I read the Lord’s Prayer awhile after leaving City Bible Church and it really shook me up. I, of course, had read this scripture while at CBC but it didn’t mean anything (they sort of teach to read scripture but not to ask any questions about it). It wasn’t until I was out that I spent time pondering what it was all about.

As I mentioned before, in many of these mega churches, prayer is really nothing more than a shouting contest judged in about 3 categories: Length of Prayer, Loudness of Prayer (aka “passion”), and Style of Prayer (obscure scripture references, tears, southern accents, ending every sentence with the syllable “a”. For example: Lord-a, please bless this Tithe-a…” stuff like that). At the end of a prayer meeting, although there is no official score keeper, you know if you won or not.

Unfortunately, there are always the prayer warriors (contestants) who have no Style or Substance and try to stretch out there prayer by using one of the following words for every 2 actual “prayer words”: Lord, Father, Savior, God, Father-God,  Jesus, Abba-Father (style points for that one), Jehovah, etc. The prayers end up lasting forever, but nothing is ever said. Anyway, this isn’t what I want to write about so I’ll move on.

This is the “Lord’s Prayer” as recorded in the 6^th chapter of Matthew:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 

Here’s the problem, at CBC we were taught that if we didn’t ask for what we wanted we would not receive it.  We were taught that if we had enough faith we could have/do anything we wanted. Set your prayer goals as high as possible…of course there are scriptures to help back up all of these things and I don’t think they are necessarily wrong…but like every thing else there needs to be a balance and I believe that this scripture is that balance. Let’s break it down.

Our Father in heaven: I like the fact that Jesus said “Our Father”, I think it shows how much God loves each of us. Jesus is HIS SON, and he just as easily could have said “My Father” or just “Father” but instead Jesus chooses to show how God views all of us in saying “Our Father”…

Hallowed be your name: Here he gives honor to God, this is key I think. Let’s not forget who’s who in this life…We need God, He doesn’t need us.

Your Kingdom Come: I’m not entirely sure what He’s saying here, but maybe Jesus is saying “Let’s get this life over with so we can spend eternity together” or maybe He is saying “Bring your presence here to this earth”. Could be something else entirely, I don’t know.

Your Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven: This is it. This is the key to the whole prayer (imo). Here, Jesus submits to God. He acknowledges that it is far better to have God’s will than your own will being done. And He does it prior to asking for anything personal. This is the important balancing factor to “Faith” Prayers and your “Name it and Claim it” Prayers. We must always be willing to submit to the will of God. More on that later.

Give us today our daily bread: Not a huge request here. He isn’t asking for a fortune, He isn’t asking for Power, He isn’t asking for a Miracle, He just wants His daily bread. To me, “daily bread” represents the simple things in life that we need to survive…and this is after already telling God that we need His will to be done. If God doesn’t want us to have our “daily bread” so be it.

Forgive us our debts: Equally important, actually, now that I read it. Our debts of course are our sins and we need God to forgive us…constantly. This isn’t a one time “sinners prayer”, this is a prayer that we should say over and over. We need God to forgive us as much today as we will tomorrow. I think this is one of the biggest problems with American Christians today, they seem to think that 1) God works for them and 2) that we need God’s grace when we first get saved and then after that it is up to us to prove our worth. This, of course, is backwards thinking. God is in control…we are nothing.

As we have forgiven our debtors: Yes, City Business Church, you read that right: We must forgive those who sin against us just as much as we want God to forgive us. We’ve had a lot of debate back and forth about forgiveness. This really is another post for another day, but real quick, here is the dictionary definition of Forgive:

1.              To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon.
2.              To renounce anger or resentment against.
3.              To absolve from payment of (a debt, for example).

