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There have been some amazing counterpunchers in boxing history. Muhammed Ali would be at or near top of anyone’s list. Others, like Benny Leonard, James Toney and Joe Gans, consistently hold spots near the top. Personally, I’ve always marveled at Floyd Mayweather. 

Any successful counterpuncher has three things in their corner.

1. Strategy. Since counterpunching is, by nature, a reactive style of fighting, the fighter must resist the urge to initiate contact. They have to wait until their opponent throws a punch and then throw their counterpunch with greater speed and force than the opponent’s punch that they’re countering. Since counterpunchers can usually hit faster and harder than their opponent, they must resist the temptation to abandon their strategy and initiate contact. If they forget their strategy they give up their advantage, which is their opponent’s vulnerability for the split second they’re throwing their punch, compromising their balance and defense.
2. Quickness. If a fighter doesn’t have superior quickness to most other fighters, they can’t be a counterpuncher. They must have the ability to land a punch between the time their foe starts their punch motion and the time they land it. Remember, they aren’t fighting slow people, but skilled, trained and conditioned fighters. So the counterpuncher’s got to be cat quick.
3. Early Detection. For a fighter to respond super-quickly to a punch – quickly enough to land the counter before, or at least at the same time as the opponent’s punch – the counterpuncher has to detect that the punch is coming very early in its motion. All the quickness in the world isn’t enough to counter a punch detected too far into its motion.

Now, it’s fun to talk about boxing, but let me apply all this to something far more important. In this more important application, the greatest all-time counterpuncher is Jesus Christ. His counterpunch is grace. He is undefeated and established the model for His followers to imitate. Let’s take the application deeper.

1. Strategy. Jesus came to earth as the Messiah knowing He would be persecuted verbally and physically, His strategy was to respond with immediate love and forgiveness. “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing,” He prayed for the very people who were crucifying Him. Also, consider the grace He showed to Judas as he was betraying Him and to Simon Peter after he three times denied knowing Him. Although He was tested in every way we are, He never abandoned His strategy of responding to ill treatment with loving grace.
2. Quickness. Jesus never had to take time to process His thoughts and emotions so He could show grace to someone. It was instinctive to Him because He was and is love. When He walked on the earth, He didn’t have a sin nature like all other people; He lived out of His Divine sinless nature, so His counterpunches of grace were speed-of-light quick – like immediate. 
3. Early detection. Jesus’ ability to detect what was coming flowed from His supernatural knowledge of God’s prophetic Word. The foretellings of Isaiah, the Psalms and the other prophets about Messianic events were at the core of His thought life, so He had a literally supernatural advantage in seeing when a blow would be thrown at Him. He knew about occurrences before they occurred. Now that’s early detection. And it’s also the secret to His being super-prepared to counter with grace.

There exists one more layer of application to this counterpunching metaphor, and it’s to us. We know that because of Jesus’ words…love your enemies…when they revile and persecute you…rejoice and be exceedingly glad…if your brother sins against you…and…he repents, forgive him. 

And His Spirit continues along the same line with similar instructions to us in the church age…love is patient…do all you can to live at peace with one another…do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult…bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing. 

So let’s make this most important application, the one to our own lives, by looking at the three counterpuncher characteristics.

1. Strategy. Our biggest challenge isn’t the devil. It’s holding on to our strategy. The primary temptation is to counter with a different punch than the one our Trainer (God) has equipped us with. MLK got it; he said: Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out; only love can do that.
2. Quickness. The real objective in responding to the hater with love is to win the heart of the hater. Nothing will do that more effectively than an immediate love response, one taking zero time to choose love. It says, “I decided to love you before you even threw your punch at me, and your punch hasn’t changed my mind.”
3. Early detection. Just as Jesus saw punches coming before they were thrown, he warns us that they’re in our future, and lays out our response: blessed are you when [people] revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

What if we, by our consistent actions, created a love-grace counterpunch culture? I think that’s exactly what the Lord has in mind for us.

Your friend is the judge in a courtroom. It’s a hearing to decide whether Jesus will be the Lord and Savior of your friend, the judge. The court is actually your friend’s heart, and he gets to decide what to do with Jesus. 

Many witnesses have already testified. The first was Scripture, the Bible. Its testimony was powerful and effective. The judge understands the New Testament is the written testimonies of the twelve apostles who were with Jesus for nearly all of His earthly ministry, plus Paul whom Jesus selected post-resurrection to be an apostle with a special assignment. The judge also sees that, when viewed through the lens of the New Testament, the Old Testament also reveals the Messiah-ship of Jesus.

