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Showing posts from December, 2011

My New Year's Intentions

I've decided to call them intentions this year instead of resolutions.  It seems that the word resolution carries with it the idea that they will be broken.  Honestly, I've not made any "resolutions" in years because most of them are usually broken before the first quarter is over.  Maybe renaming them "intentions" will bode well for keeping them.  At any rate, this is a work in progress. (about to be interrupted by an extended family foray to a local mall and theater) Here are my BIG THREE intentions for 2012. During this year I intend to make a conscious daily effort to live, think and feel as Jesus did/would. During this year I will begin to add fasting to my prayer life. During this year I will enter into an "iron sharpens iron" relationship with 2 other men. Why only three?  Because that is manageable.  I've found that if I do any more, I get lost in the process.  Also, these three will impact every area of my life and relationship

Thank You, Mary & Joseph

This week as Christmas draws near, I find myself thinking about a pregnant teenager and her twenty-something fiance.  The faith they exhibited is phenomenal.  It is almost unimaginable that they would make the decisions they did in the face of the cultural mores of the time.  The dangers of being ostracized and possibly killed were very real.  I know that God is sovereign and that His play would be done, if not through them, through someone else, but I can't imagine anyone else with so much on the line.  Follow the story in Matthew 1:18ff from the new Common English Bible. 18  This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  19  Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly.  20  As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “ Joseph son of Da