Part of the problem with the bloggers here is that they have been told that everything is their own fault. All their problems are their fault and not the fault of Church Leadership (or whoever). See Craig’s post on Doug Cotton’s last sermon for PROOF.  Many are just now realizing that the Church was wrong and it is not their fault and that is why so many are out venting here…I think this is the first step to forgiveness…unfortunately it can also be the first step towards bitterness…it’s a fine line people, please be careful.  Feel free to talk about and discuss your hurts, but there will come a time when you need to let it go.

And lead us not into temptation: This could be a whole other discussion, but let’s save it for later and just make a mental note that Jesus really did ask God to not tempt us. I find that interesting seeing as how many Christians want to blame Satan for every issue they have and maybe, just maybe Jesus is once again hinting at the fact that God is in complete control of everything.

But deliver us from the evil one: A great way to end your prayers. Deliver us from Satan. Though out this entire prayer, Jesus, keeps showing how much God is in charge. Yes, every Christian in the world will tell you that they know that, but how many of them act like they believe it?

Jesus does a great job of hitting some key points in a prayer and manages to do it in all of about 20 seconds of prayer time. He then gets back into discussing forgiveness (kind of a big point here) in the next 2 verses.

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)

For as much grace as we receive from God, we need to be sure to pass it on to others.

Sam just shared some great thoughts on the Lord's Prayer, but I thought I would take a stab at it as well. I'm actually backing up a couple of verses and starting at Matthew 6:5 where Jesus gives a few more directions on how to pray. On a quick, semi-related side note, Craig linked to a great article on how Christians are taught to approach the Bible, it's rather fascinating…check it out.

Anyway, Matthew 6:5 says:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

Anyone that has spent time in these MFI related megachurches will know what this is all about. My experience was that anytime there was a special prayer meeting someone would set up a microphone and people would take turns yelling prayers into it…lets pause and read Matthew 6:7

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

…so people would yell prayers into a microphone in front of everyone else, and let me tell you, the louder you were, the more passionate you were, and the longer your prayer the better a reception you would receive. People would say things like "Great Prayer" or "I was really moved by your words"…quite ridiculous in my book. This sort of praying leads to the creation of standard filler prayers such as:

Requesting a "Hedge of Protection", "Rivers of whatever (love, mercy, joy, etc)", the word "More", said over and over and over…I'm actually struggling to come up with more of these meaningless filler prayers…help me out…

For those of you who have been watching Big Brother 8 (greatest show on tv during the summer, btw) Jameka and Amber have given us plenty of those prayers…Amber even went so far as to say "God bless you God" on multiple occasions (I tend to think that God will bless God if God wants God to be blessed…but maybe He needs Amber to remind Him…I don't know.)

Another story I heard was, during the send off party for SPES and Family someone prayed that God would "give them Dove Eyes"…seriously, Dove Eyes…it's actually a reference from the Song of Solomon, but I'd say it is right up there with some of the best meaningless filler I have ever heard. Now that I think about it, the send off party may have been for Gareth Gilpin and family I don't recall…I guess we should check in on them both and see whose eyes most resemble that of a Dove…side story: Gareth was my first small group leader at CBC. I was an 8^th grade homeschooler trying to fit in and he made me feel very comfortable. Thank you Gareth, I've always liked you.

To get back on track, Jesus gives us fairly clear instructions on how to pray and it looks like this:

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:6)

(sarcasm alert) I interpret this scripture to say: "Pray in your room and God will reward you with Dove Eyes. Anyhow, this  post is already long enough…we'll save the Lord's Prayer for later.

God bless you God.

I thought I would be able to cruise through the book of Matthew but I keep getting stuck; sorry this is taking so long. In this next section of Matthew Jesus talks about Oaths, Taking an Eye for and Eye, Loving your Enemies, and Giving to the Needy…lets see if I can make it through all of that:

Matt 5:33-37 Oaths - Same deal as before here. You have heard it was said…yada, yada, yada…but I say:

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes' be ‘Yes,' and your ‘No,' ‘No; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.(v36-37)

It's a great statement because its so true. We control nothing, God controls everything so let's not make any promises that we may not be able to keep. Also, I get the feeling that God is really into people keeping their words…

By the way, if you are ever in court and want to piss the judge off, refuse to "solemnly swear" when you take the stand…judges hate that.

