow him, over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, while Jesus led His People, those who accept Him as Savior and follow Him, into the Promised Land of salvation.

Yes, there might even have been other men named Jesus who lived in Israel, there is even one mentioned in the Bible, but there was only one Jesus who was born to a virgin Mary in Bethlehem that night, to fulfill the many prophecies of the Old Testament and the words of the angel Gabriel, the messenger angel sent from God.

There was only one Jesus who died on the cross for me and for you. It is Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, son of God, Emmanuel God with us, the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, Christ the Lord.

 

 

 

GOOD MEAL WITH THE LORD

The turkey is stuffed into the frig and the pumpkin bread that didn’t rise has been tossed out. We’re already wondering if we should diet between Thanksgiving and Christmas or just keep wracking up the calorie-count until New Year’s Day.

Daddy always complained, when we were getting ready to go fishing, “Why do you women always turn everything into a picnic? We’re only going fishing. Why do you women think everything revolves around food?”

All through the Bible we find stories involving a meal. Abraham entertained the 3 angels of God with a meal of beef, bread and butter, and milk to drink.

Hundreds of years later, the Israelites in Egypt were told by God to roast a lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, the night of the first Passover, when God was preparing them to leave Egypt, where they were slaves. They were told to eat it all with their shoes on, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

All along the way on their journey across the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, God provided for them, with fresh water and manna, the great heavenly food, and quail for meat. The Promised Land was described as a land that flows with milk and honey.

In the New Testament, Jesus often entertained. On two different occasions, Jesus fed thousands of people with 5 loafs of bread and 2 fish. Even the night that He was betrayed, Jesus had a banquet dinner for his 12 disciples, serving bread and wine.

Jesus told His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19. Jesus gave us a commandment that we should continue the practice of sharing bread and drink in His name, until He returns.

Then in Acts, after the first church was established, the disciples gathered together often.

“And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread [including the Lord’s supper] and prayer.” Acts 2:42 AMP.

Some of the most important events in the Bible were centered around a meal.

 

I stepped outside the front door of my mother’s home to carry out the trash, and heard the sound of kids playing, something I hadn’t heard in that neighborhood in longer than I can remember. Looking up the street to where some new folks had moved in, I saw the kids in the backyard playing some form of ball game.

It made me think back to when my kids were small. Along with my sister’s and brother’s kids, we had 8 kids around all the time. They loved to stay with Granny and play all around her house, inside and out, and off down on the creek.

When we were kids, in the 1950s, there were 4 kids in our family, 1 girl next door north, and 4 kids next door south, plus many others. Right there within a block were 23 kids besides ourselves.

When Chester wanted to start a baseball game, he didn’t have to go very far to find enough people to make up two teams, and fill all the bases, and plenty more to watch the game.

There have been a few families who lived on that block within the last 10 years, but mostly it is older people,

Reminds me also of so many churches where the average age of members is 40, and very few if any children in the congregation. As the church membership gets older, the church begins to die until most of the members are gone to heaven.

This is a serious problem in the American churches, as a whole. There is no one way to fix the problem, but I know that God has the answer.

Jesus told His disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” Matthew 28:19-20 KJV.

One thing I notice is that just like ball teams, only so many people can be on each team, and then the rest of the people just stand around and watch what is going on.

Maybe it’s time to get the people out of the bleachers and start a new team.

 

 

 

I’ll never forget the navy-and-white polka dot blouse I bought in 1976 to wear with my crisp white polyester slack pants. I really don’t know how I looked in that outfit, but I felt like a million bucks. Of course, that was back in my much-younger days, when I was in better shape than now.

When I first started working for the phone company we had to wear dresses to work as telephone operators, but by the mid-70s we were allowed to wear dress pants, but not jeans. Those were the days when we wore our polyester pantsuits for work.

During the time I was divorced, before I remarried, I remember telling one boyfriend, “If you’re looking for a blue-jeans, tee shirt girl, you’ve got the wrong one.” However by the end of my career with the phone company in 2003, my “uniform” was blue jeans and tee shirts.

Sometimes I wish I still had some of those favorite pieces of clothing, but they wouldn’t fit me and I’m sure they would have worn out in those 37 years since then.

Remember the scripture about the children of Israel who came out of Egyptian bondage and walked 40 years in the wilderness? The Lord reminded them, in Deuteronomy 8:4 NIV, “Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.” God made sure that out in the desert where there was no place to buy more clothes, the Israelites always had good clothes to wear. I’m sure they got tired of wearing the same old clothes every day, day after day, for 40 years.

God has great things for us today, even better than what He provided for the Israelites.

 “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness,” Isaiah 61:10.

Those garments I’ll never grow tired of, or outgrow, or wear out.

Years after graduating high school, I have had dreams of showing up on the first day of junior high school, not knowing where my classrooms were, and wandering the maze of halls of the old three-story Vinita High School trying to find my classroom.

In my dream, I opened door after door to find class in progress, students and teachers staring blankly at me as my face flushed a bright red in embarrassment. By the time, I found my class and slipped into the last chair, the bell would ring to indicate the end of class.

We pre-enrolled in the spring, then went to the school a few days before school started to pick up our schedule. I lingered over it, memorizing every class, down to the last detail—time, room number, teacher. I spent hours with my friends, comparing schedules and wishing we could change it so we could all have the same classes together. We wanted to all be the same, same hair, same clothes, same classes, same friends. Junior high is all about fitting in.

 Things changed when Vinita High School Graduation Day came. One day we were all alike, but the day after graduation, we were each one of a kind. I was on my own, off to college, and then too soon, I dropped out and got married. When things were rough, a sick baby, bills to be paid and not enough money to pay them all, my dream recurred. 

Sometimes I dream of heaven. I walked through my Victorian mansion, with dark woods, a massive fireplace surrounded by walls and walls of books. I walked up the broad wooden staircase, into an open room with windows all around, looking out over a lovely park, where children run and play, and a window seat where I could sit and read for hours.

We can’t return to childhood, even if we want to, but we can go to a place where we are accepted and love and valued.

Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am there you may be also.” John14:2-3. NKJV

Heaven is not a dream, it is real.

 

What do you do the day after a great holiday? You get up and go back to work, so that’s what Peter did.

They’d had a glorious Easter Sunday evening church service.

Jesus had died on the cross, and was dead and buried for three days, but on a glorious Sunday morning, He rose from the dead.

That evening, all the disciples except Thomas were gathered together when Jesus appeared to them.

“Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” John 21:22, and at that moment, the disciples were born again, but Jesus didn’t stay with them this time like He always had in the past. Too soon, He was gone.

Monday came, and Peter told his fellow fishermen, “I’m going fishing.” Peter went right back to his old job, because without Jesus with him every day, Peter didn’t think he knew how to do anything else.

They fished all night.  Dawn broke and there stood Jesus on the beach. He called out, “Boys, did you catch any fish? Do you have anything to eat with your bread?” They said, “No!”

Jesus said, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat,” and they caught so many they couldn’t haul them all in.

Peter jumped off and swam to shore. When he got there, Jesus had a fire, and fish and bread ready to eat.

While they sat around the campfire after breakfast, Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him more than the fish and fishing.

And then Jesus spoke the same two words that he had spoken to Peter when he called him to be his disciple three and a half years before. “Follow Me.” John 21:19.

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

 Nothing had changed. The call was still the same.

 You might have to go back to the same job on Easter Monday, but you don’t have to go back to the same old lifestyle. Let Easter Sunday change you, any Sunday of the year.

Let Jesus breath the Holy Spirit on you too. Hear Jesus calling you today, “Follow me.”