After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem  and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.  “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

I had the privilege of reading this portion of the Nativity story in our Christmas service this year. While preparing to read it, I came to realize more than ever how rich those few verses of Scripture are.

First, there’s the setting. Matthew wrote of a specific time and place, because this is fact, not legend. Like the gospel writer Luke, a historian who did his research diligently, Matthew, a tax collector who had worked for Rome, was also meticulous in his reporting. The birth of Jesus happened, not “once upon a time,” but “in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod.”

I also love the fact that Jesus’ birth was announced to gentiles hundreds – maybe even thousands – of miles away. This Child was to be born not just for the Jews, but for the rest of the world, as well. This was an aspect of God’s plan the Jews were not aware of in the beginning – and later, many objected to it. But that’s a story for another time.

In addition to the widening of God’s Plan to all the peoples, we also see the divinity of Jesus, revealed in the way His birth was announced in the heavens – announced by a star! The wisemen were granted the understanding to discern the meaning of the star. And the Spirit of God had put it in their hearts to travel all that way to see this little child.

The Jewish King of Judea, Herod, who was “in power” at the time, who was feared by the people, and whose orders were to be obeyed, nevertheless felt threatened by this unknown Person, who, for all he knew, was a mere infant! Who could miss the irony in his reaction?

When Herod called together the chief priests and teachers of the law, it turned out they knew the prophecy about where this King was to be born, and the ever-efficient Matthew quoted them, as they quoted the Scripture, right out of Micah. Answer: Bethlehem.

Unlike the wisemen’s passionate dedication to their quest for this King, the so-called believers and experts, who knew the Christ in all probability had been born recently just a stone’s throw away, nevertheless didn’t even bother to go there and check it out! Were they really that apathetic, or could it be they were intimidated by the other King, who stood in front of them and whose jealous rage was close to the boiling point?

In contrast to Herod’s hostile response and the priests’ and teachers’ apathy/intimidation, the same passage describes the magi’s rejoicing at finding the little King, bowing down to Him, and pouring out their lavish gifts, their pagan hearts somehow having been invaded by God’s Spirit. What fictional writer could have come up with this story?

As is often said these days, “You can’t make this stuff up.” 😉

(Happy Epiphany, everyone.)

Prayer: Lord, Jesus, You came to earth so many years ago, not just for the Jews, but for all of us! You came not just for the people of that time, but for anyone and everyone who would believe in You through the ages, and Your gospel will continue reverberating throughout history until You come again. May our response be like that of the Magi, one of seeking diligently and not giving up until we find You and falling down in worship at Your feet. May we daily pour out elaborate gifts to You – all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do. Take us and make us the people You created us to be. We give our lives to You this day, in Your name, amen.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. – James 1:19 

I’ve been reviewing the book of James lately and all the practical guidance found there. So much of James deals with the power of the tongue – I counted 23 verses in this short book having to do with our words. James says of the tongue,

“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole man, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6)

Strong words! Strong enough to inspire my New Year’s resolution:

Listen more, talk less!

When someone makes what I would consider a ridiculously outrageous statement, I need to remember to stop … take a breath, and calmly ask, “What makes you think that?” or “Interesting thought. How did you come to that conclusion?” Then I need to really listen to them share their thoughts before presenting another perspective. I might gain some valuable insights about the person, instead of just shooting them down, which only shuts off communication. I might even find out their perspective isn’t so ridiculous after all, that they have taken into account something that hadn’t occurred to me.

In other words, I just might learn something.

Then, if there’s something the other person is missing, I can respectfully share it, using phrases such as, “Have you considered …?” But this should happen only after I have let them speak their mind. And when sharing my perspective, I’ve discovered four little words that can express respect and humility and make a world of difference. They could also save me from future humiliation resulting overconfidence and/or arrogance. (Please don’t ask me how I know.)

Those four words? “I could be wrong.”

Do you have a New Year’s resolution inspired by a particular verse of Scripture? I’d love to hear about it.

