by John Piper
The sun had just begun to set
And Joseph's face, filled with regret
Appeared again. "We'll find a place,"
Said Mary, full of hope and grace.
"I know we will," she touched his chin
And bravely smiled, "Who needs an inn?
The sky is clear, the blankets thick
And warm; there's still good light to pick
A place among the rocks we passed.
God's first and best is often last."
More times than he preferred to think
Poor Joseph's faith would start to sink
And darkness gather like a foe
'Til Mary's hopeful heart would glow.
It wasn't that he feared the night,
Nor prowling beasts nor thieves to fight.
In fact, it wasn't fear at all
That made the tears begin to fall.
"It's all right, Joseph, I don't mind.
I'm sure it won't be hard to find."
"My God, you're pregnant, woman, look!
What kind of husband ever took
His wife to sleep among the rocks?
I'm not a shepherd with some flocks;
I am a man and you're my wife
With child." She hugged him to the Life
Within her womb and said no more.
Wise woman, she had learned before:
Sometimes you leave a man alone
To bear his load of love, and groan.
She'd kept it to herself all day
And every time they came she'd pray
"Not yet, O God, not on the road;
Your handmaid bears as big a load
As she can take. O Lord, please wait;
Please let the child, your child, come late."
She never burdened Joseph down,
Not even when they got to town,
Not even at the setting sun,
But only when the search was done.
He helped her down among the cocks
And hens. She smiled, "It sure beats rocks,
Especially for a night-time birth."
"I'm in no mood for silly mirth."
"Nor I." "How long have you known this?"
"No anger now, my love, let's kiss
The hour and kiss the ways of God.
Remember that his staff and rod
Are comfort, father David said."
She winced and quickly shaped her bed.
"I helped to make your day's load light;
Please, Joseph, carry me tonight."
"I'll get a midwife from the place..."
"Don't leave me here without your face.
My mother showed me what to do
And what I need right now is you."
Between the pains she tried to lie
In peace and stare into the sky,
And think of how she'd been prepared.
And then she said, "Joseph, I'm scared."
And he with steady eye and calm
Recalled for her the angel's psalm.
"He is the shoot of Jesse's rod;
He shall be called the Son of God;
His Kingdom shall not ever end.
Will not God then his birth attend?"
But Mary's face remained so grim:
"The promises are sure for him.
You know I never doubt God's word,
But, Joseph, I have never heard
A promise for myself but this:
‘Some sword my own soul will not miss.'"
Again his eyes were steady, bright
Reflecting heaven's grace and light.
"Our book is full of promises;
Remember that one where it says,
No good thing does the Lord withhold
From those whose cares on him are rolled.
And: when your worries multiply
God's consolation hovers nigh.
And: steadfast love surrounds the girl
For whom Jehovah is her pearl.
And: God's a stronghold for the weak,
How happy those who his help seek."
Each time the birthing pangs withdrew
He gave her joyful words and true.
He carried Mary with the Word
And she delivered what she heard:
God's Yes to every ancient oath.
And now with lifted hands they both
Were filled with distant prophecy:
"To God alone all praises be,
And let the world a candle light
To celebrate this awesome night."
That there is a deep and profound chasm that separates believing in the total depravity of man and our own understanding of the depth and scope of our own sin is a potent sign of the depth and scope of our own sin. “Total depravity” is a true and sound biblical doctrine about how the fall has impacted mankind. We are sinful in every part of our being and utterly unable, precisely because we are unwilling, to embrace the work of Christ on our behalf unless He changes us first. Because we are totally depraved, however, we see this as a doctrine about man, rather than an actual self-description. We distinguish between the problems of “man” and our own problems. It is safe to speak ill of man, but dangerous and sad business to look too closely into our own hearts of darkness. So instead we think ourselves as partaking in a general sense of this depravity thing, but see it manifest in our own lives in nice, clean ways. We have a high view of God’s holiness, of His law, and so confess with all due piety that we are sinners indeed, rebels against the living God, in a nice, clean, abstract sort of way.
The living God, however, has a far more accurate and potent picture of what we are. We are whores. We are shameless, self-degrading, crass and crude. We throw ourselves at strangers, selling our dignity for cash. Worse still, after He has redeemed us, washed us, even married us, we go back for more. We turn tricks before the all seeing eyes of a Husband who suffered hell for us. Again He comes and washes us. He holds us. He confesses His love for us. He promises He will never leave us. He makes us new again.
But because we are still proud, we parade around in the beautiful gown with which He has covered us, suggesting that it surely had a few spots, a wrinkle or two on it before He found us. But they were nice, respectable spots and wrinkles. What we should be confessing that it was once stained through with our whoredom. The joy of the Lord is not that He took we who were mostly clean and made us wholly clean. The joy of the Lord isn’t that because He worked in us no one needs to know our former shame. The joy of the Lord is that while we were out walking the streets He came for us. While others paid to pollute us, He paid to redeem us.
