Inspired by Moses’ “Choose Life…Choose Obedience” theme, we’re looking at the obedience of the characters of Christmas, beginning with Zechariah and Elizabeth, followed by Mary. Today, one of my favorite characters, the often unsung hero of the story: Joseph.

I can’t do better than what I wrote last year…

Joseph doesn’t get much press, and nothing he said was recorded, but he was a faithful man.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1.18 – 21, ESV)

Now when [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matthew 2.13 – 15, ESV)

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2.19 – 23, ESV)

Four dreams, five obedient responses:

• Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife – he did that
• Call his name Jesus – yes he did!
• Rise and take the child and his mother to Egypt – “And he rose and took the child by night” – immediate obedience! (My mother used to say, “Delayed obedience is disobedience.”)
• Rise, take the child and his mother back to Israel – and he did
• Don’t go to Judea – so he went to Nazareth

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14.15, ESV)

Inspired by Moses’ “Choose Life…Choose Obedience” theme, we’re looking at the obedience of the characters of Christmas. Yesterday, it was Zechariah and Elizabeth. Today: Mary.

“Obedience” is not normally the first word that comes to mind when we think of Mary, but it could be.

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1.38, ESV)

Simple submission. A life characterized by humility and the fear of God, which naturally lead to obedience:

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation…” (Luke 1.46 – 50, ESV)

In light of Moses’ call to choose obedience, we’re looking this week at the obedience of the characters of Christmas. Today: Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Often those of us raised in a “salvation by grace” environment view obedience as optional or impossible. I heard a teacher in an adult Sunday School class challenge us to do something that scripture called for, and one of the class members said something like, “Oh, Jim, you know we can’t do any of this stuff. Leave us alone!”

By contrast, here’s what Luke said about Zechariah and Elizabeth:

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. (Luke 1.5, 6, ESV)

Really? “Righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments…” A couple given to obedience.

And it played out. We deride Zechariah for his initial unbelief in the temple (Luke 1.8 – 23), but don’t forget his subsequent obedience:

• And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived… (Luke 1.23, 24, ESV) For Elizabeth to conceive, some acts of faith (in obedience to the prophecy) had to occur!
• And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” (Luke 1.62, 63, ESV) Another act of obedience.

And Zechariah declared in his prophecy that one purpose of Messiah’s deliverance was freedom to live obediently:

…that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Luke 1.74, 75, ESV)

Wrapping up Deuteronomy, Moses’ long sermon with lots of detail closes in chapter 26. Then begins a series of challenges for the people to be obedient.

Chapter 27 frames the challenge to obedience as curses. For example:

“Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.” And all the people shall answer and say, “Amen.” (Deuteronomy 27.15, ESV)

Chapter 28 gives blessings for obedience for the first 14 verses then goes back to curses for disobedience for verses 15 – 68. For example:

All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. (Deuteronomy 28.45 – 48, ESV)

That’s a lot of space given to curses, designed, perhaps, to frighten the people into obedience. (We’ll see as we read Joshua – Esther next year, that it didn’t work.)

Then a call to choose, summarized in Chapter 30:

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live… (Deuteronomy 30.15 – 19, ESV)

It’s the week leading up to Christmas, a good time to look at the obedience of the folks in the Christmas story. Humanly speaking, without their obedience, there wouldn’t be a Christmas story.

And we would do well to remember that even in this age of “grace,” God expects obedience. Jesus said:

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him…If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. (John 14.21, 23, 24, ESV)

Again, in these turbulent times, a dose or two of joy might go a long way.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1.39 – 44, ESV)

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2.10, 11, ESV)

The fruit of the Spirit is…joy. (Galatians 5.22, ESV)

Yesterday, I wrote about the amazing conversion of (former) atheist Richard Kagel whose journey to faith began with Pastor Dave telling him that God wouldn’t mind if he prayed to him. As I said, I met Richard when he came to down on his way to take Dave on a mission trip. And notice the order: Richard wasn’t joining his former pastor on the pastor’s mission trip. The pastor was joining Richard on Richard’s mission trip.

Richard told us that shortly after he came to faith God spoke to him in the middle of the night:

I want you to go to Guinea-Bissau.

My first question would have been who, what, or where is Guinea-Bissau?

