On the road again! We’ll be taking a shortcut from the time of Jesus’ birth directly to his family’s trip to Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. If you’d like to see what happened from just before his birth to his move to Nazareth as a young child, you can read Moving to a New Home.
Continuing to follow the True and Living Way through the gospels, we come across these significant prophecies about our Lord Jesus Christ around the time of his birth. Let’s sit awhile and contemplate each occasion, considering the influence on those who initially received these words, and then how they speak to us today about him whom we love.
Browsing through a small bookstore in Portland, Maine, I found an old book about the ministry of Jesus and asked the clerk, James, how much it cost. That started us on a conversation about the Bible and he said that he believed it was a book full of errors and inconsistencies. I maintained that the Bible was the Word of God without error or apparent contradictions when properly interpreted.
Gene and I lived on Guam for seven years. While there, he wrote for the Pacific Daily News, including feature stories about interesting characters on the island.
This blog marks the beginning of a new journey for me and I plan on taking you with me, dear reader, if you are willing. I recently pulled out an ancient map that was a beloved part of my youth, and it is the map of Jesus’ life on earth, the good news of the Savior as recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
I am thankful to God for a whole litany of things, both the prayers He has answered, and the requests that I expect He will answer. And every Thanksgiving season, I run through the list, expressing great thankfulness to my heavenly Father for all He has done and will do in my life and in the lives of my loved ones.
I began a running program when I was 46 years old with some trepidation. Would my body be able to handle it? I had my doubts. At the beginning, my heart would beat faster than I had ever felt before. My shins rebelled against this new exercise with sharp pains. My ankle would give out on me every now and then. And I couldn’t sleep at night for the severe aching in my legs.
Jesus Christ died for us while we were still sinners. He loved the unlovable. We weren’t even “good.” We were unlovable—at least from a human point of view. But Jesus Christ was able to take on his mission, his calling, to die for us because he lived with his Father’s love.
What a bountiful blessing along with an equally enormous responsibility it is to have children. Yet even those of us who have none can (and need to!) help and support parents with this most important obligation: to teach their children about our heavenly Father.
As a young girl watching the movie Cinderella, I saw a “plain, yellow pumpkin” become a “golden carriage,” and a “plain country bumpkin” and a prince were “joined in marriage”. And of course, like many little girls, I wanted to be transformed into a princess, too! Naturally that hope faded as I grew up. Instead it appeared that I was destined to become…I had no idea what.