What About Joseph? - The "not so Merry" part of the Christmas Story

 "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

 -Matthew 1:18-21

 After deciding to read the Christmas story in my devotional time this morning, God absolutely gave me a new and timely perspective on this passage that definitely speaks to situations in my life and I'm sure that it will hit home with many others and their current situation in life as well.

 As we all know, the mother Mary has been heralded and raised up to a place of prominence over the centuries, and in some instances, falling just short of practically being deity. No doubt, Mary deserves to be admired and revered for her faith and obedience not to mention the strength it took to watch her own son be brutally tortured and murdered. Mary, while not deserving of the place of prominence that some evangelicals have given her, definitely should be considered a great example of what we should strive for as Christians.

After reading the above passage this morning however, I was left with one resounding question - What about Joseph? Have we really put aside our joyful Christmas spirit and looked past the sheer awe and wonder that the Christmas Story brings to look at it through the lens of real life? We need to remember that the real world, with all of its real issues and problems and yes -people, with all of their real people-problems and attitudes and mindsets is where this miraculous story took place.

And if there is anything that God has taught me over the last year it would be this - That when God gets ready to do something miraculous it usually follows a format, and the format is this - a period of extreme messiness will always precede God's miraculous. It doesn't really make sense but I know it with everything within me to be true and the Bible backs it up. For instance - God parted the Red Sea. Miraculous, right? Yes. But why? Because instead of the Egyptians just walking out of Egypt and that being that, God decided he would cause it to get "messy". Exodus tells us that God deliberately hardened Pharaoh's heart one last time so he would chase the Israelites down and kill them. Of course, we know that God showed up and did the miraculous by parting the Red Sea. You see, God always allows things to get messy before he intervenes with the miraculous because in this way - His name receives so much more glory!

The Christmas story, particularly this part of it, is no different. 

I love how the scripture says "This is how the birth of Jesus came about". In other words, it's basically telling us that God could have chosen to do this any way He wanted but He chose to do it in this specific way. This is meaningful seeing as the way in which God chose to do it is certainly anything but normal or convenient.

All of this takes place while Joseph and Mary are still engaged and in that culture, people getting pregnant before they were married was a definite end to any engagement and almost a certain death sentence. That's right, I said death.

Really God? I mean you couldn't have waited a few more months until you heard the Wedding Bells?? I mean think about it - Mary and Joseph get married, go on the Honey Moon and come back with faces aglow, waiting to tell everybody that they're pregnant with Child!! Sounds perfect, right? God doesn't do this, though. God does what He has always done and carries out His will and plans in a way that the prideful of heart and those who cling to common sense will never be able to grasp. He moves in such a way to where if you don't have faith - you don't get to see His glory and His miracles.

We all know that it took faith from Mary to accept what God was showing her would happen but the person I want to point out is Joseph.

While Mary has received a visitation from an Angel, Joseph gets left with a visit from Mary telling him that she's pregnant, get this - by the Holy spirit. While Mary is inwardly rejoicing at being chosen for such a miracle, Joseph is wondering where he went wrong for his future wife to want to cheat on him. Mary is right in the middle of a great move of God, Joseph is seemingly in the middle of the greatest hurt and shame he has ever felt. Joseph at this moment, was as clueless to what God was doing as a perfect stranger would've been. 

God chose Mary for a miracle but He entrusted Joseph with pain and hurt. He knew not everyone could handle the pain and hurt like He would need Joseph to.You see, Joseph was chosen by God too. The passage tells us that because Joseph was a good and faithful man, he sought for a way to split ways with Mary quietly, not so much because he didn't want to be shamed because of her being pregnant but because he didn't want her to be stoned to death. Joseph loved Mary with all of his heart...but Joseph didn't believe Mary. He didn't believe what Mary had told him about the Angel appearing and how she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit and not another man. If he had believed her, then he would not want to leave her.

The truth is Joseph got caught right in the middle of a move of God that he never asked for and is now being asked to believe in something that he seemingly has no part in. 

