The Sylvr Pen

What do you know about Christmas? Probably less than you think you know! And what you think you know probably came from somewhere other than the Bible! That’s how it was with me, the first time I took a quiz like the one I’m going to give you a chance at now. My husband put this one together for the Bible study group he leads at a nearby “correctional facility” (prison). (I modified and added a bit.) Let me know in the comment box if you get 100 %—because I didn’t! And no cheating with the hover tool, peeking at the scripture references at the bottom before you answer! (Tomorrow I’ll post the letter answers for you “too-busy” people, but you’ll probably want to check out some of the references then anyhow.)

Here goes:

1. How many “wise men” (Magi) came from the east searching for the King of the Jews? (a) four (b) three (c) twelve (d) unknown

2. Where did the Magi see little Jesus? (a) at an inn (b) at a house (c) at a stable (d) at a motel (e) they bumped into Him at the marketplace.

3. What gifts did they bring? (a) gold, frankincense, and nard (b) gold, silver, and myrrh (c) silver, gold, and building blocks (d) frankincense, myrrh, and gold, (e) gold, silver, and spices

4. In a dream, in Bethlehem, Joseph was warned to take the Christ child and His mother to…(a) Egypt (b) Jerusalem (c) Nazareth (d) Judea

5. How many times did Joseph receive God’s guidance/instruction in a dream? (a) four (b) two (c) five (d) three

6. What was the name of the angel that visited Mary? (a) George (b) Gabriel (c) Lucifer (d) Michael (e) No name is given.

7. Who issued the decree ordering “all the world” to be registered? (a) Quirinius (b) Pilate (c) Ceasar Augustus (d) Julius Ceasar (e) Caiaphas

8. What did the heavenly host do when they appeared to the shepherds? (a) invite them to a party on the mountain (b) sing (c) dance on the head of a pin (d) say, “Glory to God in the highest”

9. Who said, “Blessed are you among women”? (a) Martha (b) Mary (c) Elizabeth (d) Mary Magdalene

10. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple, what was the name of the prophetess that came up to Him? (a) Elizabeth (b) Anna (c) Hannah (d) Huldah (d) Sapphira

11. What were the first words Simeon spoke in the temple when he saw Jesus? (a) “Mine eyes have see the glory of the coming of the Lord” (b) “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace” (c) “Glory to God in the highest” (d) “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has visited and redeemed His people.”

12. Gabriel spoke these words to Zechariah: “…to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…” Which Old Testament Prophet was he quoting? (a) Malachi (b) Hosea (c) Micah (d) Isaiah

13. The chief priests and scribes told Herod where the Christ was to be born based on a prophecy from (a) Zechariah (b) Isaiah (c) Joel (d) Micah

14. How many months did Mary stay with Elizabeth? (a) three (b) one (c) six (d) Scripture doesn’t say.

15. Where in or around Bethlehem was Jesus born? In a … (a) manger (b) palace (c) temple (d) inn (e) grotto (f) Scripture doesn’t say.

16. How long after Jesus was born did Mary and Joseph bring Him to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him? (a) on the eighth day (b) two weeks later (c) on the next Sabbath (d) after forty days

Now, for the answers! I’m going to let scripture itself give you them to you. Hover your cursor over the scripture references to view them. If you want to read more of the text in which they appear, click on the reference, then return to the blog post after you read it. Be sure to read the whole passage cited, or you might miss some important facts. (I copied the questions here so you won’t have to scroll up and down to see them again.) And please let me know if you got 13 or more answers correct.

1. How many “wise men” (Magi) came from the east searching for the King of the Jews? (Mt 2:1)

2. Where did the Magi see little Jesus? (Mt 2:11)

3. What gifts did they bring? (Mt 2:11)

4. In a dream, in Bethlehem, Joseph was warned to take the Christ child and His mother where? (Mt 2:13)

5. How many times did Joseph receive God’s guidance/instruction in a dream? (Mt 1:20; 2:13-15,19-22)

6. What was the name of the angel that visited Mary? (Lk 1:26)

7. Who issued the decree ordering “all the world” to be registered? (Lk 2:1)

8. What did the heavenly host do when they appeared to the shepherds? (Lk 2:13-14)

9. Who said, “Blessed are you among women”? (Lk 1:39-42)

10. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple, what was the name of the prophetess that came up to Him? (Lk 2:36)

