DECEMBER 14, 2025

 “You cannot fulfill God's purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. ” 

― Rick Warren

AMOS 1-3

 They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines. (2:6-8)

REVELATION 5

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come."(4:8)

JOURNAL 

After watching Kevin Costner’s retelling of the Christmas story through the journey of Mary and Joseph, I was struck by how deeply it goes against what even we in modern society would assume is appropriate for the Son of God. There is no spectacle, no insulation from discomfort, no guarantee of safety or control. Instead, there is movement, uncertainty, trust, and an ordinary road walked by ordinary people carrying an extraordinary promise.

What makes it beautiful is not perfection but connection. People crossing paths. The poor offering what little they have. The wealthy stepping down from comfort. Strangers becoming helpers. All of it held together not by certainty but by trust in God. It is a story that refuses to center power, success, or convenience, and instead centers obedience, humility, and love.

Flash forward to today and the setting is different but the connection is clear...There are those struggling on the streets. There are those struggling quietly inside strong homes. There are those struggling in their marriages and relationships, those carrying wounds that never make it into public view. There are those struggling with their health and those struggling in the silence of their own minds. Different burdens, different settings, but the same ache. The Christmas story reminds us that none of us struggle alone and that God chose to enter the world right into the middle of that shared human fragility. That is where the beauty lives. In the recognition that we can all relate, connect, and meet one another in the struggle

Reading Amos alongside this story sharpens the contrast. The prophet speaks plainly about a people who had lost sight of one another and of God. They sold the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They crushed the poor, denied justice, and turned worship into performance while exploiting those around them. The warning is not subtle. When people forget God, they inevitably forget the dignity of others.

And yet the Christmas story interrupts that pattern. God does not arrive with force or dominance. He arrives in vulnerability. He enters the world through a young couple on a hard road, relying on the kindness of others, trusting the Father completely. It is a rebuke to our assumptions about what power should look like.

I am reminded how easy it is to develop spiritual amnesia. Within hours I forget how blessed I am. I forget that I was not created to glorify myself but to glorify God. The incarnation is a constant call back to that truth.

That is the heart of Christmas. Not comfort, not control, not achievement, but humility, trust, and love woven together through people simply showing up for one another in obedience to God.

5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6Who, being in very nature^a God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature^b of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8