Prayer: Lord, I know that I am a helpless sinner who will never in this life live up to Your holiness. And yet, You call me to a life that is more Christlike and give me Your Spirit to enable me to progress in that direction. In spite of my failures, You continue to pick me up, accept my prayers of repentance, forgive my failings, and encourage me to continue striving toward holiness. Your Word makes it clear that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, I give You my heart and ask You to fill it with the fruits of the Spirit. Put a guard at my mouth and a rein on my tongue. Help me be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry,” so that every word coming through me is accomplishing what You want it to, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to you children and to their children after them. – Deuteronomy 4:9

I don’t have to remind you that it’s a crazy, hectic time of year for a lot of us. Still, if you are a parent who believes in Jesus as “the Reason for the season,” you might be looking for a way to (re)tell the story of Jesus’ birth that will be meaningful to your children (or grandchildren), whatever their age or level of understanding.

A few years ago, I posted a series of lessons I taught my granddaughters during Advent. There are 13 parts, but they’re short, so you could double up on some of them if you want to be finished by Christmas Day. There’s a quiz at the end to review various people’s responses to Jesus (and reflect on our own attitudes – which one of these people do we resemble the most?). If you are sharing this with more than one child, you can make a game of it. Enjoy!

Home School Bible Class: The Nativity

Prayer: Lord Jesus, as we prepare to celebrate You, help us to stay focused and keep this season as one of joyous celebration of Your amazing love. Bless each reader of this blog with a renewed appreciation for what You have done for us. Inspire and motivate us to spread the true meaning of CHRISTmas with others, in Your mighty name. Amen.

The reason the Son of God came was to destroy the devil’s work. – I John 3:8

“… born on Christmas Day/To save us all from Satan’s Power …”- “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” (Traditional Christmas carol)

When I was in high school my favorite activity was choir, and my favorite event was the Christmas program. For years we sang, among other things, a set of carols by Benjamin Britten. One of them was truly unique – I mean, who sings about spiritual warfare at Christmastime?

(WE did.)

“This Little Babe” approaches the topic of the Christ Child as a picture of God’s assault on the kingdom of darkness. This tiny Baby in the manger is the Commanding Officer of God’s armies, leading legions of angels against the devil and his demons.

The lyrics, like the Nativity story itself, is packed with ironies. They point to the awesome power of the seemingly helpless newborn Infant:

“This little Babe, so few days old is come to rival Satan’s fold; / All hell doth at His presence quake, though He Himself for cold do shake/ For in this meek unarmed wise/ The gates of hell He will surprise.”

The melody is intense, in a minor key, meant to be sung forcefully. While one would usually expect a song about a battle to be written for male voices, this one is for high voices – women, girls, or possibly young boys. (Our choir was made up of high school girls, and we sang it with gusto!)

While one might think of songs of warfare being accompanied by drums, cymbals, and trumpets, the only instrument accompanying these female voices is a harp.

The arrangement of the song creates growing intensity. The first verse is sung in unison, the second verse in a two-part round, the third verse in a three-part round, with no refrains in between, like waves of armed reinforcements charging over the hill to join the battle.

The voices come back together as the song reaches a crescendo, “My soul, with Christ, join thou in fight – “ and they end in unison, admonishing the audience to “foil thy foes with joy.”

All that content is packed into a song less than two minutes long!

I recently heard this carol for the first time in decades, and it struck me how profound the message is, unlike the usual songs about Santa, toys, snow, and rockin’ around the Christmas tree. Even songs about the sweet little Baby in the manger, the gentle beasts, shepherds, wisemen, and angels singing, might lull us into forgetting that a war is being waged daily on the battlefield of our minds. This little Baby came to set the prisoners free, and that involves defeating the kingdom of hell that has held us in bondage to sin for so long.

Just after the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, God prophesied to the serpent that the offspring of the woman would ultimately defeat him – “He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15 No doubt the serpent (Satan) remembered those words down through history – and now, in the little town of Bethlehem, He had arrived!

Jesus, the offspring of the woman, with no human father, had come. Even as He lay sleeping, a tiny newborn, Satan’s doom was sealed.

So, while we’re singing songs about the cute little Baby, let’s not forget who He was, is, and always will be – the God who came for us then, fights for us now, and is coming back to complete His triumph over evil. And on that day, His victory will be like this carol – short and swift, forever separating the kingdom of heaven from the kingdom of darkness.