The second witness was the Holy Spirit. Being the very Spirit of Jesus, His testimony was perfectly accurate. But most effective about the Spirit’s testimony was that He, and He alone, was able to speak into the judge’s spiritual ears, not just his outer ones, but into the judge’s very heart; He was able to reveal the truth about Jesus in a way no other could.

Adding immensely to the power of these two witnesses was the corroboration factor. It isn’t surprising that the Holy Spirit would corroborate Scripture’s testimony, since He also inspired the humans whose hands wrote it. It seems this should be case closed. But the judge is somehow still undecided. 

The problem is that some of the witnesses, Christians who believe completely in Jesus, gave testimony that conflicted with those of the Holy Spirit and Scripture. It wasn’t their oral testimony that caused confusion in the judge, but their lifestyle testimony.

Remember when Jesus told His followers to do what the Pharisees told them to do but to not follow their example? He said their hypocritical lifestyle didn’t match up with what they required others to do. He was saying their actions were a part of their teaching, just as their words were, but His students were not to accept that part of the Pharisees’ teaching.

Likewise, our lifestyle serves as a more powerful witness than our words.

The judge’s confusion has come from the lifestyle testimony of several Christians. Their testimony didn’t corroborate the Holy Spirit’s or Scripture’s. 

The word corroborate comes from a Latin compound word that means, literally, to add strength to. So the question is: does our lifestyle testimony add strength to, or weaken, the testimonies of the Holy Spirit and Scripture?

The Law of Moses, as have many other legal systems, required two or three witnesses for an assertion to be established. 

The two star witnesses have testified. Now our testimony is needed. Hopefully, the judge will rule in Jesus’ favor (which will actually also be the judge’s own favor).

The question is: will our lifestyle testimony add strength to (corroborate) the two star witnesses’ testimonies, or not?

The judge is calling us to the witness stand.

If I were the president, this would be my speech this year.  

Members of Congress, as I report this evening on the state of this Union, I consider its state, not only in light of recent actions by our governmental leaders, but of actions from its very beginning until now, for we still today experience the consequences of many early actions as well as more recent ones.

We began as a nation of hypocrites, proclaiming all to be created equal, while enslaving some, thereby denying them the pursuit of the happiness we asserted as an inalienable right into which all people are born. 

We lived and governed under this masquerade for eighty-nine years, until our sixteenth president had the moral courage to lead us into the abolition of the wicked institution that had treated some as beneath, and others as above our founding principles. 

Even after slavery was abolished, bigots found a way to oppress former slaves and their descendants while our government turned a blind eye. Oh how different Reconstruction may have gone had our beloved Lincoln not been assassinated. 

For the next one-hundred years, we allowed Jim Crow in the South and oppression by less conspicuous names in other regions to carry forward the same agenda slavery had championed in the first decades of our existence as a nation.

Even today – when, surely, many believe it to be resolved – racial prejudice and injustice are marching on. We must discern the connection between many of our current woes and the wrongs we’ve committed toward our brothers and sisters in the past; the economic, the international and the social are all arenas permeated by the toxic results of the poisonous treatment we’ve extended our mistreated citizen groups. But, in the words of Dr. King, as he quoted from the book of Amos, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to rid ourselves of this pestilence! We must shed this curse still upon us as we make the installment payments in a multitude of ways for the sin of slavery that we committed as a nation.

How do we absolve our nation of such guilt?

I plan to lead us down the path of Micah 6:8. Live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

How , you ask, can justice and mercy coexist? Must we not choose one or the other?

Please understand this: as we walk humbly through this with God, justice will be for the oppressed, and mercy will apply to the oppressors.

So we will make restitution to the descendants of former slaves without penalizing the descendants of those who enslaved them. 

I’ve heard it said, as many of you have, “Why should I have to pay for something my ancestors did? I didn’t do it, nor would I have if I’d lived at that time.”

Likely, we’ve also heard, “How is it fair that I be disadvantaged as a result of my ancestors being enslaved?”

We will not attempt the remedy that some have attempted and still attempt today. Giving out money in the name of welfare is counterproductive if it is the sole strategy. Welfare is a piece of the solution; it must be. But it cannot be the entire solution. It creates a demographic which depends too greatly upon the government and is kept by that government in a cycle of poverty. This was not the intention of those wise and courageous leaders of the 1950s and 60s. Oh how different civil rights might be today had our beloved MLK not been assassinated.