Matt 5:38-42 An Eye for an Eye - This could be some of the most difficult scripture to follow. It's one we all know and learn in Sunday School, but when the time comes to apply it how many of us choose to ignore? And how seriously are we to take this?

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (v39)

What if they are absolutely kicking your ass? At what point should you try defending yourself?

Furthermore, the title of this paragraph (according to my NIV Study Bible) is An Eye for an Eye, but it really should be called An Eye for an Eye…pause (you know what a pause is)…NOT.

Matt 5:43-48 Love for Enemies - This follows rather closely to the whole Eye for an Eye bit and, imho, helps answer the question of what the New Testament example of Love is:

…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (v44)

Sounds good…not easy…but good.

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (v45)

The note in my Bible says here "God shows his love to people without distinction". Love does not mean callously pointing out sins to those who you see as beneath you; instead treat everyone with the same respect that you show your friends…God can still convict "your enemies" of their sins…without you making an ass out of the church. Again, IMSLTHO (slightly less than).

Matt 6:1-4 I love the next few verses on Giving to the Needy and fortunately they are rather simple.

Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (v1)

Ok, now to sum up…Don't make any promises…Love your Enemies…Do good acts in secret…got it?

Ok, on to Divorce. Le's see what Matthew 5:31-32 has to say on the subject:

"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. (Matt 5:31-32)

Seeing as how this scripture falls closely on the heal of the "eye gouging" verse how do we interpret it? I'm not sure…let's look at what is said about Divorce in the other Gospels:

Mark 10:2-12

 2Some Pharisees came and tested him [Jesus] by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"

 3"What did Moses command you?" he replied.

 4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."

 5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

 10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

Mark just complicates things for me…first we see that "the Law" written by Moses permits divorce, but then Jesus says "No. No Divorce for you" (and in this scripture he doesn't even give an out for "marital unfaithfulness"). So, who/what do we follow? The Law of Moses? The words of Jesus that say that we must follow that Law (Matt 5:19)? Or the teachings of Jesus in Mark that we just read? Let's skip ahead to Luke:

It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

 "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery". (Luke 16:17-18)

It seems a little contradictory if we are to take Jesus exactly at His words here in these 3 scriptures. Let's break it down:

• 1. There is a Law that says you can divorce,
• 2. Nothing will ever "drop out of the Law"
• 3. Jesus says Divorce = Adultery
• 4. Audltery is a sin

…hmmmnnnn…I guess he isn't really creating a new Law disallowing divorce here, He's just saying if you get divorced you are breaking another Law, but go ahead…by the way, the punishment for Adultery is death by stoning…who's first?  

In looking closer at these verses, it appears that in Matthew 5 Jesus says divorcing a woman causes her to become an adulterer (not the man) and the rest of the verses deal with re-marrying. Sounds like women are getting a raw deal here…this might make Jesus sexist…I'll let our resident feminists make that call though.

Here is another thought. If we are supposed to gouge out our eyes and cut off our hands if they cause us to sin, couldn't we apply that scripture to our spouses? Wouldn't it be better to sever a marriage if it were causing us to sin than for our "whole body to go into hell"? Maybe I'm just playing word games here.

To sum up what my interpretation of these scriptures are…I don't. I don't know what to do with all this…go ask a Bible scholar.

My personal opinion on divorce has always been this: God will not be pleased with you if you get a divorce…and God will not be pleased with you if you have a miserable marriage and only stay together because you are afraid of divorce.