Which side will you be on?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, as we celebrate Your coming to earth, we thank You for the love You had for us. We are in awe of Your willingness to leave Your home in glory and be born as one of us, suffer in our place, die to pay the penalty of our sins, and rise to life again to show us the eternal life that awaits all those who love and follow You. Help us not to be distracted by the trappings of the season, but instead to have hearts and minds set on You, for it’s in Your name we pray, Amen.

Here is one performance of this truly unique Christmas carol – enjoy!

I am coming soon. – Jesus, Revelation 3:11a

Last year I posted about a beloved traditional Advent song that our choir director felt needed more verses. I shared the verses I added, highlighting Jesus other “comings” – out of the grave (Yeeha!) and His Second Coming, yet to happen.

For The Musical Believers: As Advent Is Here …

I just want to let my readers know that these verses are still not copyrighted, so if the Spirit leads, feel free to share these lyrics with your music minister, choir director – or sing them yourselves.

Come, Thou whom the prophets promised,
Thou of whom the cantors sing.
Come, Immanuel, God, be with us,
Thou our Prophet, Priest and King.
Jesus, Thou art all perfection,
Thou, whose fellowship we crave;
Thou the Life and Resurrection,
Come redeem us from the grave.

Come, Thou King, receive Thy kingdom;
With the angels, split the skies!
Come with clouds and trumpet sounding,
Bid Thy slumb’ring children rise.
Gather in Thine arms so tender
Sinners saved through faith alone,
Through the gates of heav’nly splendor
Unto our eternal home.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, whatever happens in the coming days, whether we are celebrating Your birth with joyful abandon, or we feel there is little to celebrate this year, help us always to be mindful that You are alive and coming again, and it could be any day – any moment. And may we live our lives accordingly. In Your name, amen.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – I Thessalonians 5:18

Some of my readers might remember Jackson, the little boy who invited the neighborhood bully to Sunday school. The bigger boy not only refused his invitation, he made fun of Jackson, making it clear he wanted nothing to do with God.

This makes Jackson grumpy! When he decides he’d like to be “cool” like the other boy, he uses the same line: “What did God ever do for me?” He has no idea he is about to go on a journey that will show him God does plenty. Jackson is going to learn that blessings don’t have to take the form of spectacular miracles. By the end of the journey, Jackson has gone from grumpy to very grateful!

If you have a little reader who is ready for “chapter books,” this might be a good place to start. It comes with illustrations by my good friend and award-winning artist, Roberta Dills, a vocabulary list, and suggestions for a family activity to generate gratitude in everybody.

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Grumpy to Grateful” is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=grumpy+to+grateful+by+Ann+Aschauer&crid=31PQCFP19L9P4&sprefix=grumpy+to+grateful+by+ann+aschauer%2Caps%2C183&ref=nb_sb_noss

Prayer: Lord, when we think of what we have to be grateful for, we hardly know where to start! Thank You for creating us to be objects of Your love and expressing that love through such an incredible gift – the sacrifice of Your Son! And thank You for the millions of ways You continue to show that love every day. May we love You with all we are and all we do, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Be very careful, then, how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time because the times are evil. – Ephesians 5:15 – 16

Yesterday I woke up very early – or seemingly early. During the night, 2:00 A. M. had miraculously become 1:00 A. M.! It was that wonderful once-a-year privilege of turning our clocks back and “gaining” an hour! (We didn’t really gain an hour, just got back the hour we “lost” last spring.) I don’t know if other countries do the “spring-forward-fall-back” thing called “Daylight Savings’ Time,” but it’s a ritual carried out twice a year in most of the United States. My sister’s state of Arizona doesn’t indulge in such nonsense; consequently, she and I are two hours apart half the year and three hours apart the other half. In case we run out of things to think about when trying to figure out when to call each other.

But I digress …

One would think an extra hour would be a great help for someone like me who struggles with being on time. But anyone with punctuality problems will tell you, extra time isn’t always helpful.

I could blame my genes. When I was growing up, my family, the “tardy Hardys” were typically the last ones to arrive, and with my father, who never met a stranger, we were sometimes the last to leave. Our Sunday morning theme song was, “Sunday school is over, and we are going home,” the song wafting from the children’s Sunday school room as we pulled into the parking lot. (In our defense, that only happened once, the “spring-forward” weekend the year we forgot to reset our clocks.)

