Happy New Year! (2011)

Welcome to the beginning of another year! For those of you whom followed me through 2010, it's great to be with you again. For anyone who's new to my blog, welcome aboard! I don't have some radical mission statement, or cliche to kick off with. What I can promise, is to be completely honest with what's going on in my life, one day at a time.

Let's start with today.

After downloading the latest podcast from the Daily Audio Bible at around midnight, I set off to sleep. After waking up and sipping a cup of coffee, the morning and early afternoon were lazily spent with my wife. We accomplished nothing, but the kids were content playing video games, reading to us, or watching Netflix. My wife and I also needed the down-time together.

Church was pretty amazing. Instead of the prepared message this evening, Pastor John shot from the hip (and threw together artwork for the multimedia slides) at the last minute. The thrust of his message? 2 questions:

1. How are things between you and Jesus?
2. How are things between you and other people? (family, friends, coworkers, etc.)

What happened next was "all Holy Spirit". During the worship set after the message, our worship pastor Cory appeared to be breaking down. Although I can't be certain, it appeared as though the words he was singing were actually coming from his heart. About one-third of the way through the song "Mighty to Save", he simply stopped singing. The backing vocals were still present, and the instrumental swells were powerful, but the silence- that was pretty humbling to witness.

I've seen the man occasionally miss a word here or there, or get caught up in the lyrics on a slide, but he's an absolute professional. I've never seen him stop. After a few slides, there was a designed break from the vocals, as the musicians and congregation marinated in the music. It was during this time that an impromptu solo from one of the female backup singers began. It was unplanned, unscripted and beautiful. Low light, no words on a screen, just pure and intimate sincerity. I was moved.

After a great date night with my wife (with four children, even a DVD at home qualifies as a "date"), I honored my commitment to step through the Bible again in 2011. I began with Genesis 1:1, but also kicked off Matthew, Psalms and Proverbs. If you haven't committed to making the journey through the Bible, it's never too late to begin. You can begin with today- you don't have to worry about making up, or catching up. Just dive into the Bible in printed form, read it online, or listen to it each day, like I do.

Something caught my attention tonight in Matthew. It was in chapter 1, verses 1 through 17.

Matthew 1
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
1 This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Interesting. That's basically 42 generations, from the time God made the promises to Abraham, to Jesus' birth through the tribe of Judah. 42.

That number reminds me of something. If you are a fan of the original, or the remake of "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", one of the more random and catchy elements of the film was the concept of the "Deep Thought" computer calculating an answer to a question over 7.5 million years.

"What is the meaning of life?" The answer? "42".



It would appear to me, that the Lord has a sense of humor. It's pretty neat from this Christian's point of view, that the meaning of life is perfectly addressed in the simple answer "42". It's Jesus. He's the meaning of life.

Good Night