I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Trusting God’s Story
Imagine Mary and Joseph getting ready to become parents. They probably asked a lot of the same questions expectant parents do today: Is the baby healthy? Are we prepared to care for this child? Where will we have the baby? Are we ready for the birth?
Near the end of Mary’s pregnancy, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that everyone within the Roman world return to their hometown for a census (Luke 2:1-4). This meant that Mary and Joseph had to leave their home in Nazareth to take the four-day journey to Bethlehem, the city of David, who was Joseph’s ancestor.
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.
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.
Luke 16
“And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my Lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had ...
My True Identity
John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
Many of us define ourselves by what we do. You might be a teacher, or a firefighter, or an accountant—“that’s who I am." But God’s plans often lead us outside of the very things we believe define us.
Our ultimate defining identities are not in what we do, but in who we are: children of God. It sounds simple, but it’s a deeply profound truth.
Receiving Jesus and identifying as a child of God isn’t passive. It’s not just slapping on a name tag and continuing life as usual. Taking on that identity is a daily, active decision. It means fully accepting Jesus’ love, authority, and call on our lives.
He gives us the freedom to live beyond labels, past wounds, and even seemingly good things that can hold us physically or emotionally captive. He breaks the chains of people living in poverty, addiction, or grief.
You are no longer a...
