Christ for Disciplers

Jesus came at Christmas to spend time with us.  When many people gathered to meet with Jesus, he delivered what is called the Sermon on the Mount and taught his followers how to live a thankful life of discipleship.

This Christmas season we take time for our family to spend time with Jesus and listening to Jesus best know sermon is a great way to do it.

The Magi gave gifts to Jesus and his family.  We train our children and set the example of how to give gifts of thanks to our God who has given us everything.

Jesus did not come just for poor, uneducated, Jewish shepherds.  The educated Magi also were part of God's plan.

We might fear if our children get to educated that their education may not be compatible with following Jesus.  Instead we need to act and solidify the biblical worldview of our children and disciple them as well as we educate them on God's world.

We want the next generation that follows Jesus to have all the tools God has supplied them with ready to use for God's kingdom.

As we get ready for Christmas, we marvel at how God kept his promises and we look forward to God keeping his promises to bless our children and deliver this world.  We strive to train our children to trust God's promises by teaching them they can trust our promises.

Herod was disturbed and ready for violence when he heard someone might put Jesus as king ahead of him. Still today we and our children will face those that are threatened by Jesus and threaten because of Jesus.  We need to train the next generation to be ready.

The Magi in Matthew 2 hold lots of mysteries, but we do know that God did the work to get them the message so they could worship Jesus.  God still often works in little ways that we cannot see to build his kingdom.  The little things we do for our children are examples of how God may do big, visible things in the future.

We need to train our children to see the quiet little things of life are the normal way that God does most of his amazing work through and to us.

Joseph sacrificed to be the "father" of Jesus.  He sets the example for fathers today to sacrifice for their families.

Joseph believed the message that his bride to be, Mary, was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  God asks us to believe this core truth of Christianity that Jesus is true God and true man at the same time.

We disciple the next generation by training them that following Jesus means not expecting what God tells us to make sense.

Joseph showed good character, grace and faith in the difficult situation of hearing his bride to be, Mary, was pregnant.  He did the right thing.

That pattern is one to learn from for fathers and parents and one to train our children for.

Most Americans don't know more than three generations back from them.  The Bible records 52 generations for Jesus making sure we know he was a real person who came as a fulfillment of God's promises.

We strive to train the next generation so that if the world lasts 52 more generations, the message of Jesus will still be shared.