Matthew 5:21-30

Jesus has just finished talking about fulfilling the Law and saying "…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." He then goes on to talk about some specifics, starting with MURDER!!!! This is where (I think) he starts explaining the difference between the way the Pharisses hypocritically followed the letter of the law and the way we need to follow the essence of the law…for example:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do no murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matt 5:21-22)

Simply avoiding Murder is not enough, we must avoid anger and name calling as well. (For those of you keeping score at home, I am currently 0-1 on this…it's the name calling, not the murder that gets me).

Moving on to Adultery, Jesus makes a similar statement

You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt 5:27-28)

And I'm 0 for 2. Then JC throws us a little curve ball in verses 29 through 30

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Matt 5:29-30)

Now, if we are to take Jesus literally, as some have suggested, then I imagine we would all be blind, deaf, limbless, people rolling ourselves around…which then makes me wonder if it would be better for us to simply kill ourselves to avoid sinning…that is, if we really should take Jesus literally. Of course maybe Jesus is just "speaking in extremes to get his point across"…you tell me.

The next paragraph deals with Divorce, (a rather hotly debated subject within the church). I think it deserves a post of it's own, so we'll save it for later. Of course, just so I can get on the board…if we include Divorce the score is 1-2…I'm back in the game.

This text may a little bit over my uneducated head. In it Jesus mentions that "The Law" is not going away and that if you aren't more righteous than the Pharisees you aren't getting in to heaven.

17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So "the Law", as I understand it, is essentially the first five books of the Old Testament. If any of you have read those books you might recall some pretty crazy stuff. For instance (and I'm just flipping through the books at random…there is so much crazy stuff in here)

Exodus 22:5 Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death

Leviticus 19:19 Do not mate different kinds of animals

Leviticus 19:27 Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard

There are rules defining Clean and Unclean Food, Purification after Childbirth, Regulations about mildew including directions on how to cleanse from mildew, and many other interesting Laws.

If "the Law" stands until "heaven and earth disappear", what are we to do?

I'll tell you what I did…I cheated and read on ahead. In the following scriptures (Matthew 5:21-7:12) Jesus lists off a bunch of rules defining Murder, Adultery, Divorce, Oaths, Prayer, Fasting, and other things. Very interesting stuff which we will get to later.

In reading ahead, I found that that Jesus speaks a lot in extremes, overemphasizing a point to drive it home. I'd say Jesus is trying to balance out His message of Grace by making it very clear that there is a still a standard by which we should live. He ends by saying:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:21)

After first saying "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisee's…you will not enter the kingdom of heaven", He simplifies "the Law" that the Pharisee's followed so strictly, by saying "Do unto others…". It could be that Jesus is saying don't get caught up in the hypocrisy of the Pharisee's, who followed the letter of the Law but missed out on the bigger picture by being consumed with legalism… I'm not sure.

What I take from Matthew 5:17-21 is this: Jesus has come to offer a new way of Salvation apart from following "the Law", BUT He is not dismissing that Law in any way. We are still responsible to follow the essence of it which is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

This makes me wonder why Christians and Churches spend so little time working to help those in need and instead focus mainly on themselves (see my previous rant here).

The next section of Matthew 5 for me is verses 17-20 where Jesus talks about "THE LAW"…I'm not ready for that yet, so let's back track to look at the Salt and Light again. I just read a commentary on Bible Gateway regarding Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which told a rather interesting story:

Until my conversion in 1975 I professed to be an atheist in part because I looked at the roughly 85 percent of my fellow U.S. citizens who claimed to be Christians and could not see that their faith genuinely affected their lives. I reasoned that if even Christians did not believe in Jesus' teachings, why should I? My excuse for unbelief-and the excuse of many other secularists I knew-continued until God's Spirit confronted me with the reality that the truth of Christ does not rise or fall on the claims of his professed followers, but on Jesus himself. The faith of nominal Christians may appeal to non-Christians who can use it to justify their own unbelief, but such "Christians" will have no part in God's kingdom. Instead they will be thrown out and trampled (Matthew 5:13).

