Lessons

The Christmas Story – Part 1 . The lesson on December 17, 2006 covers the scriptures in Luke 2:1-7 which tells of the event where Christ was born. It says in Luke 2:3-5 (KJV) “And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.” There has been released a movie this year entitled The Nativity, which portrays this event from Hollywood’s perspective. Derek McCammon tells us his observations about the movie in relation to the scriptures and particularly focuses on what is good about the movie versus focusing on the negative aspect of the errors (when the movie didn’t adhere to the scriptures). We learn more about Joseph being a just man from Matthew 1:18-25 in that he was deciding what to do with Mary privately before he was notified by an Angel that she was pregnant with child by the Holy Ghost. We don’t know much about Joseph except that he loved Mary and was committed to their relationship. How stressful this journey must have been for them since they had to travel the approximately 90 miles (140 km) south from Nazareth in Galilee, through Jerusalem to Bethlehem in Judea in order to take part in the Roman census for this tax. We all deal with stress during the holidays. There are ways to deal with stress. Stress is defined as something from without that is burdening you. It’s said that stress causes 95% of all diseases based on how we react to stress. Stress causes distress in our lives and we need to realize two things to defeat distress: 1) Knowing Christ and what He has done for you and 2) Talk to Him in prayer. Click here to listen now or you may also want to hear more audio lessons about Christmas.