🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you so much.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you, Pip. That means a lot to me. I appreciate you all so much and I appreciate you all always being here with me. I am so glad that they touch your heart. I am truly blessed and God truly blessed me, when He put you all in my life here on AU. He has such a wonderful way of bringing us all together. It's truly amazing how He works. God bless.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Merry Christmas to you and yours, Robert. God bless you and yours. Wishing you all a blessed, joyful, warmth, and peace-filled Christmas. Thank You, Jesus.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you, Pip. Merry Christmas to you and yours and to everyone here and everywhere. God bless you all. May Christmas be filled with blessings, warmth, joy, and peace. Thanks for being part of my family. I love you all. Hugs. Thank You, Jesus. You are the reason for the season.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️What a glorious world that will be. So much light and love. Thank You, Jesus.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you so much. God bless.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you so much.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you so much, Michael. Wishing you and yours a blessed and most wonderful Christmas. God bless you all. Have a wonderful and beautiful day.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Amen and Amen. Merry Christmas to you and yours AQ. Wishing you all many blessings.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️That's so beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas to you and yours, Noelle. Have a blessed and beautiful day.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you so much. Merry Christmas to you and yours, Blessed. Wishing you all a blessed and most wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Thank you so much Kathryn. Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well. God bless you all. Have a beautiful day.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

Job lost everything to Satan when Satan wanted to prove to God that he could flip even the most righteous of God's followers to evil. In the chapters preceding this one, Job has done that, wondering why and how God could let this happen to him. These verses are God's response, similar to the rebuke that the group had to my friend. Job assumes that he has any idea what God has planned and demands an answer. Job has no idea! God asks where was Job when God created everything! There is not much that can be said in reply to that.

As Christians, no matter what befalls us, we should not question why it has happened.

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Amen and Amen.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

The angel also knew what the shepherds did not: "I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people." The Messiah all of Israel had been waiting for, the one whom the prophets had foretold of, had been born. He had come. Nothing in the world could have been better news or a cause for greater joy than this!

And all of the people who could have been first to know, it was these shepherds. In Israel at that time, shepherds were everyday people. They weren't powerful, influential, or wealthy. And yet God picked these everyday people to be the first to hear this good news. The Kingdom of God isn't just for those people society holds high in regard. It is for everyone. It is for all of us.

Today, pay attention to how God may be speaking to you. It doesn't matter who you are, where you've been, or where you're going. This is good news for you!

In these verses in Matthew, we are told that men do not gather thorns and thistles, we gather grapes and figs. We don't want the bad and painful, we want the delicious and healthy. The way we care for the plants and trees that the fruit grows on is important to the quality of the fruit. The same is obviously true of our spiritual journey and the quality of our relationship with Christ. How do you tend your plants?

🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Right back at you, my friend. God bless you and yours always. Merry Christmas.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Amen and Amen. God bless you and yours. Have a most wonderful day.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

He showed us that we can trust the story. Mary had to trust God's story. Joseph had to trust God's story. Imagine how the story would have been different if Mary and Joseph had demanded that room be made for them in an inn, shouting, "This is the Messiah, people! Make room!" But they didn't do that. They accepted the situation in front of them, trusting God's story regardless of how strange or undesirable the setting seemed.

And from that surrendered posture and strange set of circumstances, God brought forth His Son, exactly as He had planned.

We can trust the story because God is the Author. Jesus' humble birth was not an accident-it was a message, a picture to all of us of what God's Kingdom is truly like. It's also an invitation for us to surrender our plans, our ideas, of how the story should be, and trust the trustworthy hand of God in our lives. We can trust God.

Because of the census, Bethlehem's inns were full of people making the journey home. And so, when the time came, Mary gave birth to Jesus in the only place available to them: a stable. She placed him in a manger-a feeding trough-because that's all there was. Surely this was not the birth that Mary would have planned for her firstborn child.

And yet, it was exactly what God had ordained. God showed us a lot about His Kingdom through the circumstances around the birth of His Son.

He showed us that Jesus is humble. Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger. The King of all Creation, yet such a humble beginning.

He showed us that the Kingdom of God is accessible. This King wasn't tucked away in a castle or a mansion, separated from His people and surrounded by luxuries-shepherds and wise men alike were able to come visit Him.

Continued

We dont always receive constructive criticism; sometimes it is destructive. Have you heard the phrase, "the pot calling the kettle black"? It means when someone tells you that you act a certain way, generally with a negative connotation, that they also exhibit. It reminds me of these verses from the gospel of Matthew. If King David said to his sons, "I cant believe you committed adultery. That is so bad," I can only imagine how they would roll their eyes considering the actions of their father (2 Samuel 11). We should focus on our own problems rather than criticizing the problems of others. All this criticism does is fall on deaf ears and gets flung back in our face because it is like a black pot calling a black kettle...black.

Nobody is perfect, yet we all have a chance to be redeemed. We should focus on our own salvation and in doing so, lead by example.

🙏❤️🤗🕊️Amen and Amen.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️

Isn't it interesting that you didn't choose the time, place, body, or family in which you were born? But God has you here, right now, on purpose.

You've been grafted into an ongoing story playing out since the beginning of time. And this timeless offer, to be saved from the shackles of your sin and freed from a debt you could never pay, has been extended to you.

What is sin? Sin is choosing our way instead of God's. Sin is rebelling against His design and His plan. And we've all done it-we've all fallen short of God's righteous standard.

But that's why He sent Jesus-because He loved us that much.

And then, Jesus gave His life for the sake of the world.

If you've never accepted the free gift of salvation, today can be your day, and this moment can be your moment. There's nothing you can do to earn it, but you can come to Him-just as you are.

🙏❤️🤗🕊️God bless you and yours Cindy. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.🙏❤️🤗🕊️

🙏❤️🤗🕊️

Keep in mind, Mary had only just found out about her pregnancy. It would have been so easy, so understandable to be overwhelmed, afraid, or distressed. Mary hadn't even married her husband, Joseph yet. And yet, watch the trust and confidence in her response:

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Luke 1:46-47 NIV

They celebrated the work of god together. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months. Imagine the conversations they must've had: prophecies fulfilled, the future of the Kingdom of God, what would their sons' lives look like?

Mary made a choice to rejoice in the story God was writing, a story of trust and celebrating the work of God.

Today, how does Mary's story encourage you to trust God? What is your response to the story God is writing in your life? Take a moment to reflect on how you can glorify in the Lord and rejoice in God today.