Our Father told us a story so that we would know what we are. He gave us a prophet, Hosea. And we, sinners that we are, instead of confessing to being Gomer, thought He was telling us to be more like Hosea. “Oh,” we humbly confess, “we should be so much more compassionate towards the really bad people. Please forgive us for not being more loving toward the unseemly ones of this world.” The truth is He is confessing that we are the unseemly ones. That’s what we are, the people Jesus died for and married, the people adopted and loved of the Father, the people indwelt and being cleansed by the Spirit- God in three persons, consorting with such as we.
- R.C. Sproul, Jr.
J. D. Greear, Lead pastor of the Summit Church and author of Breaking the Islam Code, says:
Every church has got to make a decision whether or not it’s going to be a seed that exists for itself or whether it's going to be a seed planted in the ground that dies [to be a blessing for the nations].
He recently recorded a helpful and challenging video while traveling to the largest unreached island in the world.
Vid 2 from The Summit Church on Vimeo.
Also, at our National Conference this year, J. D. participated in a discussion with Thabiti Anyabwile entitled "Loving Our Muslim Neighbors."
Pastor Youcef faces execution in Iran if his appeal fails.
Iran (MNN) ― The fate of a Christian pastor in Iran is in the hands of the judicial system in Iran.
32-year-old Youcef Nadarkhani is the pastor of a church of about 400 people. He was convicted of apostasy and has been sentenced to death for allegedly renouncing his Muslim faith.
A member of the Church of Iran's Executive Council says, "This is part of a greater trend of persecution against Christians."
On September 22, Iran's 11th Circuit Criminal Court of Appeals for the Gilan Province upheld the death sentence and conviction of Nadarkhani for apostasy. The delivery of the death sentence was being delayed. According to reports, the goal was to put more pressure on him to turn away from Christ.
Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says, "His attorney has now formally appealed the verdict, or asked for the verdict to be set aside. So now we wait and see what the appeals court will do in this case."
Nadarkhani would be the first Christian convicted of apostasy to be executed in 20 years.
Nettleton says Christians are facing more persecution. "The church of Jesus Christ is growing at an incredibly high rate, and Muslims are coming to follow Christ in huge numbers. That has the government running scared."
According to Nettleton, "For the man on the street, the government is Islam and Islam is the government. So when there's failure in the country -- when there's poverty, when elections are stolen -- the man on the street says, 'That's Islam. And if that's Islam, I want to know what else is out there.' So that's part of the seed that is growing into revival in Iran."
Two articles in the constitution grant Christians "the right to freely worship and form religious societies." Another article "obligates the Iranian government to uphold the equality and human rights of Christians."
The judge based his decision on constitutional provisions and Revolutionary Court "civil procedures that instruct judges to consult sources when there is no codified law that addresses a matter."
Nettleton is asking you to pray AND go to http://www.PrisonerAlert.com "where you can go and write letters to Christians in prison. The Web site actually translates [the letters]. And it also provides ways to contact the government."
I used to bleed orange & blue. That all ended 10 years ago. I decided to put the state of my soul over what football program I liked the most & moved back to Birmingham from Auburn & plug into my home church. And it was in Birmingham I met the inanimate love of my life, UAB. I started by taking one of the 2 AU decals off my truck & replacing it with a UAB decal, having one of each. Then, within a couple months, I was head over heels with the place & people of UAB. That is too personal to post publicly (somewhat kidding about that) but today I want to congratulate the Auburn Tigers, SEC champions.
1,006 women in their forties with children who were members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was provided.
I can identify with the husband being the main source of stress… Second would have to be our upstairs neighbours, or at least our thin ceiling.
| Often (to SQs) | 32.5% |
| Sometimes (to SQs) | 50.7% |
| Almost never | 16.8% |
| Husband | 68.1% |
| Children | 55.3% |
| Period | 19.0% |
| Menopause | 18.9% |
| Work | 18.0% |
| Parents | 17.1% |
| Neighbours | 8.1% |
| Other | 11.7% |
| Don’t know | 4.1% |
| Watch television, movie, DVD | 31.2% |
| Go shopping | 24.0% |
| Get aware of it and it doesn’t go away | 23.2% |
| Drink alcohol | 15.5% |
| Go internet shopping | 14.3 |
| Give up on housework | 13.4% |
| Stuff my face | 10.8% |
| Make a long phone call to friends | 9.8% |
| Do sports | 9.6% |
| Shout at my husband | 7.8% |
| Go on a trip | 7.8% |
| Play with my pet | 6.6% |
| Smoke | 6.0% |
| Go to karaoke | 3.0% |
| Go for beauty treatment | 2.5% |
| Go for a night out | 1.3% |
| Gamble | 0.7% |
| Other | 28.8% |
