Luke 2:41-52

For the Kids

All children grow up to become adults, if they continue through life. Even Jesus was a little baby . It is my job as a parent to help you as a child to become a good adult. The respect I desire you to show adults is the respect that I am hoping that you will show God for the rest of your lives. But there comes a time when I am supposed to let go of the respect that I am teaching you to show for me as a parent, and start showing that for other people and for God, because you love them.

For the Adults

Even Jesus was obedient to His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary. There were likely a handful of moments during which the nature of God caused Him to follow through on strange paths that they couldn't understand, but on a daily life, it is important to understand that the boy Jesus submitted Himself to His parents while He was under their "jurisdiction". He had to do so for the name of all righteousness to be fulfilled in Him. And we, modeling ourselves after Jesus, should do our utmost to respect our elders, even when we view them as "lower" or undeserving.

It must have been so difficult to be the parent to Jesus, who was perfect, and when they had this knowledge that He was the Anointed One. How do you train Him, other than in the word of God? Do you even discipline Him, even for a perceived slight? Would it have been wrong to discipline? Believe it or not, these are questions all parents have to ask themselves as they formulate a plan and worldview about parenting. It's difficult to establish guilt, except when children are outright rebellious. And in the midst of it all, we need to show the love of God, all while we are irritated at the child for disobeying for the umpteenth time - imagine how God could be exasperated at us, but He's not. God loves us with a perfect love, and we have to strive for that as parents and as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Another discussion to be had here is that we parents' ultimate goal is to help the child become an adult, to support and raise their own family. To leave their parents and cleave to a spouse. Our goal is to ensure you are ready to become a part of the world without being tainted by the world - to be IN the world but not OF it. And here is where much of the nail-biting and fear can set in, when a parent sees every sin as a sign of their failure, and can all too often result to fear-based parenting - then the rules become the norm, rather than love. We have to repent of that, because the goal of fear-based parenting is the raise little pharisees that will never take responsibility for themselves and will always point the finger elsewhere.

Yes, we need to have rules. House rules, car rules, obedient to the state rules. But the governing principle for Christians is love - a love that is patient, kind, does not envy, does not always want its own way, forgives, and HOPES. Always hopes. Not in what we see before us, but in a God that is in control of all things and loves us with a more perfect love than we could ever understand.

Luke 1:26-56

For the Kids

There are a lot of times that we have to go through difficult situations that we don't understand. God tells us something in His word, and we don't think it should be true, or that it isn't possible to follow God's ways in a situation in our life. But wonderful things happen when we obey God's ways and decide to do the right thing, no matter what. Our souls are lifted up when we decide to walk in faith, do things God's way even when it doesn't make sense.

For the Adults

Pregnant! But I'm only a young teenager. And I've never been with a man! Yet, when an angel is standing before you telling you that God's plans for the anointed one to enter the planet come through your womb, it must be even more earth shattering than being a pregnant teen. Not to mention that she was betrothed to be married, and therefore could be stoned to death for adultery, should Joseph claim that she committed adultery against him.

Mary's reaction is beautiful. "Behold your faithful servant".

Mary had faith that if God would make the miracle of an immaculate conception possible, then He would make all of the other miracles happen to allow the baby to reach adulthood and carry out His ministry. God would provide, one step at a time. If only we all had such faith.

Luke 1:5-25

For the Kids

It is hard to understand what God is doing sometimes. There are very difficult situations we have to deal with in life, and we don't always think that God is doing good things when we only see bad things happening around us, or when bad things are happening to us. But God is always at work in His children, the people that believe in Him. And sometimes God does the unexpected, bringing good things directly out of something that seems bad. God is always good, and He always love us and wants what is good for us, even when we don't think He even cares.