Guinea-Bissau is a TINY country on Africa’s west coast. Its total area is less than 14,000 square miles, just a bit bigger than Maryland, our 42nd largest state. It took him 69 hours to get there (a LOT of plane changes!) and what did he find? Here’s how it’s described in a post from Richard’s local Rotary Club:

He arrived in the country and was immediately confronted with unanticipated and truly frightening conditions of lives lived in extreme poverty.  The capital city, Bissau, has approximately 600,000 people. There is no electricity, no running water, and no sewage system.  Waterborne diseases cause early deaths among the entire population and are especially prevalent in children and pregnant mothers.  Following a church service, where he was warmly welcomed, he visited the national hospital, a three-story building that had been built by the Portuguese in the 1940s. Every bed in the hospital was occupied with 1-3 patients. Many slept in the hallways or wherever there was floor space.  There were no doctors or nurses or other staff.  Families provided all of the care and food for ill relatives. There was no sanitation. It was clear that the sick came to the hospital to die. The magnitude of the poverty was immeasurable and was too significant to ignore. Right then and there, Dr. Kagel  made up his mind that he would do something to help the people of this forgotten country. – From a Rotary Club post

Richard decided he would use his expertise as an analytical chemist to solve the problem of contaminated water. The Rotary Club post continues:

Clean water is a basic need to be addressed.   Dr. Kagel has made a total of 5 trips to the country in order to create partnerships with leaders in Bissau.  After investigating feasible means of water purification, he came upon the Canadian branch of Potters for Peace. This organization assists local citizens in building their own plants to manufacture water filtering units.

Richard has made multiple trips to Guinea-Bissau, met with the head of the government, and helped them build the factory that makes the water filtering units. Here’s what Richard told me by email this week:

On the filter factory project, I just got word that the last of the 1,500 spigots I carried over in two of my trips for the water filter was used and they are asking for more – that’s 1,500 filters in people’s hands.  And I’ve seen that every home with a filter that I’ve visited has a line of kids out the door waiting to get the “good water.”  Many of the filters are in schools and orphanages.  So, that’s a lot of kids getting safe water, made from deadly water from a product built by local people, and controlled by locals (the Central Evangelical Church of Guinea-Bissau), from nearly all local materials (except the spigots!).  I’m headed back in February and will bring another 1,000 spigots with me (I wish they had told me before they ran out but that’s not a thing there, not yet anyway 🙂).

It’s another God story not unlike The Man in Seat 12B except in this case, God chose an atheist to help solve the clean water problem for an impoverished nation. And he used a pastor (not a famous pastor!) to get things started.

God once chose an anti-Jesus terrorist to be his most productive missionary:

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel…” (Acts 9.10 – 15, ESV)

I was just reminded of a story I haven’t written about before, one that’s too good not to share. A few years ago, our pastor (who’s battling pancreatic cancer) brought his friend Richard from California to our church. The two were getting ready to go on a mission trip (more on that tomorrow). But I’ll never forget Richard’s story of how he came to faith in his 50s. Here’s how he tells it:

My wife insisted on bringing our 5-year-old to church and I insisted in coming along to protect him from the Christians, their hypocrisy, their nonsense...

Then he talks about going through a really tough time emotionally, a down period that had lasted two years. The story picks up:

The short version is that I met a Pastor who cared; [Bob’s note: Pastor Dave!] he asked if I would meet him for coffee and as he listened, I explained to him my painful situation. He asked if I had prayed about it. I explained that I had way too much integrity to pray to a god that I knew did not exist. He told me, “I’m certain that He won’t mind.“

I decided to do an experiment (since this god wouldn’t mind) and try a simple prayer, asking for my anxiety and sadness to be removed. That night I prayed, “God, I want you to take away my sadness, my fear,” and for the very first time in over two years, that next morning I woke up and I was so much better; again, the very first time in over two years of total misery.

I decided to try it again that next night and the following morning, once again, I had improved that much more. I was freaking out! I continued to pray, and God answered my prayers, over and over again. I owe my life to the freedom that Pastor gave me that day, to pray to a god I knew didn’t exist.

I love Pastor Dave’s response to “I won’t pray to a god I know doesn’t exist.” Dave said, “He won’t mind!”

