Articles & Info
“This past June the Robinson family had an unexpected surprise in the form of a serious illness that put an end to most of these plans. In what felt like the blink of an eye, I went from normal life to sitting in the ER with my wife waiting for test results, triage, and reeling from how things had developed. It was a shock that will take my family and I time to process.”
Each winter we’ve made a tradition of celebrating the volunteers who make up our Serve Teams here at Sound City. The work of the ministry is made possible by all of your hard work. On January 20th, we got together over food, fun, ice cream, games, scripture and testimonies. It was a celebration full of laughter and joy.
This story from Acts 17 speaks of the way that studying the scriptures and engaging the mind can lead to belief in the good news of Jesus. Imagine the riches we might find if we examined the scriptures daily with eagerness like the Bereans referenced in this passage. But it’s so easy to read the bible and superimpose our own ideas about what it says based on our culture, our experiences, our assumptions, or even our own personality. Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to remember the treasures God has hidden in scripture for those who would look for them, since so much of what we see in the Christmas story was foretold in the prophets of the Old Testament.
Sorrowful, troubled, deeply grieved…this is how Matthew 26 describes Jesus. Not very Christmas-y, right? The thing we often love about Christmas is the sense of magic. Santa has supernatural powers to see you when you are sleeping and enough riches to provide toys for all the children in the world, but Jesus laid aside the full use of his divine power to live a mortal life of poverty, sorrow, and sacrifice. Make no mistake, he is ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father now, and our desire for the power, joy and victory of Christmas are met in him. At the same time, our hearts can take comfort in knowing that he has struggled, and suffered, and grieved; and he understands us in our human frailty.
Pastor and author Tim Keller says, “If we impose our understanding of schedule & timing on Jesus, we will struggle to feel loved by Him.” Galatians 4 tells us that God caused his son to be born, “when the fullness of time had come.” His timing is intentional in sending Jesus, in salvation, and even in the days of our lives. God knows what he is doing, but our view of things is so limited that it can be hard for us to trust sometimes. This time of year, remembering that Jesus' birth was planned and came to pass at the “fullness of time,” can help us continue to trust God and persevere in faith.
In Luke 1, Mary sings for joy at being seen and chosen by her mighty God. Up until this point, she was someone who had lived in expectation of the coming Messiah. We see in this passage that she was aware of how God was using her to fulfill his promise, but she was also likely aware that this would be a difficult and disruptive call on her life. While we will probably never experience it to the degree that Mary did, we can often rejoice when we see God at work without truly understanding how much perseverance and difficulty might be involved in the process.