Digressing again …

Anyway, yesterday as I got up well before the alarm went off, I had a great feeling of being in control of the Sunday morning situation. I wasn’t just on time, I was ahead of time! I brewed a pot of coffee and sipped it smugly while answering a couple of text message that had come in. Hey, I had time, right? I went through all my morning routines – physical therapy, washing my face, fixing my hair, light breakfast, even making the bed. Being ahead of time was great!

But at one point (probably after changing my mind twice about what to wear) I realized I was no longer running way ahead of time. (Surprise.)

I still had about ten minutes to spare, though … if I could get out the door immediately.

I drove to church, applying my makeup whenever I sat at a red light. Once there, I debated where to park – Could I find a spot that was pleasantly close to church without being obviously selfish and taking the closest spot? By the time I had put the “club” on my steering wheel, gathered my purse, coffee, and Bible, I was sensing the Spirit telling me to give a couple of protein bars to the people who were rummaging through the nearby dumpster. A brief conversation ensued, and I invited them to church. I prayed with one of them for a job and made a couple of suggestions. By the time I reached my classroom, (You guessed it.) the teacher was finishing the opening prayer. My metal cannister of coffee fell to the floor, loudly announcing my arrival.

What happened to that extra hour?!

The Sunday school class was an in-depth study of Revelation, and the lesson that day focused on the coming Judgment of God. In that day there will be two kinds of people: those who are given grace, forgiveness, and eternal blessings, and those who face the wrath of God. (Revelation 8 has a chilling description of the latter.)

Having started the morning in the final book of the Bible, in the worship service we heard a message from Genesis, the book of beginnings. The subject was the Great Flood, when God brought judgment onto the world, sparing only Noah and his family. The rest of Mankind perished, the people Jesus later described as eating and drinking and marrying – carrying on “business as usual” – oblivious and unprepared for the judgment.

The message of both Genesis and Revelation – and every book in between – warns us:

God is holy, and He will judge justly. His wrath is justified. If we get what we deserve, we are all doomed.

But God is also merciful. He has provided a way to escape. Although we are powerless to save ourselves, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, willingly died on the cross, taking on Himself the punishment for our sins. We can come to Him, ask His forgiveness, and begin a new life with Him. This is the only way. If we turn it down, we are left to pay the penalty ourselves.

Someone I know and have been praying for recently went through a bit of a “scare,” medically, and during the time of uncertainty, he developed an intense interest in knowing God and salvation. He was reading the Bible, asking questions, and even requesting prayer. He had been to church for the past couple of Sundays and heard some very direct messages about God’s holiness, our sinfulness and depravity, and God’s offer of forgiveness.

Friday this person was given a clean bill of health! While thrilled for him, I wondered if he would show up at church yesterday. I was delighted to see him back, in spite of the fact that the immediate crisis had passed. – That crisis, anyway. Perhaps he’s realizing that any one of us could face sudden judgment any day, any minute.

The notion that “I still have plenty of time” can be deceiving and dangerous. Today most of us don’t think much about the certainty of death. But maybe we should. It will come, sooner or later. – What if it’s sooner?

To everyone reading this, I hope you have entrusted your soul Christ. We cannot save ourselves, and without Him we have no hope of escaping the just judgment of a holy God. If you haven’t repented and turned to Him for forgiveness and salvation, you can do it right now. Confess your sin and hopelessness apart from Him, acknowledge Jesus’ death as your atoning sacrifice, and commit to live the rest of your life for Him.

Whether the rest of your life is another day, or you “still have lots of time,” give that time to Him. You won’t regret it.

Prayer: Lord, You have given us each a set number of days on this earth, and we want to live our lives the way You created us to. Thank You for a new day, and whether it’s our last day on earth, or one in thousands, may we glorify You with it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. – I John 3:8

Today you may find yourself surrounded by graveyards, zombies, and other decor celebrating death. Just remember the One who defeated death and promised eternal life to those who love Him. – He’s coming back!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on our behalf to pay for our sins. We were lost, beyond hope, and irredeemable, until You offered Yourself as our atoning sacrifice. (We are not our own, we were bought with a price.) Thank You for freeing us from the fear of death, so we can live our lives to the fullest. Help us to live for Your glory. In Your name we pray. Amen.