{"id":132,"date":"2016-12-22T10:20:35","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T15:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2016-12-22T10:20:35","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T15:20:35","slug":"when-following-is-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"When following is Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nativity_near-worship-1-still-16x9\"<\/a>Here’s how the Bible describes some of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth:<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man,<\/em> and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.\u00a0 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, \u201cJoseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.\u201d (Matthew 1:18-21)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have you ever wondered what was going through Joseph’s head when he heard all this for the first time? Perhaps, being a good Jew, his mind raced to the Old Testament passage of Deuteronomy 23:2 which states:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants<\/em> shall enter the assembly of the LORD.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was no small thing for Joseph to take Mary as wife. He risked having his descendants excluded from the assembly for 10 generations! God was asking him to step out in faith and trust Him. Joseph\u2019s character is seen in the fact that he acted in faith and obeyed.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was addresses as \u201cJoseph, son of David.\u201d (v. 20) Do you think he got that a lot? How often was this common carpenter linked to the greatest king Israel ever had? While it\u2019s true that David was his biological ancestor, such a link was probably not often associated with him. There was no royalty, no crown, no obvious link to the throne.<\/span><\/p>\n

The angel had interrupted Joseph\u2019s contemplation of \u2018hushing up\u2019 the whole issue of Mary\u2019s pregnancy. He sought to \u2018put her away secretly\u2019 and not make her a \u2018public example.\u2019 While we applaud Joseph\u2019s intent, and understand that his motives were honorable (he was a \u2018just man\u2019) we find that not only was God\u2019s intent that he should go ahead with marrying Mary, but that this birth would be the most public event in human history<\/span>. There would be no privacy, no secrets, no dodging the public eye. This birth was going to be angelically announced.\u00a0 And the baby would grow to be a man whose birth would always be shrouded in doubt and suspicion (see John 8:41<\/a>). But the message to Joseph was clear: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What is it that God is calling you to do today? Is there a temptation, no matter how noble, to take the path of least resistance in your life and avoid a decision that could be misunderstood or hard to explain? Is there a fear of what might happen if…?<\/span><\/p>\n

Take a lesson from Joseph. Though the results of obedience may be difficult, the consequences of disobedience are even more so. As a Christian, I am also the son of a King, and the message to me is the same, \u201cDo not fear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the wonder of Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s how the Bible describes some of the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/robgribbin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}