For the Adults

No hope. There are those situations in life where we find ourselves looking at the circumstances and saying, "there is simply no hope in this", and we find ourselves giving up hope. That is what Zechariah and his wife thought about having children, having grown beyond the age where they thought that they could have children. Even when an angel appears to Zechariah and says that God is going to bless them with a child who will be the prophet to prepare the way for the messiah, elderly Zechariah doubts the message, and he is struck mute until the child is born to display the power of God. His situation went from an acceptable hopelessness to a jaded difficulty, an uncertainty over what God was doing in his life, and how to react to it. And his faith ended up blossoming as a result.

We look at the gift of the child, but do we understand that being struck mute was a gift from God, as well? God chastises those whom He loves, and rather than looking at ourselves as cursed by God for having to live with the circumstances of our sin, we should understand that God is always at work in our hearts, and He uses the bad as well as the good to teach us, mold us, form us into a more perfect child of faith. Statements such as "all things work for good" and "tribulation produces... hope" seem impossible when you are in a an absolutely no-win situation, and God seems nowhere in sight. But He does work all things for good, and sometimes our brokenness is exactly what we need at that time to produce better character and eventually a greater faith and ability to walk in His Spirit.

Though it is very difficult and we often want to give up on God during those dark times in our life, we should instead learn to reply to God, "here am I", "do with me what you will". We should ask Him what He wants us to learn, and humble ourselves before His will for our lives. For those that persevere in the bible, they always come out of tribulation with a greater love for God, a greater love for their brethren, and greater blessings in the spiritual realm. Some of them even gain greater earthly blessings, though that is not our greatest hope.

Our greatest hope is in the eternal realm, and building others up for the kingdom of God. Our greatest joy is in God, no matter how low we are in life. Take faith in that, and that God is always with you and always desires what is best for you, no matter what. In this we are lifted up and find ourselves seated at the right hand of God, in Christ. In this we find more joy and peace than we ever thought possible. This is our hope.

Psalms 33

For the Kids

Life can be very hard. This world is very evil, and there are a lot of evil people in it. We have to guard our people from attack, and have to prepare our families for difficult times. Times like when there is little money or even little food. Times like when evil men might try to hurt the ones that we love. But if we try to prepare for these things thinking that we can do it all in our own strength, we are fooling ourselves. Because it is God that allows all things to happen, and can turn the situation around to be better. If we don't look to Him for our true safety, then bad things will happen. If we look to Him for all of our needs, He will bless us. And no matter what happens, we should sing and shout out that God is good and wonderful, that He is our strength and joy, that all good things come from Him and we can trust Him no matter what.

For the Adults

The most expensive military in the world. The most powerful economy. The highest level of consumerism. The United States is like the shining beacon on the hill for all of the world to look at and marvel at. And hate. We have many enemies, all either wanting what we have or hating us for our decadence. Yet we have faith in all of our own power that no one can possibly overthrow us. That is exactly why we are in a perfect position to fall. Like the Roman Empire, we are in debt over our ears and swooning in the drunken stupor of our own surplus. Our churches join in the chants for equality and tolerance for all paths of life, no matter how immoral. The bible is a footnote and not the driving force behind our country's motivating factors. God is being placed on the shelf in our increasingly atheistic public venues, a minor deity like all others to be invoked when there are times of trouble. And our Christians tolerate evil rather than speaking out against it, usually for the sake of maintaining "peace".

God will not be mocked or marginalized. He made all things, including you. Your heart beats because He operates every neuron that fires. There is no electron that escapes His management and purview. Like a tethered wild horse that is gradually being broken of its tendencies, our hearts and minds (and that of our society's) are allowed to range about until God is ready to reign us in, and that may come with a punishing touch depending on what He thinks is necessary.

Our individual responsibility is to realize that God is our provider - He gives us all good things. And sometimes bad, depending on what He thinks we need. He is our Creator, having breathed us into existence. The raging seas and aspiring mountainous peaks were practically an afterthought, the cherry on top of His mastery. And you and I are his centerpiece, more majestic and glorious than all creatures; we are the ones that He has invested all of His very heart, knowing we would reject all of His ways. The Father knew His son would die for us. The Holy Spirit knew the grimy touch of all of our tainted hearts before Adam existed and the Son knew we would spit on and beat Him before killing his mortal frame. And yet God lovingly formed all of us, exhaling into our first breath.

