Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! And I hope all of you really do have a merry Christmas.

For those of you from FBC, we already learned about the amazing faith of Mary and Joseph about a week ago at youth group, as well as the story of Simeon and Anna last night if you went to the Christmas Eve Service (which was really really good). But, there is always more to be learned about the Christmas story, or at least more to really think about and focus on a little more deeply.

This afternoon I got a chance to read some scripture from the books of Isaiah and Matthew. I took a more focused look at the prophecy of Christ from Isaiah and His genealogy in Matthew. Both of those things really made me think about God's absolute sovereignty in the Lord Jesus Christ's birth. The fact that God used prophets generations and generations beforehand to tell Israel about Christ's coming, and then how He used numerous "chance" happenings to fulfill that prophecy. The genealogy of Christ found in Matthew includes the names of 5 women. And although women were rarely included in genealogies and these particular 5 women weren't particularly great or godly women, it's still important that they're listed. It's important because they show God's total sovereignty in all circumstances. To show how he used even prostitutes and adulteresses to keep the line of David intact until the birth of Christ. He was in perfect control before, during, and after the birth of Christ. And still is!

I'd love to hear something you guys learned about Christmas, Jesus, God, or anything else this Christmas season. I think it's awesome to see people focusing on things of true importance this time of year, even though I know all of us (myself included for sure) love presents and cookies and break as well.

So thank the Lord for how He's blessed us so amazingly through His Son and then blessed us even more on top of that! Merry Christmas!