I think many times those who are in our lives, those who are closest to us and care a great deal about us seemingly get caught right in the middle of what God is doing in our lives. Not by accident, but because God intended for them to be a part of it. The only problem is that often times while you know and can sense exactly what God is doing- they are often hurt and confused, not having a clue as to what is happening. This was Joseph. He didn't have a clue that he had been chosen to be part of something that was much bigger than what it seemed to be at the moment. Yet, Joseph still loved Mary and still wanted what was best for her in spite of his hurt and pain.

God eventually sent an Angel to Joseph and opened His eyes to what was really going on and that Mary had indeed told him the truth. He told Joseph to not be afraid. The truth is, this was real life, with consequences (good or bad) to every choice they made. Joseph indeed must have been afraid and not sure of what to do.

Many times, those around us are afraid because the move of God in our lives is majorly effecting and changing their life. They are often afraid, worried and upset because they don't see what God has shown us and they feel like we have said and done the things we have without reason or rhyme.

Like I said before- God always allows situations to get messy before He makes the miraculous happen. He does this, as I said to bring even more glory to His name but also to build faith in those who are seemingly caught in the crossfire of God's plans for you. he wants them to see that they are not just "casualties of war" but that He intended for them to be part of His plan in your life all along.

I think we owe it to ourselves as believers to take a closer look at the Christmas story each time we read it and marvel at Joseph's loyalty and love for his fiance as much as we marvel at the faith and obedience of Mary.

 

 

Logs, specks, and love

"How can you think of saying, 'Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye."- Luke 6:42.

 

 Over the past several weeks God has been teaching me how to truly love people as he does. This has been something that I have struggled with my entire life because I never really had God's love modeled for me to even know the right way to love someone. Wait, let me take that back - there is no right or wrong way to love someone. You either love them or you don't.

  I say this not because I don't think that there aren't people out there who honestly have good intentions toward people and are trying to love their family, friends, and significant others as best they know how. I should know because I was one of these people trying my best most of the time - yet failing miserably. There is not a wrong way and a right way to love people. There is only one way to love and that is loving people as God does and trust me, He knows how to love people because He wrote the book on it, He invented it...Heck, He IS love! 


  If we don't allow the author of love to teach us how to truly love others then we will never know what real love is or how to give this love to others. This is what God says true love is...

  "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 

 

 If we don't connect ourselves with the love of God and allow Him to love us and teach us how to truly love others then we will be without the very force that God says will remain after everything else is a distant memory -love. 

So, what happens when we don't have a knowledge of or don't practice love in its true form as seen in the passage above? We are left with "like". The funny thing about "like" is that most people see it as just a step below love. You know how it goes - When a couple first starts dating "like" is the term they use when wanting to show affection until they both feel they've been together long enough to say "I love you". It's the term used in new but promising friendships. My point is that like is often viewed as the precursor to love. 

The truth is, though, that love is pure and holy while "like" is fickle, shallow, and is nothing more than a reaction to situations and people that are constantly changing. Liking something or someone is nothing more than the momentary feeling we as humans have when something pleases our senses. THIS is what we are left with as people if we don't know how to love.

Ever wonder why the divorce rate is so high? Because people don't know how to love. They only know how to like. They don't realize this because liking something can be a very strong and convincing feeling and emotion. After all, isn't that how we're told by society to know when we truly love someone? They tell us "you'll feel it".  Like is a human emotion but love is a gift from God that allows you to love someone regardless of what you're emotions are telling you. If we only have the ability to like and don't know how to truly love people then we become fickle and as the verse says at the beginning of this post - we become hypocrites who constantly point out "specks" in those we're trying our best to love. 


 There are some people that just seem to derive pleasure out of going around and pointing out the flaws in anyone they run into, even if they don't know them. These flaws or "specks" are the issues that they perceive the other person needs to fix in their life. For the most part though, I've realized that we point out specks the most in those who we are closest to or cherish the most. 

You see, if you truly care about someone and are trying to love them yet you only know how to like them, this means that how you feel about them and your happiness with them as a person is completely and totally dependent upon their words and actions. If they are saying and doing the right things - you're happy with them. Then they do something that you can't stand and instantly those feelings you felt about them five minutes earlier are rapidly disappearing. As I said, "Like" is a fickle emotion. This leads to us constantly trying to fix the other person so they will be exactly as we need them to be or think they should be because it's only then that they will become acceptable to us. Acceptable as our friend, acceptable as a family member or acceptable as a boyfriend or as a wife.