In the days to come my executive team will implement the plan in all its minute details, all of which flow from these three broad principles:

1. Any descendant of U.S. slaves will qualify for an opportunity to purchase property and access capital for the purpose of building and/or growing a business.
2. Any person or entity affording a descendant of slaves an opportunity to build and/or grow a business will be compensated for the cost incurred in affording that opportunity to that descendant. 
3. This program will be funded by a grant established with and maintained by an association of churches and nonprofits who are sympathetic to this cause.

I invite the prayers and support of all the American citizens for this program. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America!

A regular antagonist of mine recently publically made the comment, “A good God wouldn’t send the ones He ‘loves’ to Hell.” He was mocking me and my belief that those who spend their lives rejecting Christ will spend their eternity not with God in Heaven, but without Him in outer darkness as recipients of His judgment. 

Many people ask the question, “How can a good and loving God send people to Hell?” It’s a legitimate question and perhaps the most prevalent one as people try to understand God’s role as eternal judge. 

Jesus came to earth with a message. He said He came into the world not to condemn us but to save us. His plan for salvation is that we simply believe in Him as God’s Son and acknowledge that He gave His life on a cross of Roman execution to satisfy our sin debt and that we accept His gift of forgiveness and eternal life. He told Nicodemus that whoever believes in Him will not be condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already. 

So it isn’t God condemning us, but our stubbornness to not accept the forgiveness that He offers. 

Let me illustrate it with this scenario. A person is walking down a certain path. God sees the path the person is on and calls out to them: ”Don’t continue down this path! It will lead to the worst possible destruction! Stop! Turn from this path onto this other one I have made that will lead you to the best possible experience. The destinies of both these paths last forever; there’s no end to the destruction of the one you’re on, and there’s no end to the joy of the one onto which I’m inviting you. I’ve made the path to this wonderful life and I’ve prepared its destiny for you. I’ve done all this simply because I love you and I want you to be with Me, because I’ll be there with you in that life of eternal ecstasy. One thing you must do; I cannot do it for you: you must choose My way. It’s your choice.

The person continues down the path they’re on, rejecting God and His call. As they get closer to the end of the path, they begin to complain against God, “How could a loving God say He loves me, yet send me to eternal destruction!? I would never listen to any message from such a God!”

You see how illogical it is to reject Jesus? All He’s doing is offering everlasting life and deliverance from eternal destruction. If this scenario depicts your attitude toward Jesus and His offer of salvation, I beg you to turn to God and accept His offer. Read John 3 for the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. Later, in John 19, we read of Nicodemus being involved in the burial of the soon-to-be-risen Savior, indicating that he had chosen to believe in Him. Please do the one thing God cannot do for you: choose Him.

Jesus’ disciples were curious about the man they were seeing. The one who couldn’t see them – who’d never seen anything. Blind from birth, John 9 tells us. 

The disciples’ curiosity was about the cause of his blindness. Surely it was sin, but whose? Was it the blind man’s – which God must’ve foreseen and in response predestined the man to blindness – or was it his parents’? 

Still not getting the role of grace in the kingdom of God, Jesus’ students sought understanding about sin and its consequences. They must know the sin that caused this blindness so they could be sure to stay away from it.

But Jesus, as He often did, answered a different question from the one they were asking. Neither the parents’ nor the man’s sin caused his blindness. 

Now He was going to divulge to them the mysterious cause of this dreadful condition. But then, not. He switched gears on them and focused their attention, not on the cause of the blindness, but on its purpose. 

My wife and I got a letter in the mail from our son. He was letting us know he was choosing a different life from the one for which we’d tried his whole life to prepare him, a life of faith-relationship with Jesus. “That’s your faith; it isn’t mine,” the letter read. We read the letter and fell on each other’s neck. For days we cried and prayed, and cried and prayed. What did we do wrong? Why was he making this decision? Was it our error or something else that precipitated this choice our son was making?

Then the Lord directed me to John 9 as I was preparing for that weekend’s sermon. 

It wasn’t the son’s sin or the parents’. But so that God can be glorified…was this man born blind…did this son choose to stray. God taught my wife and me that week that God – by His grace – is more concerned with purpose than with cause.

