Lent...Facebook...Time

Hello Everyone!

As many of you know I have decided to give up Facebook during this Lent season. I did this to allow more time for things I feel really important! Jesus, family, and now writing! Starting today I am also reading through the Gospel's in 40 days. I believe for me and those who are partnering with me this will be an incredible season capped off by the remembrance of the death and burial of Christ! And then ultimately celebrating the resurrection! It's going to be epic! 

So with all this free time, I plan one writing each day some of the things that I have learned or been fascinated by in the day's reading. They will be thoughts that have made me say WOW and hopefully they will do the same! Here we go;

Today's reading Matthew 1&2

Matthew 1

The beginning of this text is loaded with genealogy. While it may seem boring and the temptation is to just blow through it, it is utterly rich in giving us a glimpse at what Jesus is going to be about in His life. If you study some of the names here you will find adulterers, prostitutes, incest, and all kinds of other crazy stories. Many of the people listed here would make most church congregations highly uncomfortable if they decided to attend church and bless the pastor by sitting in the front row. And fascinating enough it's who God uses for the lineage of the Messiah! From the very beginning it was about the broken and messy! 

Matthew 2

THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR! What an incredible story! Not much recap needed here, however I was reminded about all the prophecies and intricacies that exist in the Bible! It's absolutely amazing, it really is ALIVE! Today it was the gifts of the wise men that jumped out at me. We know they are good gifts but they are far more than that, they identify Jesus. Gold is what was given to kings; Jesus was the King of Kings, incense was what you would give to a priest, and Jesus was the High Priest of all high priest; myrrh ointment is used to heal, and Jesus is a healer. Myrrh was also used to embalm corpses- and Jesus was born to die!

And yet another fascinating fact. Jesus ended up in Nazareth being called a Nazarene. Nazarene means, "tender, green, or living branch." Jesus is the living Branch, the branch from David that extends the reach of the tree of Israel to us, foreigners and outsiders!

Hopefully you join me on this journey! I pray that the incredible stories come to life in your heart and that you become fascinated by the WORD!