Not What You Would Expect:
Isaac (Not Ishmael), Genesis 17:19
Jacob (not Esau), Genesis 28:14

In a Jewish patriarchal society, the first-born son is typically the expected choice for lineage and inheritance.

But God’s ways are not always our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). God seems to take surprising delight in sometimes doing the unexpected.

Much about the coming of Jesus was unexpected:

• His lineage is traced through a line that did not always follow the first-born.
• He was born of a virgin. (How is that possible, one might ask!)
• He came from Nazareth. (Can anything good come out of Nazareth, was asked more than once.)

Christ’s birth, His life, and His death all defy human expectations, human logic, and even common sense.

But God.

• God became man.
• God responded with love to our sin.
• God embraced us when we rejected Him.
• God gives us His righteousness because we have none of our own.
• God’s sacrifice covers over our sin.
• God came to us because we are unable to get to Him.
• God brings us peace when we declared war.
• God loves us.

He may not be what we would expect. But He’s absolutely what we need.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Peace. We long for it – crave it even. Especially at Christmas. Does it feel elusive? Unattainable? Unrealistic?

Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

He came to bring peace to the world. And peace to you and to me.

Do you know my Jesus? Do you know peace? Do you want to?

Know Jesus, know peace. No Jesus, no peace.

The Old Testament is filled with prophecy about the Messiah to come … and when those dots are all connected, the image that emerges is Jesus. Only He “checks the box” on every single one. We invite you to listen to this week’s devotional video as Laura talks about geography and taxes. Then, celebrate how God is sovereign over both! Only God could orchestrate events and circumstances to ensure that Jesus of Nazareth was also the Messiah born in Bethlehem!

And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
Genesis 3:15

When sin entered the world, it brought consequences to the serpent (the evil one), to Eve (the first woman), and to Adam (the first man). God spoke first to the evil one. The judgment to God’s enemy—and ours—is found in Genesis 3:15. Sin racked up a debt and a price to be paid for it. Consequences would come to the evil one, to man, and to woman.

The words of Genesis 3:15 are powerful and prophetic. They bring judgment to our enemy, but also hope to us.

Through the one born of a woman, victory will ultimately come. The battle will be real and long. It will take generations to come to fruition. Only in God’s ways and God’s plan could enmity bring blessing, and good come from bad.

The cosmic battle lines up like a celestial Super Bowl: Serpent vs. Seed. But the stakes are higher than a ring, more long-lasting than the next season. The serpent uses every play in his book but will still come up short. His best efforts bring only “bruising.” His head will eventually be crushed by Jesus, the seed of the woman.

A strike to the head will bring death to sin, victory over death, and fulfillment of the Genesis 3:15 prophesy.

The generations of humans didn’t always get the prophecy. Hindsight—and the gift of the Holy Spirit—bring clarity.

But the evil one knew. He understood. And he doubled down to prevent it from happening (“the devil has sinned from the beginning…” I John 3:8). He was relentless. He never gave up on his agenda to thwart the plan of God. His efforts would be futile. Snipping at the heel is an irritation and a distraction, but a blow to the head is fatal.

Referred to as the “proto-evangelism” (the first gospel), Genesis 3:15 points ahead from ancient times to the first century. It finds its fulfillment in the cross … in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and our only hope.

Born from the seed of woman, as promised.

The Son of God and the Son of Man, and so uniquely and prophetically the One and Only.

Jesus is the ultimate gift of not only Christmas, but for all eternity. He has paid your bill. Have you accepted the gift – have you accepted Jesus, the One and Only? Is He YOUR One and Only?

The annual Christmas event for Laura’s ladies’ Bible study was a blessing to all who were there—and with this week’s Friday devotional video, it will now be a blessing to our YouTube viewers, as well. Amelia Nizynski, the Vice President of Customer Development for DaySpring Cards, was the guest speaker at last week’s event. Amelia shared a message inspired by the prophetess Anna (see Luke 2:36-38). We invite you to listen, and to be both challenged and blessed by Amelia’s encouragement to live expectantly, faithfully, and ready to share the good news of Jesus!

Do you think of only the New Testament when you hear the name, Jesus? Does the Old Testament bring to mind the Patriarchs, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s Den?