Our reaction to this should be to constantly give Him credit, all glory for the wonderful creation He has made. Praise for keeping us fed and clothed and dry from the storm. No, He doesn't protect us from all of the storms of life, but He provides the resilience and strength to push through, knowing exactly what resistance will build us up. Finally, He deserves all of our love for persevering with us... He stands by and waits while we betray Him, even watches as we beat and mock Him... and He says, "forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing."

Psalms 32

For the Kids

When we do bad things and try to hide it from God, it hurts us. It causes us to feel like we are dead inside. God sees and knows EVERYTHING and already knows we did the bad things, He just wants us to come to Him and admit that we did wrong. We need to tell God when we have done bad things, and then know that that He doesn't hold it against us and will help us to stop doing those bad things. He even treats us as if we never did any bad things, when we are able to take it all to Him. That is so wonderful and we should thank Him that because of Jesus, all of our sins are paid for! 

For the Adults

When mankind fell into darkness, it created a rift in our ability to have a relationship with God. He hides His face from sin, and from those that dedicate themselves to - or champion - sin. When we accept the free gift of Jesus' death on the cross, our sins are paid for and we are redeemed from the eternal punishment. We have to continue to fight the sin nature that is in the flesh, however, and will yet sin from time to time. That willful sin can still affect our relationship with God, especially when it is habitual and unrepentant - if we don't put God in the highest regard in our life and put aside all other things that cause us to sin, then we are not loving God the best we can, and that grieves Him. It doesn't mean that He doesn't love us, or that He gives up on us, but it certainly means that He will come to a point where He allows us to reap the consequences of our dedication to sin. 

The first step in this is a realization that we have sin in our lives, and that we don't understand how exactly to defeat it. We then admit to God that we have sinned, and ask Him to help us identify more with the new creation in us, and to no longer love those things that are not a part of His kingdom - yep, the sin and all its ways. It may mean that we need to cut ourselves off from a number of things that cause us to sin - our friends, our practices, etc. "If your right hand (those things most important to you) cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you..." 

The wonderful thing in the midst of this is not that God has made rules or defined those things that we love as sinful, but that even though we don't understand how much we grieve God with the things that we do, He still loves us, and is waiting with open arms to embrace and love us. Even when we are reaping the consequences of our sin, or being defeated by our true enemy - Satan - He is there for us, waiting like the father of the prodigal son to clothe us in glory and love us in every way. We have only to admit that our ways are not His, not lean on our own understanding, and acknowledge him in all of His ways and do our best to flee the immorality that ensnares us and grieves Him.

Impossible? Yeah, definitely. But all things are possible in Christ Jesus, who strengthens us. If we surrender our wills to Him, He is just and will forgive us and begin to unravel the messes that we've made for ourselves.

Psalms 31:19-24

For the Kids:

When we respect and love God, He protects and loves us. When we are afraid and are in great trouble, we can cry out to God and He will be there for us. If we are in danger, he will protect us. But take care, when you are nasty and bad to others all the time, God will punish you.

For the Adults:

God's love is lavish. He doesn't need to do anything for us, looking down from His throne room. He is worthy of all adoration, and is right in judging us all. But He is merciful, not doling out the eternal punishment that we deserve, and He looks down on those who respect His ways, seeking to obey Him. All too often we find ourselves in trouble in this life, and when we genuinely need Him, He is there for us. No, He won't remove all trouble from our lives, because He knows when we need to persevere through trials for the perfection of our character. But He knows what we can handle, and won't allow us to be overrun by our enemies. The greatest commandment is to love god, to maintain our loyalty to Him, and not be fickle with our faith. When we fully invest in Him, He recognizes us as His children. He knows His own children, and will not abandon them in their time of true distress.