11. What were the first words Simeon spoke in the temple when he saw Jesus? (Lk 2:29)

12. Gabriel spoke these words to Zechariah: “…to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…” Which Old Testament Prophet was he quoting? (Mal 4:6)

13. The chief priests and scribes told Herod where the Christ was to be born based on a prophecy from… (Mic 5:2)

14. How many months did Mary stay with Elizabeth? (Lk 1:56)

15. Where in or around Bethlehem was Jesus born? In a … (Lk 2:7)

16. How long after Jesus was born did Mary and Joseph bring Him to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him? (Lk 2:22-24; Lev 12:1-8)

Was Mary merry? “Merry” makes me think of laughter, mirth, a twinkle in the eye, fun, frivolity, even giddiness. None of that fits my mental picture of Mary.

Think of what lay ahead of her: to be young and pregnant while yet unmarried in a culture where such a state bore a horrible reproach–and how would she explain that hers was a virgin pregnancy? How many people would believe that? What would the neighbors be saying? And what about Joseph? As it soon turned out, her espoused husband was embarrassed, chagrined, wanted to “divorce” her in some unobtrusive way.

Once Christ was born, she at least stood vindicated in the eyes of a small group of people to whom the angels or the Holy Spirit had revealed Him to be the long-prophesied Messiah and Son of God, the fulfillment of “a virgin shall conceive..” Yet forty days later when she and Joseph brought the baby to the temple to be presented, Simeon, one of those to whom God revealed Jesus’ identity, told her He would be spoken against, and “a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luk 2:34-35, ESV).

In His adulthood, her Son became “a man of sorrows,” as Isaiah had prophesied. How would it feel to watch your good-and-upright son who never did a wrong in His life, lead a life of sorrow and be spoken against? Would you be merry?

No, I don’t think Mary was merry. Not very often. Not even on the day she learned she would bring forth the  Savior. But she was clearly joyous–and that’s a whole different thing.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”  she says in Luke 1:46-47 (ESV). She then goes on to rejoice in all God has done for her and all He is going to do for His people. She exults that He has lifted her up from her lowly estate to a blessed and widely desired role only one woman in all Israel’s history would receive (mother of the Messiah). She sees the fulfilling of magnificent prophecies in her time and foresees the fulfillment of many more in time to come. Maybe not merry, but definitely joyful.

How about you this Christmas? Is it going to be a merry one? For many it will not. Nearly everyday I hear of another family that has just lost a loved one, or of someone who has experienced a dreadful accident, or is frighteningly ill. Such circumstances aren’t likely to engender mirth, but in Christ, we can still experience deep joy–and that is what I pray for you, for everyone reading this blog:

No matter what your circumstances this Christmastime, may God bless you with deep joy in Him! A wondrous, joyous Christmas!

Seek His face always” (Ps 105:4, NIV)—-“Seek His presence continually” (Ps 105:4, ESV).

I met a fascinating woman this morning: Helen Dexter, who served as a missionary for Christ in India, and also in Japan, for over twenty years—starting at the age of 66!

This widow sensed God’s call and, after getting training and inner certainty, sold her home and possessions and took off for India, “In the north,” where she knew He wanted her, even though people said, “You can’t just go and do that!”

She told me of a fascinating man to whose ministry there the Lord led her: a man who, ten years before, had walked all the way from England, laying down all his possessions (quite literally) on the way, including his money and his eye glasses, to trust and follow Him, because he was certain that was how the Lord was directing him.

I told her I would have had trouble laying down the eye glasses, but she then informed me that afterward God healed that man’s eyes so that he never needed glasses again.

Amazing modern-day happenings, and why? Because both these people truly sought God’s face, His presence, His will, continually.

That’s what Anna did, too, in the time of Christ’s nativity (Lk 2:36-38).

I always want to call her Anna-in-the-temple, because this devout long-term widow spent all her time there, serving God with fasting and praying “night and day.” What an example her focus is to us today who allow too many things to rob us of His presence and to interfere with our seeking of it! And what a wonderful reward she enjoyed, after all those years of faithful prayer: to behold for herself, in her own lifetime, the infant face of the long-promised Messiah, and recognize Him for who He was!