Jesus glorified God by giving sight to the blind man.

And we are trusting God that at exactly the right time God will show our son how much He loves him and the wonderful things He wants to do for him. That’s how God is glorified in this age and it’s how He will glorify Himself in the life of our son and in the lives of so many people. 

He was glorified on the night that I discovered His love and power – how both are at work for me. And He’ll glorify Himself when you or anyone you know accepts the life He offers us through faith in Jesus.

He wants far more for us to know the purpose he has for us than what we’re doing wrong to cause our lives’ problems.

Cause or purpose? Let’s take on the focus God has: what’s the purpose for this (fill in the blank?) The answer is always: to glorify God.

My favorite parable is The Parable of the Sower (or The Farmer Sowing Seed), from
Mark 4. After telling this parable, Jesus told His disciples that, if they couldn’t understand it,
they wouldn’t understand any of His parables. Then He did something for which I’m supremely thankful. He explained it. Had He not, I doubt I would’ve ever understood it.

So a farmer (preacher, whether in a pulpit or having coffee with a friend) sows some
seed (His Word). He’s broadcasting it, not planting it in rows, which means it covers a broad
area. Much of the seed lands in unfruitful places, but also in a fruitful area.

These 6 Ps categorize these areas for us.

1. Porch Pirates. These seed land on the path and are taken immediately by the birds. This
is like when Satan, ever ready to rob us, plucks God’s Word from the path between our
ears and our minds; he usually does this with a distraction – some bad seed to grab our
attention while he pirates our good seed. In the age of so much cyber-shopping and
items delivered to our porches, porch pirates are more common than ever. Sadly,
though, spiritual porch pirating is even more common. God, may we be ever attentive in
2023 to the deliveries of Your Word, precluding its pirating by drinking it quickly into our
hearts.

2. Persecutions. These seed germinate and spring up quickly. But because they’re in the
rocky soil and have under-developed root systems, the sun scorches and kills them. The
sun represents the persecutions that come with following Jesus in an anti-Christian
world. (If anyone is offended by the anti-Christian world term, just follow Jesus and you’ll feel for yourself how real it is.) Lord, please give us the resilience to
persevere all the fiery trials we encounter.

The next three seed categories are those that landed in the thorns. They grow up but
eventually lose the battle, dying and giving way to the plants competing for existence.

3. Preoccupations. It’s very easy to become preoccupied with tiny, trivial worries that eat
away at us until we have nothing productive left by which to live. Lord, please strengthen our focus on You that will burn away the distractions of the enemy.

4. Possessions. It’s also easy to become so focused on managing our resources that they
take up a disproportionate amount of our attention. So our heart is where our earthly
treasure is. God, help us to store up treasures in heaven.

5. Pleasures. The flesh is tricky because many of its desires are good to a point – like food,
sexual intimacy and relaxation. But they quickly and easily become gluttony, lust and
laziness or addiction. At that point they’ve become unfruitful and destructive. Oh Lord, that we would find our pleasure fully in You.

6. Produce. The final one – only one – of the six categories produces a great harvest for
God. This ground is fertile and free of contaminants. This is a heart that’s soft toward
God and hungry for His Word. God, please help us to keep our hearts soft and pure,
always ready to accept and apply Your Word.

May 2023 be a fruitful year for God’s kingdom in our lives! Happy New Year!

Mark 4:3-20
 3  “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.  4  And it happened, as he
sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds  [a] of the air came and devoured
it.  5  Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it
sprang up because it had no depth of earth.  6  But when the sun was up it was scorched,
and because it had no root it withered away.  7  And some seed fell among thorns; and the
thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no  [b] crop.  8  But other seed fell on good
ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold,
some sixty, and some a hundred.”
9  And He said  [c] to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

The Purpose of Parables
10  But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the
parable.  11  And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the  [d] mystery of the
kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,  12  so that
‘Seeing they may see and not perceive,
And hearing they may hear and not understand;
Lest they should turn,
And their sins be forgiven them.’ ”

The Parable of the Sower Explained
13  And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you
understand all the parables?  14  The sower sows the word.  15  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes
away the word that was sown in their hearts.  16  These likewise are the ones sown on
stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;  17  and
they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when
tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.  18  Now
these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,  19  and
the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things
entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  20  But these are the ones sown on
good ground, those who hear the word,  [e] accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some
sixty, and some a hundred.”