Our prayer is that after writing the WORD with us this month, you will see that the entirety of scripture – both Old and New Testament – is really all about Jesus! Like proverbial breadcrumbs dropped down to lead us, Old Testament prophecies serve as clues that point readers forward to the promised Messiah. Only Jesus satisfies (or fulfills) all of the Old  Testament promises and predictions.

My quick internet search reveals that the life of Jesus fulfills over 300 Old Testament prophecies! 300! He is the One and Only … the Son of God and Son of Man and Savior of the world.

This month we will explore a smattering of those prophecies. We’ve selected only 14 of the 300 and lined them up with their New Testament counterparts to see each fulfilled.

We pray this reading and writing is worshipful for you. We pray it prompts you to wonder anew at the person of Jesus – who He is, what He has done, and what it all means.

May our time together in the Word lead us all to wonder and to worship with fresh eyes and renewed faith.

God became man. He chose to come. And He’s coming back.

Merry Christmas.

Our December Write the WORD bookmark may look a little different than usual, as we are changing it up a bit for Christmas! We needed a full page to lay out the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus Christ, alongside the corresponding fulfillment found in the New Testament.

Our prayer is that as you submerge yourself in the Word of God this month, you will discover anew that Jesus is indeed the One and Only Messiah – the Son of God and the Savior of the World– and will worship Him with renewed wonder and joy! Merry Christmas!

Visit our Downloads page today for your copy of this month’s Write the WORD bookmark!

“I thank and praise you, O God of my Fathers:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”
Daniel 2:23

When Babylon conquered Jerusalem, Daniel and his friends were part of the group taken captive. Daniel was determined to remain faithful to God even while living under Babylonian rule.  

Desiring not to defile himself by eating the Babylonian “royal food,” he asked for permission from the guard for an exemption. Daniel did not launch a hunger strike, or incite the other prisoners to protest. He was respectful in his request for a 10-day food and water test. God honored the desire of Daniel’s heart by giving him favor with the guard.  

As David honored God, God was faithful to continue to bless him during this time of captivity:

“To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding
of all kinds of literature and learning.
And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.”
Daniel 1:17

Verse 20 goes on to note that, when questioned by the king on matters of wisdom and understanding, Daniel was ten times more accurate than all of the magicians and other advisors in the kingdom. Clearly, God was providing and giving Daniel favor.  

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and followed it with an unreasonable request: not only did he want an interpretation, he wanted his astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When none could pass the test, he declared that all the wise men — including Daniel and his friends — would be executed.  

When Daniel heard of the edict, he asked for time to interpret the dream, then immediately called his friends to prayer.  

Is prayer to God our first response when we get bad news? Daniel’s action teaches us to go immediately to God when the task is impossible. He also teaches us to call others to join us in prayer.  

Daniel prayed. His friends prayed. And God answered: 

“During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision…”
Daniel 2:19a

And then what did Daniel do? Dance a jig? Throw a party? Hug his friends? None of that … although those responses may have come later. The very first thing Daniel did was to begin thanking and praising God. The rest of verse 19 reads: 

“…Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.”

Daniel did not delay. He wasted no time in praising God for the answer to his prayer. The words of his beautiful prayer are recorded above. He knew the provision came from God and he was careful to thank God for the revelation. 

When life brings us challenging news, we typically rush to pray and ask others to pray, as well. Are we in an equal hurry to begin thanking and praising God when He answers?  

We learn two important lessons from Daniel: 

1. When you get bad news, pray. 
2. When God gives an answer to your prayer, thank Him for the answer.  

Has God answered prayers for you this week … this month … this year? Have you thanked and praised Him for those answers? It’s never too late to say thank you! 

Will you join with me in resolving to be women who first take every need to God, and then thank and praise Him when He provides an answer?  

This week’s Friday teaching video focuses on Nehemiah 10, the culmination of rebuilding the lives of God’s people. In Nehemiah 8 and 9, they returned to His WORD, listening to the scriptures read aloud for hours. They worshiped, remembered, and repented.

As we move into Chapter 10, the people come together to sign a covenant, committing their lives to God. Old Testament history confirms this is not the first time they’ve made a commitment to God.

When it comes to obedience, we can get there, but struggle to stay there — just like the Israelites from the days of Nehemiah. This side of the Cross, God’s covenant is written on our hearts. We invite you to watch this week’s teaching video and ask yourself whether your heart has been “crossed.”

