What to do..? What to do?

I - apparently along with most of the USA & Canada - watched Bible Series on History Channel Sunday evening... And watched twenty three clips of upcoming shows and character mini-interviews. I've heard some mixed reviews on the series, the negative side being "not accurate" however; I beg to differ, "incomplete" maybe but not really inaccurate... And as far as the "incomplete" I think Mark Burnett & Roma Downey deserve a break, it would be a 3 year series if you tried to fit the whole of God's Word into a television series! And let's all face it, at least it's something of God on TV, better than anything else I've seen in a long time! Don't fight against your own kingdom Christians. Rant aside, one of the clips I saw of the Bible series was the birth of Christ... And I actually did see an inaccuracy there, I'm not alarmed by it, it's in every nativity scene I've ever laid eyes on and really, even if Burnett & Downey knew about it I wouldn't expect them to "make it right." It's the wise men.  There is a powerful scene where one of the Kings or wise men kneels down in front of Mary, Joseph and Jesus and says "lady, I believe your son is the king of his people..." And the look in Mary's eyes as someone from outside of her family nucleus confirms the word God has only spoken to a few.  The inaccuracy is that the wise men, although they saw and most likely began following the star before Christ's birth never actually made it all the way to Bethlehem until Jesus was about two years of age. That's why Herod had all the male children two years and under killed when he was trying to stamp out the Messiah. (see Matthew 2 for the whole story).

So, Mary and Joseph travelled back to Bethlehem to pay their annual taxes and be in Joseph's hometown for a government imposed census...  They are just in Bethlehem trying to find a B&B (;o)) to stay in and Mary goes into labour... Now, Mary could try to ignore the contractions and keep silent until the stress of the hotel search was over but let's just be realistic here, the poor girl was riding on a donkey!  Ummm, hello? Donkey bareback ride + labour = OUCH! Joseph can't find a room for them and when he gets back to the donkey from the last inn he finds Mary doubled over in pain, when he gets to her to see if she is okay she grabs his robe and says "Joseph, this baby is not waiting for a room!" The inn-keeper hadn't quite shut the door and when he realizes this woman is having a baby, although it's not much, he does the best that he can and leads them into the stable... Yes, it's messy, muddy, stinky and loud but the inn keeper does tell them to use all the straw they can to make Mary comfortable before he heads back to his paying customers in the inn.  (Now, I've heard the argument that Joseph and Mary should/did have somewhere to stay with family, but let's face it, if everyone still alive that was ever born in your hometown had to all rush back into town for a weekend census there wouldn't be room there either and there were no phones or Internet to make reservations... The best chance you would have had is the fastest horse into town and all Mary & Joseph had was a stubborn donkey that was far overloaded with a 9 month in pregnant lady on it's back. They would have been far too late getting into town to stay at an inn and probably just not close enough to the family homestead if there was one, remember baby doesn't wait to get to grandma's house once he's ready!) So Mary who believes she's carrying God's baby has given birth in a stable... Now let's again bring this down to the level of reality, I can only imagine how Mary and Joseph would feel, Joseph wants to impress God with how well he can take care of this baby and Mary most likely expected something a little better the a stable as a birth place... Mary and Joseph were probably not only embarrassed a manger was all they could give God for a place for His baby's head to rest but fearful He would find them as "unfit." And what would having this baby you have believed is God's seed being born in a dirty stable do to your faith... I mean, seriously, if it was me, I would be thinking "okay, was I wrong about this God? Did I somehow black out when I got pregnant? Is this really your baby?" and let's not even go there with the thoughts Joseph must have been experiencing...

The thoughts... That's what I woke up about... How did they believe through the stable? They must have had doubt and we all know the guilt that comes when circumstance makes us unsure if it was really God speaking or our own hopes and imaginings...  And as if  the night of the stable birth thoughts were not enough there was no confirmation.  I mean God speaks and impregnates Mary, and although that was majestic and amazing once she was pregnant God really didn't do or say much else for her - with the exception of when she met Elizabeth but Elizabeth was family and family is expected to believe you, it's easy to wonder later if they were just being supportive because it's the right thing to do or if they really believed. Two years... Two years until the wise men showed up to worship Christ.  That really is the first record of confirmation after the stable birth! 

Can you imagine, God makes this promise, Mary does everything in her power that she thinks is right and God would want her to do for this promise to come true... All the signs confirm the promise but then when she is finally going to see the promise unfold she is in a dark, dirty, lonely place...  Thinking things like "is this really it God? Is this the promise You've given me? Have I been wrong all this time? Can You really want me to be in this place for this promise to come true? If this is You, I shouldn't even be having these thoughts, should I?" To add insult to injury, there is not a breath of encouragement or confirmation recorded for two years after this unlikely promise happens..  Mary Goes from excitement and wonder to some strange mixture of disappointment and shaken hope... She still believes because some part of her knows it had to be God but there's still the cold fingers of doubt gripping her mind... Of course you can imagine, because this is something we all face at some point.  God give us this promise and it all seems so exciting and amazing and then one day we turn the corner into a dark, dirty, lonely place and we wonder where we went wrong? Was it the last step we took or the first step when we decided to believe God could give us a promise like that in the first place...  We begin to wonder if we were wrong all along.  You wondered why there is no confirmation and those wonderings eventually lead to questions like "well, if it was God, wouldn't he make sure I knew through confirmation? Maybe I just wanted something so bad I convinced myself God had a promise for me...?"  But that's where we get into trouble... We think because we would treat ourselves a certain way if we were God that He should follow suit... But that's not quite the way He works, see even when we pray "God, I need confirmation in order to make a move forward..." He knows we actually just are being needy and in reality just want confirmation, it's really just a trust issue.  When God makes a promise everything needed to fulfill that promise is created simultaneously with the spoken word, so we don't actually need confirmation at all, it's already confirmed.

"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Corinthians 1:20

Listen, I'm one of those people too, I like to be sure of something before I take a step but really, If Mary didn't get confirmation for two years and kept moving forward, believing in her promise with people all around thinking horrible things of her I'm sure I can take a step or two in the direction God seems to be leading me... And in case you need one more example, how about God's word to Abraham? "Take your family and go, don't worry about where, I'll lead you and you'll know when you see it." (my paraphrase.) What happened? Abraham believed and obeyed God and became the father of many nations winning the promised land!

So now I leave you with two more thoughts: 

1. If you "knew" it was God when the promise was spoken, you really still know it is... Stop trying to get confirmation out of Him when you know as well as He does it's not what you need at all... Take a step and build some faith and trust! Stop waiting, hesitating and wasting time. If God knows you want Him to lead you and you're praying and obeying He most certainly will guide every bit of your path!
2. Maybe this blog is the confirmation you're asking for!  Maybe this time, God has decided confirmation is needed but you have to pay attention. And now, you've got your confirmation so you're at the same place, if you're still really scared, try this prayer "God, I really believed you gave me a promise... I still believe it but help my unbelief!  It's a scary thing to take a step without knowing if I'm landing where I should but because I believe you have this plan for me I am going to take a step, if I'm wrong in some way then close the door so I don't walk in the wrong direction." God will guide you!  So, now it's time... Take that step. GO!