Devotional In his book, An Angel’s Story, Max Lucado imagines the scene at the Inn in Bethany when Mary and Joseph arrive. “But don’t you have just one room?” Joseph pleaded “To be honest, I did. But only moments ago a large delegation arrived and took every last bed. I don’t have a place for you and your wife.” Joseph tried to be patient, but his jaw was tightening. He leaned forward so his face was inches from the innkeepers. “See that lady in the cart?” he asked through his teeth. “She is my wife. She could deliver any minute. She nearly had the baby this afternoon in a wagon. She is in pai ..read more

Devotional The prophet Micah prophesied 700 years before the birth of Christ that he would be born in Bethlehem. Have you ever thought about the fact that God caused a worldwide census to be taken by the emperor of Rome so that the two people He had foreordained as Jesus’ parents had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem? Lineage was an important part of God’s design for the family of His Son, and Scripture lists Joseph’s family tree in both Matthew and Luke. Jesus came from the royal line of King David. Most of us read the words of the Christmas story in Luke without giving them a second thoug ..read more

Devotional To understand Joseph’s perspective of the Christmas narrative, we need to understand the customs surrounding betrothals/marriages of the time. In biblical times, people were married in their early youth, and marriages were usually contracted within the narrow circle of the clan and the family. Interpreting their “betrothal” as a modern-day “engagement” would be wrong. The Jewish custom in that time period involved a two-stage marriage: first, a legal contract of marriage, followed later by a party with the husband taking his wife into his home. This is shown in the Gospels: Joseph l ..read more

Devotional Gabriel shows up a third time in the Christmas narrative, this time to reassure Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, that she was not unfaithful to him but was carrying the Son of God. It was the first of two times Gabriel would reassure Mary’s not-so-sure husband.   What’s an angel to do? Joseph was a godly man – he was faithful to the law. He could have publicly humiliated Mary for her infidelity, but he chose to do what was easier on Mary and “divorce her quietly.” How is Gabriel going to convince this very honorable man that Mary was a woman of honor too, even though things didn’t loo ..read more

Devotional Imagine the delight and joy in the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth! Not only would they become parents after decades of despair and disbelief, but they would parent the last of the Old Testament prophets and a forerunner of the Messiah. Can you imagine? Elizabeth could have complained that God waited too long. She could have thought that it would be harder to raise a child. She could have decided that she no longer wanted a child. She could have even balked at the plans God had for her child’s life. But she didn’t do any of those things. Rather, she turned and offered her praise ba ..read more

Devotional The Old Testament ends with this verse from the book of Malachi:   See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents. (Malachi 4:5-6)   Why is that important? Because after that, God goes silent…for 400 years! No prophets, no angels, no word at all. If you know the Christmas story well, it’s easy to shrug and just move on when you hear about an angel appearing – they’re synonymous with Christmas after all. However, angels ..read more

Devotional The first time we hear about an angel called Gabriel is in the book of Daniel, an angel sent by God in answer to Daniel’s prayer that was delayed for three weeks due to fighting with the devil. It took the Archangel Michael to break him free. Then we don’t hear about him again until Luke Chapter 1 as he retells the original Christmas story. Gabriel had a huge task that first Christmas, and it began six months before the birth of Christ when he was sent to visit a simple priest in Jerusalem. The task that day should have been simple – he was to tell Zechariah that his prayer for a ch ..read more

Devotional As we celebrate this season looking through the eyes of all the characters of Christmas, there is none so unlikely to be at the center of this divine story as Mary. As a young, poor woman (guesstimates are she was around 14 or 15), she wasn’t looking for prominence. She was simply living out an ordinary life in an ordinary town with unassuming dreams. She was all set to marry humbly, give birth to many children, and never travel far from home. She could be described as a nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere.   Then, out of nowhere, this angelic being appears and te ..read more

Devotional Have you ever wondered what the angel who carried God’s message to the world thought about that task? Gabriel was the angel chosen by God to tell: ● Zechariah that he and his wife would have a son who would prepare the way for God ● Mary that she would mother Christ ● Joseph that he should not be offended by Mary’s pregnancy and marry her anyway ● The shepherds that their Savior was born and encourage them to tell the world ● Joseph again, to take his child, the son of God, to Egypt to avoid being slaughtered by a king Those are challenging circumstances and very difficult messages ..read more

THE SET UP As we wrap up our summer in the book of Luke, I want to encourage you to reflect on what you have learned about the life of Jesus and His church this summer. There are so many unlikely heroes in Luke’s gospel, and there are so many instances where Jesus blew people’s expectations out of the water by showing them how much God loved them and how the Gospel, which means “Good News” is for everyone. Jesus is still saying, “All in” to people today. And as the church we get to be a part of sharing that message and opening our lives to people in our community, no matter what neighborhood ..read more