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2015 Worship Guide
A LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.COM PUBLICATION
In
Matthew 1:18-19
it records: “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 of the Holy Spirit; and her husband
Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her
to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”
Joseph and Mary are legally covenanted together
as husband and wife, and there is a date set for
their wedding. Everybody in town knows that
their wedding is coming, because it’s a small
town. Then, Joseph gets the most devastating
news of his life: She’s pregnant.
This was two thousand years ago in a
conservative, rural, religious town, where
everyone probably was Jewish. That makes it
particularly scandalous and devastating.
So, what’s Joseph going to do? Men, what would
you do? When you get betrayed, what’s the
natural response?
Joseph decides that he will divorce her quietly.
He doesn’t want to destroy her, even though she
cheated on him. He doesn’t want to shame her.
He’s not getting vengeance. He’ll do it quietly.
But then he gets a dream and God calls him to
marry her anyway. This was not the family that
Joseph envisioned. His vision of his future goes
something like this: “I’m a virgin, she’s a virgin,
that means she’s not pregnant. We don’t need to
alter the color of the dress; nobody’s whispering
during our ceremony; there are no questions
about her integrity. We get married; we live a
simple life, a quiet life, in the middle of nowhere;
people don’t talk about us.” That’s all he wanted.
That’s what he envisioned.
Here’s my question for all of us, but particularly
for us men. Men, will you love and lead the
family God has given you, even if it’s not the one
you envisioned?
Most of the time, the script you have written for
your future and family is different from the script
that God will hand you-- and you have a decision
to make. Will I read the script that he has handed
me? Or will I run?
Joseph did not plan to marry a single mom, and
even though she’s godly, everybody’s going to
Could one man’s decision
2,000 years ago change hearts today?
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Mount Pulaski Christian Church
