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Mary

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[Read Luke 1:46-55 ] And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. Mary’s story is quite amazing. She was nobody special. Yet, this young girl was chosen by God to bear the Savior of the world. Her pregnancy must have caused quite a stir in her family – enough for her to leave town and go see Aunt Elizabeth in the hill country. When Elizabeth, herself pregnant with John the Baptist, saw Mary, the babe in her womb leapt for joy. And Mary responded in song. The song she sang is so in keeping with her character – praising God for recognizing and having favor on someone like her of humble means. What an amazing insight into the God of all creation. That the all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God sees those whom the rest of the world looks past. When Jesus came to us that first Christmas morning, he signaled to a world of the unknown and forgotten, the broken and abused, the hungry and hurting, that ...
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Joseph

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[Read Matthew 1:18-25 ] But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” God chose Mary for her special assignment as the mother of our Lord Jesus. The angel Gabriel told her what would happen. But God did not let Joseph in on the plan. Certainly, God could have told them both in advance, but he did not. Instead, in the course of time, Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, and he was put in the terrible position of having to decide what to do. He had in mind to break off their engagement quietly and sensitively. We can only imagine the confusion and pain Joseph felt. He loved Mary. He loved God. He wanted to do what was right but was not at all sure what was right. Joseph was a good man, a faithful man, and yet God did not bail Joseph out right away. He let Joseph struggle and come to a decision he thought was the rig...
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Zerubbabel

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[Read Haggai 1:12-15 ] Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel…with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. One of the blessings of the Christmas season is the anticipation of time spent closely with family and friends. Due to world circumstances many will spend a very different Christmas this year. Yet there is good reason to keep good cheer! Zerubbabel was the ruler of Judah when the Jews began returning to their ancestral land after captivity in Babylon. He led his people during very difficult economic and social times, with a huge task of uniting his people under true worship by restoring the Temple of God. When Haggai, the Lord’s prophet, confronts Zerubbabel and Joshua, the High Priest, with God’s Word and decree to rebuild, they immediately render themselves over to God’s plan. That is when the Haggai delivered this powerful word from God to them, “I am...
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Josiah

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[Read 2 Chronicles 35:1-3 ]  Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. It was a scene that could have happened in Imperial Rome, a king assassinated by close advisors, his young son thrust onto the throne. Such was the story of Josiah, son of Amon, King of Judah, the last remaining lands of the once great Davidic Kingdom. The nation was a mess. Solomon's Temple was in a state of disrepair, and the people were divided, worshipping false gods. The king started small, directing that Temple funds be used to repair the building. It was in that process that a long-lost scroll of the Law was “discovered.” Today, scholars believe that scroll was Deuteronomy, and while this seems a minor incident in the scope of the Hebrew story, it set off a national and theological reform with consequences to this day, responsible for historical books that tell us the story of that people, influencing the Prophet Jeremiah. Josiah consulted the great proph...
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Manasseh

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[Read 2 Chronicles 33:10-13 ] And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. Most people know Darth Vader as a bad guy. For many of us, the first time we saw him he choked a guy by lifting him off the ground, captured the princess, and killed Ben Kenobi. He’s the ultimate evil. Until Episode 6 winds down, and he makes a noble choice, ridding the galaxy of the Emperor and saving his son. At that moment, you cheer for the former bad guy who had a change of heart. We forgive his wrongs, right before he dies. Manasseh was a man whose story is marked by evil. He’s ridiculously bad. 2 Chronicles 33:6 says, “He burned his sons as an offering…” in the valley of Gehenna, which Jesus uses in the New Testament to descr...
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A Season of Peace

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[Read Colossians 3:12-13 ] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. The focus for the fourth week of Advent is peace. And as you make your final preparations for Christmas, your level of peace might be low and your stress levels high. Last minute gift shopping, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, and the like become the tasks we need to complete. And if you’re attending a family gathering, you might be anxious about family tensions. In these final days of Advent, St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians tells us how we should live our lives. He says, “Put on…compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience.” How have you done that during these weeks leading up to Christmas? You might have been compassionate when you gave a gift to someone in need. You were kind when you answered a stranger’s question at the store. Waiting in line at the check-out line without grumbling was an act of pat...
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Hezekiah

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[Read 2 Kings 19:14-19 ] O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone. “Holy Hezekiah!” That’s written in the margin of my Bible next to 2 Kings 18:3. The Batman-like exclamation is not meant to be trite. Righteous kings were a rare phenomenon in Hebrew history. Just as God warned the people through his prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 8), power and wealth would prove too potent a temptation for most of the men who ascended to the Jewish throne. Unfortunately, the people would pay dearly for their overwhelming desire to be like their neighbors. But just when you are tempted to believe all is lost for this chosen nation, God raised up Hezekiah. At 25 years old, he got busy for God…shutting down counterfeit religions and reopening the temple. His ascent was a like a comet in a dark Mideastern sky. His father was evil, and his son would prove to be really evil. But in the precious ...
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