“They were also to stand every morning
to thank and praise the LORD.
They were to do the same in the evening.”
I Chronicles 23:30

I Chronicles 23 lays out the duties for the Levites: 

• Purify the sacred things 
• Tend to the courtyard and side rooms 
• See to the bread for the table, flour for the grain offerings, and the unleavened wafers 
• Baking 
• Mixing 
• Measuring 

At the end of this long list of duties is added the words of verse 30 found above: “stand…thank and praise…”  

Does it seem strange that the spiritual duties are listed along with the physical? Did the Levites show up for Temple Duty 101 training and receive a chore chart with a check list: 

• Thank and Praise 
• Purify 
• Bake 
• Mix 
• Thank and Praise 

Weaving thanks and praise into the daily rhythm made it part of the fabric of their lives. It began to define who they were. Like bookends on the day, it signaled the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.  

Perhaps beginning and ending with thanks and praise meant it began to bleed into what happened in the middle as well. 

Is it possible that Brother Lawrence, the lowly monk of the 17th century who taught us to serve and worship God as we go about our daily task, was inspired by this same passage? Brother Lawrence teaches us: 

“Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love,
they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love,
and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself
into the consciousness of God’s presence.
Yet it might be so simple.
Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business
wholly for the love of him?”

Thanking and praising God as we begin and end our day will perhaps spur us to make all our “common business” in the middle acts of loving devotion to our good God.  

Brother Lawrence washed dishes, tended the garden, and completed the mundane tasks of day-to-day life as a monk. But he did it out of love for God. 

Each day, the Levites baked, mixed, and assisted the priests with repetitive, monotonous tasks. But they began and ended with thanks and praise to God. 

Could we do the same? Can we commit to plant our feet on the floor each morning and lift our hands up to God with thanks and praise for another day?  

Can we then go about our daily list – which may also including washing dishes, tending to a garden, baking and mixing, but also driving, cooking, teaching, shopping, working, and a zillion other “-ings”– in “consciousness of God’s presence” and “wholly for the love of him?” 

As we fall into bed tired but satisfied with what we accomplished, can we then end our day as we began: in thanks and praise to God? 

All this thanking and praising, I believe, will make the ordinary more sacred, the ho-hum have purpose, and colorize what may, at times, seem like a gray existence.  

Of course, we automatically thank and praise Him for the big stuff: when the job comes through, the biopsy is negative, or the tax refund comes just in time to pay the insurance bill.  

But it is when we begin thanking and praising God for the daily small stuff – the ordinary, run-of-the-mill, everyday events – that we begin to truly abide in Him. We draw close. We sense His presence. Transformation happens. 

November is known for many things: Thanksgiving, election day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and No-Shave November, to name a few. But what if we launched our own new November tradition? Let’s call it No-Grumble November! Let’s choose to launch it by joining with the Levites of the Old Testament to stand each morning, and again each evening, to thank and praise God.  

What are you thanking and praising Him for today? 

This week’s Friday video is a bit different because Laura’s Bible study hosted its once-per-semester Love Out Loud. This day, which is held twice per year, is a mini missions/ministry event, and is a huge favorite for these ladies who are kind, generous, and love to bless others.

For many years, our fall project has been Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. It seems like a small thing: packing a shoe box with gifts for a child, which is then delivered to a place in the world we most likely will never visit. But, when you touch the heart of a child, you also open the door of the heart of those who love that child … and because the gospel is shared at these “Shoe box Parties,” entire families and villages get to hear about Jesus. Our small gifts take on kingdom-changing eternal significance.

This year we packed 146 boxes! Amazing! What a joy to pray into those boxes and the child that will open each. We may never know until eternity the impact each has made, but we were greatly blessed by working together to send them!

Visit our Downloads page for this month’s Write the WORD bookmark … our focus for November is GIVING THANKS!

He appointed some of the Levites
to minister before the ark of the LORD,
to extol, thank, and praise the LORD,
the God of Israel.
I Chronicles 16:4 (NIV)

To extol, thank, and praise – a good description of prayer.  

Thank and praise are both standard in our “Christian vocabulary” but extol feels more unfamiliar.   