People pick specks because they are unaware of the only force that can make the specks invisible -love. The funny thing about a speck is that specks are extremely small, you'd have to be extremely close to someone to see a speck in their eye. This is what people who only know how to "like" and not love people make a living doing. 

Because "like" is such a fickle emotion, it cannot endure people's bad habits, flaws and imperfections. So tragically, people that only know how to "like" spend their entire time getting closer and closer, always subconsciously looking for yet dreading the moment when they find the speck in the other person. This speck can't be tolerated  by those who only know how to "like". Only true love covers imperfections and flaws- so in order for us to continue liking someone or to start liking someone, we must tell them of their speck and demand they deal with it.
  
 I'm an expert on this because I used to be this person who tried my best to love people but could only ever like them. Sure, I thought I was loving them but then again, so many people do think that they truly love people - remember the divorce rate mention? All people who thought they were madly in love until the other person stopped satisfying their senses and emotions. Liking someone is an emotion. It's part of the senses so in order for the feeling of "like" to survive it must be fed by the senses.The moment the Senses stopped being pleased the Divorce papers are signed. 

Liking someone or something is a personal choice that s made by each person everyday and no one said that we were required to "like" everything and everyone. Certainly, you need to initially like the person you marry but when it comes to people, God calls us to do more than like them. He calls us to love them. The truth is, we may not always like certain people but if we truly know what love is, then we will always be able to love them, if we desire to, because true love doesn't look at the other person and their imperfections as the determining factor of acceptance but it looks to God and His love for us and realizes that true love is ALWAYS unconditional love. There is a word for love that has conditions - it's called "like".


As the Bible says, love truly is a mystery. You don't know exactly how to explain it or describe it but once God truly does a work in your heart and teaches you how to love you'll know it. 


...Because you'll stop looking for specks and start getting rid of logs.


 
  

    
   

Lamps, eyes, and perceptions

Luke 11:34-36 - Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” - Jesus

I read this passage this morning and thought I would share my thoughts form the revelation and insight I received. So here it goes...

      As we all know, lamps were used to shine light outwardly, to shine light on people, places, or objects that were in front of the one holding the lamp. Well, this passage tells us that our eyes are the lamp of our body. I have always heard this passage taught or explained in a context of how we shouldn't let our eyes look upon anything wrong because what we look at has a profound effect on us inwardly. While this is true, I realized something deeper in this passage.



      Jesus tells us that the eye is the lamp of our body and then says that if our eyes are healthy, our whole body will be full of light but if our eyes are unhealthy, then our entire body will be full of darkness. Notice that Jesus didn't say "if your what you're looking at is unhealthy for your eyes" no, he said that if your eyes themselves are unhealthy then our bodies will be full of darkness.



       I believe that Jesus is not trying to talk about what we view, but instead, HOW we view. No, I'm not saying that Jesus thought it was okay for us as Christians to let our eyes view anything we wanted. All Christians should have Biblical standards and personal convictions when it comes to what we let our eyes watch or see.

I believe that Jesus is talking here about our perception, how we choose to view our life, and the situations and circumstances in life. Our outlook on life.

      I think this is why Jesus said that if our eyes are healthy our body will be healthy as well. Jesus knew that we all view things with our eyes so he used a physical metaphor to illustrate an inward and spiritual condition. Jesus is telling us that how we inwardly perceive what we see outwardly with our eyes is going to determine our spiritual condition.



      Jesus says "see to it then, that the light within you is not darkness. How can light be darkness?? This is because Jesus is referring not to literal light but saying that because our eyes, like a lamp, shines light on all of our life, we have to make sure that our inward perception of what we see is not dark. In other words, that our perception and outlook on our life is not one of hopelessness and despair.



       Jesus finishes by saying that if our body is full of light and no part of it dark, then it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you. Jesus is saying that if we have a completely healthy outlook and perception of the situations and circumstances we find ourself in, then the inward light from our bodies will be just like the outward light from a lamp if it was shining on us.





