Big Scary Angel
In Luke 2:8-20, we’re quickly introduced to some shepherds minding their own business out in the fields. In an instant, their lives are changed forever: An angel appears, the glory of God shines all around them, and it crescendos into a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God. Having just witnessed these category-shattering events in rapid succession, their reaction is reasonably justified—they were absolutely terrified! Yet, instead of spiraling into a lifelong existential crisis or being reduced to babbling ninnies, they appropriately hasten to do as the angel instructed. Upon confirming the angel’s words, they spread the news so effectively that their story made it into our Bibles today.
Elsewhere in an older Testament, Isaiah experienced holy fear too. He was so convicted by his sin that he exclaimed, "Woe to me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips." (Isaiah 6:5). The Lord dealt with his sin and then commissioned him to be a prophet. In both cases, God’s glory brings great fear, but it leads to being included in incredible things. Contrast that kind of fear with the things we fear today. Worry and anxiety dominate our landscape. If not gloom and depression, it’s paralyzing fear of nameless shames or untouchable guilt. We manage fear, afraid to confront it. Who knows what we might find?
Fear is an inevitable part of life, we are guaranteed to be afraid of something. Unlike the shepherds and Isaiah, who were thrust into holy fear without warning, we are mostly given a choice: We can run away from our sin, letting carnal fears bury us in shame and stagnation, or we can lean into holy fear, allowing it to convict us, draw us to a deeper repentance, and propel us into God's redemptive story. Present yourself before the Lord, feel the fear, receive the forgiveness, and watch our Savior turn terror into purpose, hope, and action!
Jonathan Duncan
EFCC Member
Our Eternal Source
When we think of the nativity during the Christmas season, one of the first things that comes to mind is the manger. The manger is a peculiar element because it’s not something we encounter in our everyday city lives. A manger is a feeding trough for animals, located inside a shelter for animals. The Bible makes it clear that it’s not the ideal place for any baby—let alone Jesus—to be placed in right after birth: “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7).
Due to circumstances beyond her control, Mary had no choice but to have Jesus in a place with animals and lay Him inside their feeding trough. However, God was using the inconvenience not only to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus’ humble beginnings on Earth (Micah 5:2), but to also paint a beautiful picture of what was to come.
One time in His ministry, Jesus was sought out by a crowd for the bread of God He had been describing. When they asked for that bread, Jesus replied, “‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (John 6:35). Jesus dove further into this metaphor during the Last Supper: (Luke 22:19-20).
From the very beginning, Jesus was showing us how He is the source of life. He was laid in a manger, the animals’ source of energy. And decades later, He would become our Source of not just our spiritual life on earth, but eternal life. His Body was turned into the ultimate Offering on the cross with His blood covering our sins and His resurrection opening the door to eternal life for us.
For the next few minutes, close your eyes and contemplate the theme of Jesus as our Source of life throughout His time on earth. Invite God to peel back the layers of the similarities to grow your knowledge and awe of Jesus. Then ask Him for the wisdom to use any revelations as encouragement to rely on Jesus for your needs today.
Christina Chaiban
EFCC Attender
Prepare Him Room
Luke 2:1-7
When it's dark,
And the nights are long . . .
What do we hold onto?
When our souls ache,
And we can’t go on anymore . . . Where do we look?
When everything falls apart, And hope is nowhere to be found . . .
What fills our hearts?
Fear. Confusion. Despair.
Can we make room for Him?
Can we make room in our hearts for The One who created it?
He brings unfailing love. (Psalms 13:5)
Everlasting hope. (Romans 15:13)
Peace beyond understanding. (Phil. 4:7)
Do we believe in Him?
When it gets too much,
Can we hold onto His promises?
He’s holding onto you.
He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Isaiah 41:13)
He will strengthen you and lift you. (Isaiah 41:10)
He gives us rest for our weary souls. (Matt.11:28-30)
When it’s dark all around us,
Can we hear Him gently reminding us:
In Him, there is no darkness at all? (1 John 1:5)
When the pain seems never-ending,
Can we believe Him when He tells us: His love is everlasting? (Jeremiah 31:3)
When we can’t find our way, can we reach out for His hand?
He longs to grab yours and hold tight. (Psalm 139:10)
He promises to never let you go. (Deut. 31:8)
As His hand holds yours, can you feel His scar where a nail once pierced through?