Of course, Richard has become an ardent believer and an effective evangelist, and he has even written a short Bible study to help others become effective evangelists. There’s more to the story, how God called Richard to a very specific place and ministry. Stay tuned.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19.10, ESV)

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” (John 9.25, ESV)

I was reminded of BTNs when I read Sahil Bloom’s blog on The ABC Goal System. It’s worth the read in its entirety, but here’s the summary:

• In preparation for my first marathon, I spoke to a legendary American marathoner, who offered one piece of advice: “Make sure you have three goals: An A Goal, a B Goal, and a C Goal.” Soon after the race, I realized that the core principle behind the system applied well beyond running.
• For any arena of life, you can create an A Goal, B Goal, and C Goal. On days when you feel great, you hit your A Goal. On days when you feel ok (most days!), you hit your B Goal. On days when you feel bad, you hit your C Goal.
• The ABC Goal System removes any intimidation or guilt: As long as you hit your C Goal, you’re making forward progress.

Sahil goes on to explain:

In the context of the marathon:

• A Goal: Hit your aggressive, optimal time goal.
• B Goal: Hit your realistic, base case time goal.
• C Goal: Finish the race.

The idea is simple, yet profound:

During the race, if you start to struggle, people who only have an A Goal (most people!) are likely to fall completely off track. Once their only goal is out of sight, they have nothing to drive them forward.

If you have a B Goal and a C Goal, you always have something to keep you pushing—to keep you in the game.

The idea is this:

The ABC Goal System removes any intimidation or guilt: As long as you hit your C Goal, you’re making forward progress.

The system prevents optimal (A Goal) from getting in the way of beneficial (C Goal) and gives you the flexibility to make progress while allowing the inevitable vagaries of life to enter.

And there’s the key: “The system prevents optimal from getting in the way of beneficial.” Or as some have said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

As I’m reading this, I said to myself, “June has something like this with respect to practicing piano.” And sure enough, she explained her BTN goal system. BTN? Yep:

Better than nothing.

Often, she’d like to practice for an hour or two, go over all the pieces she’s working on, work through some problem areas, etc. But what if she can’t? What’s the BTN? 10 – 15 minutes of a few warmup scales and playing through the pieces one time. It’s better than nothing.

This works in all areas of life, even the spiritual disciplines. For example:

God would rather you meet with him for 10 – 15 minutes than NOT meet with him for an hour.

Try it! You may find the idea useful. Recently, I used it to get me off dead center on a project I was working on. I defined three levels of success with the third being, “Just get started.” And I did. I got started. I didn’t finish that day, but I did finish not many days later.

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. (Proverbs 24.30 – 34, ESV) – Maybe getting started would have helped!

After I published yesterday’s blog on “the last enemy to be destroyed is death,” which followed the reflection on the death of our former pastor Dr. John Stevens, I checked to see what I wrote this time last year. Guess what? December 12, 2022, was also about death! June commented something like, “Well those blogs will get people into the Christmas spirit!”

A good point… But it’s not Christmas yet, it’s Advent. And we would do well to remember that Jesus came into a world messed up by sin and death. A world that’s still messed up by sin and death, and so we wait still. But we wait in hope. Jesus has conquered death.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2.14, 15, ESV)

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3.8, ESV)

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1.76 – 79, ESV, Zechariah speaking of John the Baptist)

I wrote yesterday about the passing of our friend and former pastor John Stevens. As if I needed another reminder of death, while attending a concert Sunday, I was shocked at the condition of a friend I hadn’t seen in five years. He had aged considerably when I saw him in 2018, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw Sunday night.

I was standing in the lobby talking with his daughter, and she told me, “I’m waiting for my family.” A few minutes later, I looked and saw what at first glance appeared to be a walking cadaver. “Is that your dad?” She replied, “Yes. He’s declining rapidly.” Hunched over, pale, using a hiking stick for support.

My friend and his wife ended up sitting right behind us at the concert, and we had a long talk during intermission. They couldn’t have been nicer. Only later did I realize that their end of the conversation was carried by his wife.

My friend was a competitive runner and swimmer, a professional counselor, and a Bible teacher. The operative word is “was.” And he’s only six years older than I am…

King David said,

I am about to go the way of all the earth. (1 Kings 2.2, ESV)

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15.26, ESV)

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90.10, 12, ESV)