Perhaps other Bible translations offer some insight: 

• NASB:  celebrate 
• NKJV:  commemorate 
• CEB:  remember 

The Ark represented the presence of God. And in God’s presence, certainly a suitable response is to extol, thank, and praise. Those things are worship – our appropriate response to Him.  

In Old Testament times, proximity to the Ark (representing the presence of God) was an honor reserved for the Levites. This was a holy, sacred privilege. Others would worship God from a distance … but the Levites were permitted to extol, thank, and praise Him up close. 

Because you and I live this side of the Cross, there is no distinction. Each believer has personal access to God because of the sacrifice made by Jesus. At his death, the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and all of us can extol, thank, and praise God directly. We need not be a Levite to have this tremendous privilege.  

We worship as an acknowledgment of who He is and what He has done. He reveals His glory to us. We see His fingerprints all around us. All creation bears testimony to his creativity, power, and love. God’s goodness and His greatness prompt us to give Him glory – to extol, thank, and praise Him. We do not add to His glory, but we react to what we witness. He reveals, we respond. 

As children of God, we can join our voices with David in declaring, 

 “I will extol the LORD at all times,
His praise will ever be on my lips.”
Psalm 34:1

It’s easy for our prayer lives to become a mere recitation of, “Lord, do this, do that, help him, be with her…” Before we know it, we’ve allowed our prayers to spiral down to little more than a laundry list. Now is the time to change that.  

During this season of giving thanks, let’s challenge one another to more giving to God – our thanks, our worship, our obedience – and less asking of Him.  To HIM be the glory! 

Nehemiah 9 records the longest prayer in the entire Bible – a rhythm of worship and confession, examining the history of God’s people and their interaction with Him. In this chapter, God’s goodness and greatness stands in sharp contrast to the sin and disobedience of His chosen people. We invite you to watch Friday’s teaching lecture, and then prayerfully make time to use the prayer from Nehemiah 9 as a template for your own.

When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD,
sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.
Leviticus 22:29

This month’s Write the WORD is devoted to GIVING THANKS.  

A “thank offering” that we find in scripture is a type of fellowship offering. My research reveals that these offerings were made as a grateful expression of thanks for: 

1. Trouble averted – sickness, death, etc. 
2. Blessings received 

When a sacrifice was made in Old Testament times, blood was involved. An animal had to die. As the animal was slaughtered, surely the thought would come, “I am here to honor God because He has blessed me — either taken away the bad or provided the good — and an animal has to die for me to be blessed.”  

As that thought works its way into the heart and mind, the realization comes that every good gift comes from God. The ultimate gift is His Son, Jesus. Jesus had to die to take away the bad (our sin) and to provide the good (eternal life later, and blessing upon blessing now).  

Leviticus 22:29-30 reveals the offering was to be eaten the same day – none was to be left until morning. We may not call it a “Thank Offering” today, but we certainly do celebrate with food: anniversaries, birthdays, banquets to mark special events or achievements, and holiday dinners. As the holiday season approaches and we begin to plan Thanksgiving dinner, let’s not overlook the giving of thanks part of the holiday.  

Though we won’t be slaughtering an animal to present at the Temple, let’s choose to intentionally offer up thanks to God for our own trouble averted and blessings received during 2024. Let’s acknowledge and praise Him as the deliverer and the provider of it all. 

As the thanks in our heart are shared on our tongue, they make an impact. A declaration is made for others to hear. And if your Thanksgiving dinner table — or family wiener roast or soccer team awards banquet — includes those who do not know or acknowledge God, then your words of praise are a sacrifice to Him. You share that praise, take that risk, and honor the One who provided every good gift.  

Let’s commit to making that sacrifice of praise this holiday season, and in the coming year!

In this week’s devotional video, we share the teaching lecture from Laura’s latest Bible study. With the walls rebuilt and the gates in place, the focus of Nehemiah 8 shifts to rebuilding the lives of the God’s chosen people spiritually. As they come together and ask for the Word of God, their reverence for it is clear as they mourn their sin and worship the Lord. We invite you to listen to Friday’s thoughts from Laura, then prayerfully consider your own response to God’s Word.

Have you begun writing along with us this month? Our Write the WORD topic for November is GIVING THANKS. Won’t you visit our Downloads page today to get your own copy of this month’s bookmark, and join us as we prepare our hearts for the holiday season by digging deep into what the scriptures tell us about thankfulness?