       Jesus is telling us that if our inward perception of our outward circumstances is healthy, it's going to be just as profitable, joyful and good for our soul as if our outward circumstances were perfect and bringing us happiness and joy. Jesus is saying to us that how we percieve things will determine our spiritual health. If we have the right perception and outlook on our life, an outlook that is filles with faith and trusting in God's goodness regardless of how things look, then we won't have to wait for that lamp to come shine on us. We won't have to wait for things to change outwardly before we become healthy, whole and full of light inwardly.

...Stop waiting for a lamp to come light your life. you are the lamp, now shine.

Joseph and Daniel: A spirit of Excellence

  The past few weeks, God has been really speaking to my spirit about how I needed to take this season in my life much more seriously as a time of preparation for the future of my life and my calling in Ministry. As many of you probably know, when going through a season of waiting, you pretty much want to do just that-wait. Think about it, When you're waiting for something, whether it's waiting for your food at the drive through or waiting to have your name called in the Doctor's office, there's not a whole lot else your doing or focusing on in that moment; you're just...waiting.

  God has shown me though, That when we go through a season where we are waiting for him to bring about a promise in our life or take us to the next season of our lives, often times he is the one who is waiting on us. God showed me a while back that he doesn't make people wait simply on principle. In other words, we all know that God rarely does things fast, normally it is a process over a period of time or it's a sudden change preceded by a substantial amount of time where nothing seemed as if it was going to change. That being said, he showed me that he just doesn't do this because that's how he does things and that's always how he has done things. God is not a God of methods. He is God, he IS the method. God makes people wait because he is preparing them for that next season in their life that he has told them he is going to bring them into.

  That being said, he's shown me in the last couple of days that he is waiting on me to develop a Spirit of Excellence before he can bring me into what he has for me. As I've thought about this the last few days god has shown me that, as a child of his and someone who has been called to be a leader in Ministry- I must have a spirit of Excellence that directs all of my actions and interactions. More importantly though, it's about having a spirit of excellence during this time of transition in my life where everyday is a struggle and life doesn't have many positives aside from my faith and family. It's there and only there that people can really develop a spirit of excellence.

  So what exactly is a spirit of excellence?

  Well, you know how when life isn't exactly being a "box of chocolates" for us, we kind of have this tendency to do just enough or even cut corners when it comes to what we do and how we act and interact. I mean let's be honest, it's easy to be and do everything to the highest standard when life is treating us good but look how we tend to start treating people, treating ourselves and treating our responsibilities when our circumstances aren't what we'd like them to be.

  A spirit of excellence is still being the person that God has called you to be in every area of your life, not cutting corners and still going the extra mile even when there is seemingly no reason to. Even when life is not at all going the way you want it to.

As I thought about what God's word says about a spirit of excellence, God brought two people to my mind that are an example of this if there ever was one. They are Joseph and Daniel.

  If you look at both of their lives, the similarities are many. Both Daniel and Joseph are ripped away from their homeland, their families and everything they know. Both are taken to a foreign land to be servants to a foreign people. Yet, both of these men excel in everything they do and rise to places of prominence. When I say places of prominence, I mean that both of these men started out as servants and slaves and ended up being masters. Not just masters of other slaves though, I mean masters over the entire Kingdom!

Daniel 6:3 says "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom." 

  And when it comes to Joseph, Genesis 41:39-41 says " Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

  Both of these men were servants, foreigners, and they were very young to be ruling over anything but both of them had a spirit of excellence that saturated who they were and everything they did. Notice that in both of these verses, the men were being promoted because they had set themselves apart from the crowd.

That's exactly what God asks us as Christians to do everyday, not just in a spiritual way, but also by being excellent in all we do and how we act.

   As we set ourselves apart more and more, God will promote us in his Kingdom and trust us and give us more influence and more resources to advance his kingdom just as he did with Joseph and Daniel. Don't get it wrong, it was ultimately God who caused Joseph and Daniel to be promoted. 

Psalm 75:6-7 says " For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south,but God is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another."

  They had an excellent spirit even when they were in a terrible season of their life and God promoted them time and time again for it and blessed them with great resources and great influence. God wants to do the same with each of us!  The sad truth is though,

  

  

   Many of us want to have an excellent life but very few of us are willing to be excellent people.

I believe what God has told me, he is trying to telling many others - "Be a person of excellence and I'll bring you into your season of excellence.