If its true that "such Christians will have no part in God's kingdom" then heaven is going to be an empty place…at least for "American Christians". It seems to me that most "Christians" just live their life to exist as "Church goers" believing that will be enough. While the Bible does say that you just believe in Jesus you will be saved (sorry Jews) there are plenty of scriptures that talk about "Christians" who think they have it figured out, but in the end…don't.

Salt, light, sheep, and goats…I think it comes down to the "Golden Rule" (which really should have something to do with the Prosperity Doctrine…maybe that's why so many are confused, the rule is Golden…Give unto thy church and God will give Gold unto you. Damazio 7:12) Anyway…I think it comes down to the Golden Rule which says:

 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

  Matthew 5:1-12 - The Beatitudes

I've already blogged about The Beatitudes (one of my personal favorites), but I want to take another look…what does Jesus actually say here? Lets make a list.

Blessed Are:

…the Poor in Spirit

…those who Mourn

…the Meek

…those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

…the Merciful

…the Pure in Heart

…the Peacemakers

…those who are Persecuted because of Righteousness

…you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me

It doesn't sound like Jesus is promoting a Prosperous Life here…It's NOT a sermon titled "9 ways to your best life now"…instead it says, blessed are "the poor in Spirit" (In contrast to the spiritually proud and self-sufficient), blessed are those who Mourn and are Meek. I would say this scripture teaches the exact opposite of those Prosperity Teachers we so dislike here at City Business Church.

Mathew 5:13-16 - Salt & Light

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

That's fairly harsh, and I'm not exactly sure what it means by "if the salt loses its saltiness", but if by chance it means "stops preaching the Gospel and starts teaching prosperity" then I'd say this website is on to something.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden"

I do believe City Bible Church uses this scripture to talk about their Rocky Butte campus…a city set on a hill. Of course, based on the fact they recently removed ¼ of all the seats and brought in dividers to "make the sanctuary appear more full", I'd say they may not be hidden but they certainly aren't all that visible. Anyway, You (we) are the light of the world…

"let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

This scripture seems to go against the "not letting your left hand know what your right is doing"…but if we combine the "let your light shine before all men" with "The Beatitudes" we get a picture of someone doing good deeds but not in a proud, self serving way. That sounds good to me.

Matthew 3 - John the Baptist Prepares the Way

So far, Matthew has not been one for details. I'm not sure why his book is the first in the NT. I tend to think if I were given a copy of the NT to read for the first time I wouldn't make it very far. 1^st we cruise through the birth of Christ and suddenly we are talking about John the Baptist. Who the heck is he? There is no background given in Matthew, you have to cheat ahead to the other gospels to get some of the details. No matter, J.t.B. is preparing the way of the Lord…and I find this interesting…people are coming from all around and "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River"* (vs. 6). Why are they confessing their sins? I guess I always thought that "confessing" was a post Christ practice.

He then goes on to rip the Pharisees & Sadducees by calling them a "brood of vipers" (my personal favorite Biblical Insult) and says in verse 9:

And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

The note in my little study Bible says "Salvation does not come as a birthright (even for the Jews) but through faith in Christ (Rom 2:28-29; Gal 3:7,9,29)". Now this statement may be true to us now, but at that point Jesus had not yet fulfilled his sacrificial duty. Prior to Christ's death on the cross, would faith in Him save you? Make's me wonder.

J.t.B. goes on to baptize Jesus in verses 13-17, the heavens open and a dove descends. Then (vs. 17) "a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased'." I'm going to assume that when it says "a voice" it's talking about God. I'd hate to find out that some of the angels were messing with Jesus.

Matthew 4 - The temptation of Jesus

After being baptized by J.t.B., Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. First he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights then the temptations begin.

Satan, tells Jesus to turn stone into bread, prove He is the Son of God, and then promises Him "all the kingdoms of the world" if He will bow and worship him. At this point Jesus says "Away from me" and then "the devil left him, and angels came and attended him". Again, I'd like to get some more info on what these angels were doing exactly, but I guess that's not all that important.