Peace: a state of harmony between people or groups…third in the list of fruit of the Spirit…God is the God of Peace…Jesus is the Prince of Peace…Paul coupled peace with grace in his most common blessing to his churches…Jesus said the ones who make it will be called the children of God…If we make our request known to God, peace will guard our hearts and minds…The angels proclaimed peace on earth to the shepherds…Yet Jesus said He came to bring not peace, but a sword…Yet Jesus said “My peace I give you”

Peace has a prominent, complex place in the Kingdom of God. Prominent because it’s a foundational characteristic for our lives. Peace is something upon which other character traits rest. Our faith rests on the fact that we’re ok with God and He’s ok with us (peace). Love and kindness flow because we have peace with one another.

Forgiveness, humility, generosity, quickness to listen – these are products of peace and they promote peace. How good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity (Psalm 133).

I see peace in Scripture playing out through a process. Like love, grace and forgiveness, peace originates with God, He gives it to us, and we give it out to one another. Jesus came to remove the barrier (sin) between us and God. That’s the peace He brought. There’s nothing between us and God now if we’ve accepted Christ by faith. We have peace with God through Christ.

But then there’s the interpersonal arena. Each of us believers has the directive of Romans 12:18 to do everything possible to live at peace with one another.

Yet there is sometimes a barrier to peace between us and those who choose to not accept Christ, which is often Satan’s attempt to rob us of our inner peace by creating strife. Jesus said this would happen. Father and son…mother and daughter…would be at odds because of Christ. A person choosing to follow Jesus while a person close to them chooses to reject Him can be a difficult situation.

Even those not particularly close to us can present challenges to our peace. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12 that he was given a thorn in the flesh. God gave this thorn purpose, to keep Paul from pride. Many have speculated what that thorn might have been. I think Paul reveals a lot when he says it was a messenger of Satan. That wording makes me think it was either a person or a demon used by Stan to present a challenge to Paul. There was an effort at play in that day’s war between the kingdoms to discredit and silence Paul. If that messenger was a person, how could Paul be at peace with them? Paul must not have thought that possible, so he asked God three times to remove them. (May the slanderer not be established in the land – Psalms 140.) But God’s ultimate answer was that His grace would carry Paul through this attack. So if Paul was to maintain his inner peace, he would have to walk through this immense challenge and trust God’s grace as he continued to be under attack.

So we have our peace with God through our faith in Christ. We have peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ by doing everything possible to keep it. We have our inner peace by walking in the Spirit, even amid attacks from the messengers of Satan at work to attack us. With all that in mind, let there be peace on earth.

The easiest kind of blog to write is a blog like this one, a simple list. Not so simple is deciding what to include – and not include – in the list. This list is my 10 favorite Christmas songs, my Christmas playlist. I won’t try to rank them, with the exception of number 1. All the others would be a tie for second place. 

Here they are:

Number 1: Jesus, What a Wonderful Child – Mariah Carey

https://open.spotify.com/track/7zAoR3Od28Xj97fTLgnaGi?si=tcHLE-m1QKGi-zKlNBROag

The rest of the list:

Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song) – Amy Grant

https://open.spotify.com/track/6fmYoJZsJzUbHPjfTyhhTz?si=KqE0ldXXS2WJk7lgqJ7Gvg

Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) – Charlie Brown Christmas

https://open.spotify.com/track/6EMvKeE4QfAhWWAzYgKQCo?si=_oFJLdOHT0akzPXZpd8how

A Strange Way To Save the World – Mark Harris

https://open.spotify.com/track/0JSIgGYb8WViSYzi1btn5i?si=fCvZ48XVR-WVe7BiOIiJrQ

Mary Did You Know – Michael English

https://open.spotify.com/track/5pDiT08BvoTLf6ukdoWN6j?si=ZvVvSqFTRv-ZawZFR2QyWQ

O Holy Night – Steve Green

https://open.spotify.com/track/58HCMIoXvN2K2qHacXB9Sw?si=Ot_ptckOQCGnj5mmEh5pOg

The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) – Nat King Cole

https://open.spotify.com/track/5xzETaJgoicv0snhKFwnfa?si=-mLSxH27RTKvQOByq5-Kjw

For Unto Us a Child Is Born – London Philharmonic Orchestra

https://open.spotify.com/track/66WbG74JwC7hON6G4QpqnO?si=7nqsn3aaS7CPNM1KbpOdcw

Christmas Eve in Bethlehem – Hannah Kerr

https://open.spotify.com/track/4MxbgLZrNGahJRZAnwCJgE?si=5NabY2TSSvqY0dAtZkTczg

Frosty the Snowman – Jimmy Durant

https://open.spotify.com/track/3q8tJKCvgzBAjQDo088EwQ?si=tKi-HKCTRnqL1bJRaBidzw

Silver and Gold – Burl Ives

https://open.spotify.com/track/5EmYSWE2LpTd4hXxPYdbSf?si=K7zgn2YLTQWGC3dTs-OllQ

White Christmas – Bing Crosby

https://open.spotify.com/track/3XsaSIPWvM61RIFfeb0BBR?si=hL8q1ic9Qqi1C1HHDvm-og

​The music of Christmas is so fitting of the joy our Savior brought to the earth. I hope you enjoy your Christmas!

​Noel!

I was an accident. At least that’s what I used to think. I was fourteen when I did the math to realize there’s only seven months between February and September. 1962 was the year my parents married in February and I was born in September.
“I was a big accident,” I said to my parents as I discovered their marriage was only seven months older than I was. Big enough to usher them down the aisle of matrimony, I thought.

They looked at each other and smiled. They knew the day would come when I would put two and two together. They looked back and forth at me and each other, laughing, embarrassed yet relieved that someone had said it out loud.
Being an “accident” wasn’t something that bothered me. I wasn’t someone who thought much about such things, especially as a teenager.
I never gave it much thought for more than ten years. By the time it occurred to me again, I had become a Christian, aware now that God loved and valued me. So, by God’s grace, I’ve never felt like an accident.

A lesson we all need to get is that, just because something – or someone – was
unexpected, doesn’t mean it- or they – were accidental. God is never caught by surprise, so the unexpected can be experienced only by people (and angels, I guess – both holy and fallen).
We’re in the season of celebrating Someone who was humanly unplanned and largely unexpected, but whom God had planned for ages and ages.
There are so many lessons in Christmas. And here’s one I’ve never thought about. It’s this: If God would have His Son enter the world by way of the unexpecting and unprepared, why would those of us who were “unplanned” see ourselves as accidents? Jesus, who came with greater plan, purpose and mission than any other human, also came into the womb of a virgin, to an unprepared couple, into an ill-equipped birthing environment, even unwanted by some.

So let’s learn yet another truth from Christmas: people are not accidents; the
circumstances into which we are born says zero about our value or purpose. God gets to say what our value and purpose are, and He says we’re the whole reason He sent His Son.

Enjoy your Christmas!

My son and his wife are expecting their fourth child, our fifth grandchild. When that child is born the parents will hold the baby in their arms and their hearts will be filled with love and excitement. They’ll be overwhelmed with expectation.

 Who knows what the baby will grow up to be! What this person we don’t even yet know will achieve! The baby will come with such promise! Such potential! We don’t know exactly how it will play out. Yet we know the newborn will arrive with promise.

Most every new parent sees their child through eyes of promise. They may not have a specific promise, but they just know the child will be someone special.

 So, the promise that comes with newborn babies is more about possibilities than guarantees. But there is an exception.

 When a virgin teenage girl named Mary and her husband Joseph held a newborn in Bethlehem at the time of the Roman Census ordered by Quirinius their hearts were filled not only with possibilities but with guarantees, with promises conveyed by angelic messengers of Jehovah God.

In their case, promise was more than something possible; it was specific and certain: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest;” and “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33) That’s what Mary’s messenger had said. Joseph’s had said to him: “He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Pretty specific promises.

 Those weren’t the first promises given about this Bethlehem newborn. Isaiah was God’s human messenger to the Hebrew nation centuries before, “His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) And “He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).

Jesus’ birth was also something not many others’ have ever been: fulfillment of a promise. Or promises I should say. Isaiah was specific in his foretelling of circumstances around the Christ child’s arrival: “A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Micah, about 700 years before Christ, specified the town of the coming Messiah’s birth: “out of you, Bethlehem” (Micah 5:2)

 So, the newborn Christ was both proceeded and succeeded by promise, promise of His coming and promise of His life’s accomplishment. Even in our day, those who believe in Him are living out His promise.

And the fulfillment of His promise will continue throughout eternity. “Of His kingdom there will be no end…He will save His people from their sins.”

The Christmas Newborn’s promise fulfilled forever and ever. Amen!