No wonder her immediate response was two-fold: gratitude and inability to contain the good news. “Coming up to [Mary, Joseph, the infant Jesus, and Simeon, who also recognized the promised Christ] at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (v. 38, NIV). And notice the focus of the people she blessed with those good tidings. They were seeking His presence, too.

If we don’t seek, how do we expect to find? Far too much do our possessions and preoccupations deprive us of God’s presence. It seems we have to fight just for a little private time with Him. Well, if that’s the case, I say, “Fight on!” That’s a battle well worth choosing. Let’s make plans for the new year ahead to “seek His presence continually.”

Seek the LORD and His strength,” says Psalm 105, verse 4.

I do that. A lot. Know why? Because I’m weak–and I know it!

This was my first lesson in Christian living. I’d always played the great fixer-upper, repairing crises, rescuing situations (and often people I shouldn’t have). But after I once prayed, “I believe; help Thou my unbelief,” God answered by giving me more than I could “fix up” anymore, thus bringing me to the end of my resources, my “strength,” my self. That’s how I learned to look to Him for strength I couldn’t find in me. And that’s when I also started seeing amazing things happen, even through helpless, inadequate me!

Thus I came to understand what God meant when He told Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness,” and what Paul meant when he declared, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:9-10). Those words of Paul’s became my life verse, right then!

Only when we humans quit trying to accomplish things in our own power and yield instead to God’s working in and through us do we free up the way for Him to glorify Himself in our circumstances. Anyone who knows us will realize that a power greater than our own must have accomplished whatever great feat took place. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 tells us God carries out mighty accomplishments through obviously weak subjects; God chooses “the weak things of this world to shame the strong.”

That must be why (at least in part), that God chose a helpless infant for the personage Christ would assume on earth. To birth Him into the world, God chose a vulnerable young woman (many say just a teenager). For circumstances, God chose material dearth (which Mary and Joseph’s offering in Luke 2:24 evidences: the kind allowed for folks who couldn’t afford bigger and better (Lev 12:6,8, NIV)). And soon His infant vulnerability became starkly clear, when powerful King Herod, ordered all the Jewish babies under two years old to be killed. Large numbers died. But Jesus escaped. And by what means? By mighty military troops or politically powerful parents? Neither. By the intervention of God and the involvement of angels.  By a word in a dream to Joseph to take Jesus and Mary and strike out fast for Egypt.

So, should I try to be strong? Nope! The thing to do instead is to look to God and His strength, to call on Him to manifest His power and glorify Himself through me, as He perfects that power in my obvious weakness.

Let’s ponder this principle of God’s strength in weakness as we draw near now to Christmas Day: the weakness of a baby, of a family of small means and influence, of humbling circumstances–God’s choices for the promised Messiah’s appearance on earth.

Let us recognize our own weakness. And let us see it as the potential it is for God’s glory to shine forth as obvious, as He accomplishes in and through us things we ourselves cannot.

“Glory in His holy name,”  Psalm 105:3 says. That’s what I’m going to do this morning. And the one of His many names that I’m going to concentrate on is “Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6). I need that peace He promised in  John 14:27.

So I am going to sit by my “prayer window” for a while and just watch the snowflakes drift down, and rest my soul quietly in Him, in His peace. I am purposing to make time for this, and to follow the next part of Psalm 105:3. I will give my heart a chance to rejoice in seeking the LORD, and do all I can to keep the hindrances to this at bay.

Peace with the Savior. How sweet! I will reflect on how different it is from the world’s unreliable “peace”(Jhn 14:27). I will realize His peace consists not of harmony with all humans, but with God. For the very Prince of Peace, whose birth the angels announced with the words “and on earth peace” (Luke 2:14), told His disciples He came to bring a figurative sword of enmity between close family members and friends (Mt 10:34-37). His truth would be a two-edged dividing sword (Heb 4:12), but He Himself would be “our peace” between God and man, bridging the chasm made by our sin (Col 1:19-23), so that we who put our trust in Him might approach “the throne of grace with confidence” (Heb 4:16, NIV).

I will approach that throne of grace this morning and sit at His feet with quiet confidence. I will glory in His holy name. I pray that you will enjoy some special time just for this purpose, too.