Jesus then returns from the desert and begins to preach. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." He gets a few disciples and heals some sick people which ends chapter 4.

I can only hope that Matthew slows his pace as we get into the Teachings of Jesus, which are up next. There are a lot of red letters in the coming chapters, and I expect a lot more detail for the rest of the book.

I've started reading through the New Testament, I'm not sure how far I will get, but I thought I'd blog my findings. Today I started with the Book of Matthew. Now in order to be forthcoming I should tell you that I haven't "read through" (chapter by chapter) the New Testament in years (probably 12) and I'm not sure what I'm really going to find, but it could be interesting.

Matthew 1

VS. 1-17 - A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Verse 17 says "Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ". I find this odd. Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen…I wanted to research this a little more and find out why 14 mattered, but instead I couldn't stop thinking about this joke my Aunt Marilly used to tell when I was very young

            Once a man was walking down the street and he heard a voice on the other side of the fence singing "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen". Curious to find out who was singing the man bent down and peeked into a small hole in the fence. As he got closer he was suddenly poked in the eye and then he heard someone singing "Fifteen, fifteen, fifteen".

That may not be funny now, but you should hear Marilly tell it, her laugh can be infectious. Anyway, I would have researched this more, but I got distracted. Moving on.

VS. 8-25 The Virgin Birth.  The book kinda just cruises through the virgin birth like it was no big deal. 7 verses briefly hitting the key details…Mary was a virgin, she was "found to be with child through the Holy Spirit"…the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said don't divorce her…and then Jesus is born. (I've decided now to mark things I find odd with an asterisks point…found to be WITH CHILD through the Holy Spirit??? Asterisk on that verse. And Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen gets an asterisk as well…maybe some of you scholars want to try and explain things more clearly for us)

Verse 25 really stood out to me as one that I've read before but never really grasped it's concept.

            (vs. 24) Joseph…took Mary home as his wife (vs. 25) BUT HE HAD NO UNION WITH HER UNTIL SHE GAVE BIRTH TO A SON.

I've been married almost 8 years now, I have 3 children of my own, and I know how rough "union" can be with a pregnant woman…but for 9 months? That is some serious waiting. Would it be inappropriate to insert a joke here about following the Holy Spirit in bed??? Probably…lets just mark verse 25* and move on to Chapter 2.

Matthew 2

VS. 1-12: Jesus is born, 3 wise men go see him and drop off some gifts, King Harod wants to kill Jesus, the wisemen are warned in a dream about this, and so they leave a different way then they came.

VS 13-15  Joseph flees to Egypt to protect Jesus, AFTER being warned in a dream,… I'm curious why the so called "Wise-Men" didn't just say something. They had already had this dream. Would it have been too hard for them to just say "Hey Joe, grab your camels, you're comin' with… Harod wants to kill your baby." Instead they just leave and make Joseph have another dream. Not so wise now are they?

God seems to speak a lot through dreams…hmmmnnn, maybe my mother is on to something after all.

VS 16-18 Harod "orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under"… That's some sick sh*t right there (asterisk intended).

VS 19-23 Harod finally dies, an angel appears to Joseph (in a dream of course) and says "Go back to Israel". Joseph takes the fam to Israel and then realizes that Harod's son is ruling and he gets scared…yet another dream warning him…and he ends up in Nazareth. Not sure why he couldn't have gotten that info in his first dream, but no matter…all's well that ends well, right?

That ends chapter 2 and Jesus is safely hiding in Nazareth. In chapter 3 we get to find out about John the Baptist. I'm psyched.

For all the weird things mentioned in the first 2 chapters, Matthew just moves through them like no one would ever question things. I was raised on this stuff, so it always seemed normal to me, but I can't imagine being an adult and hearing this for the first time. I would imagine the response would be "Whoa, whoa, whoa…back up a minute…Virgin Birth…impregnated by God…can I get a little more info please?"

No.