christmas story

  • Celebrating The Christmas Women | A Middle-Aged Woman

    Christmas WomenFor the next 3 weeks before Christmas, I’m going to release 3 posts Celebrating The Christmas Women.  I really wanted to title this series: The Teenager, A Middle-Aged Woman, and The Senior Citizen I Want to Be Like, but I thought it was a little long 🙂

    Parts of these posts I shared in a message at Christmas events.  There’s just so much to the lives of these women that I can’t get away from their stories and how it relates to the birth of Christ.  I want to share these snippets of their stories with you so you can see the hope of Christmas, our hope in Christ as we learn from these women and begin to model the character they lived.

    Each of these women were:

    CARRIERS – OF THE PROMISE & PRESENCE OF GOD

    All three of these women carried inside of them the promise of their savior, the Messiah.  The Christmas women all spent time in the presence of God so, when God’s promises were present in their lives they immediately recognized them.  Each woman’s life in the Christmas story affected people around them as they pointed the world to Christ.

    These three believed in the promises of God and trusted in God’s timing.  It’s my greatest desire to be like the Christmas Women, to carry inside of me the promise and the presence of God. I want my life to affect others so they look to Christ, to live out a strong faith, believing in His promises with a confident trust in His timing to fulfill them.

    It’s my prayer, that by the end of this series you want to be like these women too.

    So let’s begin our Christmas Festivities,

    Celebrating the Women of The Christmas Story! 

    The first woman in the Christmas story…Jesus’ Story…is actually: 

    THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN 

    Christmas Women - Middle-Aged 

     

    When Zechariah’s week of service in the Temple was over, he returned home.  Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months.  “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.”
                                                                             Luke 1:23-25  NLT

    Luke starts his gospel account starting with the record of a couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth and he tells us this couple was old, that was his way of saying Elizabeth was passed the age of child-bearing. One day while working in the temple, an angel tells Z that Elizabeth his wife is going to have a child, and not just any child.

    Their child would be the one prophesied about in Malachi 4:6.  He wast to be the forerunner for the Messiah.

    “And he will go on before the Lord…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (NIV)

    It’s pretty clear from Z’s reaction that he had long since given up on the dream to have a child before the angel came to meet him at work.  Z didn’t believe and as a sign from God that God could do what He said, Z was unable to speak for 9 months, until the birth of his son.

    ELIZABETH

    On the other hand, Elizabeth immediately believed and because of her faith, Elizabeth carried John the Baptist; the one who would prepare the way for the Christ, in her womb.  Elizabeth protected the promise of God inside of her by staying secluded for 5 months, she took extra precautions to make sure the promise of God inside of her was able to grow and mature.  Elizabeth didn’t let anyone talk her out of her promise from God.  She didn’t allow anything to stop it from being birthed.

    Be like Elizabeth…
    Protect the promise of God in your life. Luke 1:24

    This Christmas, think about the promises God has given you as a believer in His Word and the one’s He’s given to you personally.  Protect those promises.  Give them room to grow in your heart, your mind, and in your life so you can see them birthed like the baby, John The Baptist.

    ELIZABETH CARRIED THE PROMISE & THE PRESENCE OF GOD…I WANT TO DO THE SAME #ChristmasWomen

    Prayer

    Father…I thank You for all the promises in Your Word and for speaking directly to me.  Help me to put a shield around your promises so they will have room grow so I’m able to carry them to full-term; watching Your promises be fulfilled in Your timing.    In Jesus Name…Amen

    Soul H2O Radio & Podcast Christmas Series

    Cheryl Nembhard

    During the Christmas season, were running The Brave Christmas & Christian Women Series.  Episode 48 is Part1 of The Brave Middle-Aged Christmas Woman & Brave Cheryl. In This Series, were Celebrating The Women of The Christmas Story and a few of their contemporary counterparts.  

    Now, I know we’re supposed to focus on Jesus and we will be but I think it’s good to take some time and recognize the impact some of these brave women had in the Christmas narrative and in our world today. I know you’re going to be inspired by my friend, Cheryl Nembhard. She’s a TV & Podcast Host, Speaker, Author, & Social Justice Advocate. 

    Drawing from the well

    You can find the full story of Zechariah and Elizabeth in these portions of scripture:

    Luke 1:5-25             John The Baptist Birth Foretold
    Luke 1:39-56           Mary Visits Elizabeth
    Luke 1:57-66           Elizabeth gives birth to the Promise of God

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    This devotion was originally posted on December 5, 2016.

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  • Destined To Worship

    “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed…and they bowed down and worshipped him.”             Matthew 2:10-11

    Have you ever been listening to the radio and a song just grabs you?  This Christmas I was asked to make a short video introducing a trio in our church singing Kari Jobe’s song “Adore Him”.  In the song, she writes about the story of the Magi who followed the star to find Jesus.  Using the words and tune for the Christmas Carol  “O Come All Ye Faithful” for the chorus, she compels us to join her in worship as she repeats the phrase “Come Let Us Adore Him” with such passion.

    Music profoundly impacts my life.  I am brought to tears more by songs than anything else.  If only I could sing!  Listening to Kari’s song led me to spend a great deal of time thinking and reading about these men who travelled so far searching for a King.  Men who would have given up so much to make this journey, putting their lives at risk by not going back to King Herod after he sent them to find this King of the Jews.  Herod falsely claimed that his motives were to worship the King, but the Magi, they were pursuing their destiny to worship the King.

    Today my iTunes started playing Avalon’s song “Destined” and I was again moved by music.   This song helped me to realize that Romans 14:11 is true and that we all have the same destiny as the Magi.  We’re all Destined To Worship!  So, be like the Magi and seek after Jesus the bright Morning Star!  When you find Him, humble yourself and lavish Him with your praise!

    Prayer:

    Father…I praise you for who you are because, You are good!  Almighty…Always There, and You Know Everything!  I want my life to be an act of worship to you in the words I say and the meditations of my heart.  Help me fulfill my destiny to worship you!  In Jesus name, Amen

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  • Immanuel–Astounding Christmas

    The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel—which means, ‘God with us’.”
    Isaiah 9:6-7

    Astounding Christmas

    This verse comes after the record of the angel visiting Joseph.  If I ever wondered before, reading through the Christmas story this year shows me how much God loves to astound people with His presence!

    The Group 4 HIM captured Joseph’s encounter with the angel best in their song “Strange Way To Save The World”.  The chorus is supposed to be Joseph questioning God while holding baby Jesus.  The words say so much:

    “Why me, I’m just a simple man of trade
    Why Him, with all the rulers in the world
    Why here, inside this stable filled with hay
    Why her, she’s just an ordinary girl
    Now I’m not one to second guess what angels have to say,
    But this is such a strange way, to save the World”

    Immanuel-Astounding Christmas

    Immanuel -God With Us

    The biblical stories of Christmas are more shocking than putting up your Christmas lights in an electrical storm!  A pregnant virgin rides a donkey to a town far away where she has to give birth to the King of kings in a stable, angels appearing to lowly shepherds, Magi travelling for years looking for a king and worshipping a child, giving him costly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Nothing in the story makes natural sense…but they are the events that supernaturally changed the world!

    This Christmas, open up your heart, giving God room to show up in your life as “Immanuel”.  He wants to be God “with us”.  May His presence overwhelm and astound you with His peace!

    Merry Christmas!

    Prayer

    Father…I’m so thankful that you desire to be “God with us”, not “God far away from us”.  May I, along with the world, sense Your presence anew this Christmas in astounding ways!  In Jesus name, Amen.


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