GENESIS 3:22-23  22And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.  PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name …

ISAIAH 7:14 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. MATTHEW 1:22-23 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). I am not a patient person. I think perhaps this is because I am a worrier. …

LUKE 2:4-7 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and …

MATTHEW 2:7-8  7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” MATTHEW 2:13-16 13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his …

I SAMUEL 19:4-5 4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him …

I CORINTHIANS 13:4 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. I PETER 2:9 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. So, last week was a test for me, but I didn’t know it. I wanted to say thank …

ROMANS 1:7-8 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.  It’s November, the month of Thanksgiving and also thanks-giving for all we have and for all God had done in …

1 CHRONICLES 28:20 David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.   Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a novel of a boy and his father’s search for habitable earth in a cold and dying world, was one of …

PHILIPPIANS 3:13   “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” 1 JOHN 1:9  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Most of …

GALATIANS 6:9 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  I’m approaching middle age…tiptoeing up and peering under the door and wondering over it. But, chances are, when the door swings open it’s going to look a lot like where I’m standing now. Identical living room and life with different messes in the middle. People talk about middle age like …