I love road trips. Before GPS we used a good old fashioned and highlighters and we highlight as we drove so we could see the progress we were making. Despite the innumerable potty breaks that start 5 min. from home, crayons that end up rolling around the van, car sickness, spilled food, and hundred’s of “are we there yet”, road trips are so fun. But arriving at our destination is even better. That’s when we can finally relax and find rest.
Our road to Christmas study has led through many stories of people, particularly women, that God used in building the family tree of Christ. We have studied a few of these women over the Advent season and we will look at one more this week, namely Bathsheba.
The women we have studied were far from perfect and did not live easy lives. The woman we will look at this week is no different. Bathsheba has been called unfaithful, an adulterous, a victim and a woman draped in tragedy.
She experienced a great wrong done to her, she suffered heart-breaking loss, and ended up the wife of a man who was not only a murderer, but also the king of Israel and a man called “a man after God’s own heart”. In one sense sin brought these two together, but it was also somehow the mysterious, sovereign plan of God. A plan to pave the road for the coming of the Messiah.
The Road to Christmas leads us through the lives of sinful men and women in need of salvation. Our study will end this week with us looking in the face of this salvation. We will see the son of God become the Son of Man. We will witness “the Word” take on flesh in order to save the women we have studied over the last few weeks. The good news is that this salvation is for us also–for anyone who believes. This is a great reason to celebrate.
I know that this week will be a busy week for many of us. It may be filled with parties, activities, time with family and friends and church services. All of these things are good things but don’t let it take you away from spending time with the one whose birth we are celebrating.
Don’t celebrate Christmas while neglecting the Christ whom Christmas is all about.
WEEK 4 CHALLENGE:
WEEK 4 MEMORY VERSE:
WEEK 4 READING PLAN:
Looking to Jesus,
Thank you so much for this Advent Study, I have LOVED looking at Christmas through the lenses of these women – such a fresh perspective. Thank you for giving us this lens this Advent! Have a wonderful Christmas!
I am so glad you have enjoyed this different approach to Advent. I have also enjoyed looking at Christmas from a different perspective. 🙂
Really encouraged that all these women had “issues” not perfect lives. Immanuel – God with us – in the midst of our messy lives. Thank you Jesus. X
Yes, it is so easy to view the people in the Bible as plastic, with no emotions and no problems. I am also thankful that they has issues just like us and God used them anyway!.
Thank you for a wonderful study. It reminded me that God knows everything and He has a plan that we can’t thwart. I am so grateful that I am a part of His plan. Have a wonderfully blessed Christmas!
Thank you and I hope you have a wonder Christmas as well.
Because of Jesus I am blessed to have a Christian family, who are all following Christ or learning to +
This is so awesome! I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!
Thank you for putting together “The Road To Christmas” Bible Study. It has been a good focus and preparation for this Christmas Season. I appreciate the reminder that God does not look for perfect people to work His plans through. He uses us with all of our faults and baggage, and through that process we are able to experience His unfailing and unending love for us. What a gift and an opportunity we have been given to be able to be a part of His family and to join together in praise and thanksgiving as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Wishing each of you a Merry Christmas.
I am so glad you joined us. You are right, it is wonderful that God uses us despite our problems and that we get to experience God’s love to a greater degree because of it.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you to all who have worked so hard on this Advent study. I have been truly blessed! I can’t decide if I should continue to see Bathsheba as a victim or in her story. Back then, women had very little power and saying no to the King could have had negative consequences. I wonder if she knew that King David was responsible for Uriah’s death. She endured the loss of a child, an unspeakable loss, for her sin, for not standing up and saying no to King David. So God still had expectations of her, above that of King David’s power. I have so many questions. I imagine she had faith in God and leaned on him or else he could not have used her in the line of Christ. She’s such a complex character that we know so little about, and yet God still said that she was the one to use in his perfect plan. God’s mysterious ways sure do keep us on our toes and teach us never to count anyone out! Praise God!
I am like you! I have all these questions and I always want to know more of the story. Can’t wait many of the Biblical characters in heaven and talk to them 🙂