Find your passion and you've found your path to greatness

1 Samuel 17:34-37 - But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”  

I like to imagine that a part of David was completely suprised and a little in shock at the words that were coming out of his mouth. After all, Here was David, a young scrawny boy, a Sheep Herder standing among Israelite Soldiers. A group of brawny men who were supposed to be the bravest of the brave. Yet on that day, they were all cowering in fear while David was ready to go toe to toe with Goliath. On this day, David stood the mightiest among a group of man who were called mighty. On this day, David stepped into greatness.

 David was a lowly Shepherd , the last child of eight, and the only vote of confidence given to him was by a prophet named Samuel who told him he was to be King over all of Israel. Can you imagine what David must have felt? Day after day of tending sheep and catering to his older brothers, all the while remembering the day when some guy came out of nowhere and anointed him to be King. King over those sheep, his brothers, and the entire nation. As the days, months and years passed after he had been anointed though, I can only imagine that he had a slight feeling of "my circumstances are not lining up with what I've been told." I think we've all felt that a time or two. Many of us might be feeling that way right now. You know God has spoken promises into your life, he has spoken into your future and has given you a picture of who you would become and what you would do for him but your life looks nothing like that. 

  

As we read the story of David, we can obviously see that he did eventually come into the realization of what was spoken to him. He became the greatest King Israel Israel ever had.

So, How did that happen?

 How did David go from Sheep herder to King? Well, most of us would say it was because he slayed the Giant Goliath and became the hero and successor to the throne. That's not entirely true though. Yes, David slayed the giant. Think about this, though - If slaying the giant was the moment that catapulted David into his destiny, you once again have to ask yourself...

So, how did that happen?

How in the world did David have the courage to stand up to this giant when all of the bigger, stronger and seemingly way more qualified soldiers were trembling in fear? I'll tell you how - 

Passion.

Yes, that's right. It was his passion.

  While all the other Soldiers saw sure defeat and death when they thought about taking on this giant, David's passion allowed him to look past all of that. I imagine you're asking yourself "Passion for what?" "what was David so passionate about that gave him the courage to defeat Goliath?"

  Well, the funny thing about being a Shepherd is that your entire job is risking your life to protect creatures that are completely helpless, vulnerable and a prime target for pretty much any other creature. In other words, Sheep are right there near the bottom of the food chain. In 1 Samuel 17, David tells King Saul " your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 You see, I don't think David fully realized until that day that the whole time he was doing the lowly job of Shepherding sheep and wondering when he would be king, God was developing in him the passion that would create the path to the greatness that God had in store for his life.

  Through the job of Shepherding, David developed a strong passion for defending the defenseless and protecting the sheep, who were smaller and helpless, from the "bullies" who looked to take advantage of the smaller and weaker species. So after years of Shepherding, wouldn't you know that God has David walk right into the midst of a situation that was exactly like what he'd seen everyday for the past however many years!

  David's passion for defending the weak allows him to see Goliath not as a mighty Giant whom he should cower in fear from, but instead, as a bully who is taunting the weaker and smaller Israelite soldiers to come and face him one on one. David's passion propels him into action and the smallest man on the field that day took down the biggest. 

  God used David's passion to put him on the path to the greatness that he had for him. The whole while David was tending sheep and being passionate in his care and defense of them-he was on his path to greatness and he didn't even realize it.

  Always remember that God uses your passion, to make a difference in an area, as the path to the greatness that he has for you. So if you know God has told you that you are going to do great things in this world for him, look for the areas in your life where he has planted seeds of passion. If they're aren't any there yet- don't get discouraged. God started whispering to my spirit that I was going to do great things for his Kingdom long before he ever placed the passion for a specific cause in my heart. Remember, David was anointed king while he was still tending sheep. Can you imagine how many times he must of thought, How in the world am I going to end up being King? All David knew was that God had told him that he was destined for greatness one day.

  Many times, after God convinces your heart and mind that he wants to use you in a great way, he will ask you to have patience so that he can grow you, then he will give you your one great passion, and finally, he will give you the plan to put that Passion into action. God's plan for David was defeating Goliath.

                           

                             He has a passion and a plan for you as well, just be patient.