He too knows. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
The pain.
The exhaustion.
The unanswered questions.
He knows.
Can we bring them all to Him?
He hears your breaking heart. (Psalm 34:18)
He catches each tear that falls. (Psalm 56:8)
He sees your burdens and invites you to give them to Him. (1 Pet. 5:7)
He longs to fill your heart with strength.
His strength. (Psalm 73:26)
His love. (1 John 4:7-8)
His peace. (John 14:27)
Will you make room for Him?
The doubts and fears in our minds are loud,
But His love is louder. (Psalm 103:11)
The path ahead is unfamiliar,
But the One who has overcome the world goes before you. (John 16:33)
He makes a way and invites you to join Him on it. (Isaiah 43:16-19)
Will you fix your eyes on Him? (Isaiah 26:3-4)
Will you hold onto His promises?
He is with you every step of the way. (Joshua 1:9)
Caroline Chaiban
EFCC Attender
A Special Time
There are a couple weeks left until Christmas and most of us are in a rush to get everything done. Decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking, hosting and attending parties, end of the year wrap-up at work, getting ready for 2026, rushing just seems to be inevitable at this time of year.
In Luke 2, Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem at a busy time because of a decree issued by Caesar Augustus requiring everyone to register in their ancestral home for a census. The town was overcrowded with many other people also fulfilling the decree, leading to Joseph and Mary having to settle for lodging in a stable, where Jesus would be born. The four day trip (at least) from Nazareth, with Mary on a donkey wouldn’t have been rushed as she was due at any moment.
“And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” ( Luke 2:6-7) A very humble beginning for our Savior.
We know our Heavenly Father is the author of every story and the Creator of time eternal, but also our temporary time on earth. Scripture reminds us, "When the time is right, I the Lord will make it happen,” Isaiah 60:22 and in Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
Sometimes our daily tasks seem overwhelming and we wish for more hours in the day. Time just flies, as the saying goes. It doesn’t matter if you are a mom raising children and running a home, the Lead Pastor of a large church, or performing any of a thousand occupations . . . Time is something we try to control, often run out of, and is so valuable. We can ask God for the ability to manage our time wisely.
"God's Minute" by Dr. Benjamin Mays emphasizes the importance of making the most of every moment of life:
"I have only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, can't refuse it. Didn't seek it, didn't choose it. But it's up to me to use it. I will suffer if I lose it. Give an account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, but eternities are wrapped up in it.”
Not every minute is meant to be rushed through though. Sometimes the most important minutes are when we hit the pause button, and sit in God's presence just listening, and praying. Jesus was born to provide us with that special time and with each other.
Deb Hill
EFCC Member
Inconvenience
I don’t know about you, but when something comes up that is out of my comfort zone, I don’t love it. Little inconveniences, like hangnails or running out of printer ink, are annoying, sure. But as adults, we have learned through this life how to maintain our emotions and just deal with those minor issues.
But what about the bigger inconveniences? The things that test our patience a little more?
I’m a single parent, and my parents help out quite often with my two girls. Now that my dad is retired, my parents take a lot more trips. Multiple trips a year, sometimes 2-3 weeks at a time. More fun for them causes more inconveniences for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they get to do it! It just means that I have to single-parent it a little bit more when they are gone.
When Mary and Joseph had to make the 90-mile trip with Mary nine months pregnant, I can imagine they told themselves what I often say, “We’ll figure it out.” What else is there to do? You do what you have to.
Do you know what “figuring it out” means as a Christ follower? By putting my faith in Him, I get to see how God shows up and meets me right where I am. God uses people to come alongside and fill in the gap, picking up my daughters from school or taking the girls while I work. My inconveniences turn into an opportunity to see God take care of me.
Mary and Joseph had an innkeeper, shepherds, and a feeding trough play significant roles in their story of “figuring it out.” They were taken care of.
Another really neat side effect of these bigger inconveniences is that I get to see that I am capable. God has equipped me with what I need to manage the situation. I CAN figure it out. I CAN thrive in life while being a single mom. I CAN allow myself to put my guard down and allow others to pour into me. Because I NEED that.
So the next time you’re met with an inconvenience, minor or major, be intentional about seeing how God is taking care of you through it. As well as being on the lookout for how He has equipped you to deal with these moments of “figuring it out.”
Kim Freels
Digital Media Specialist
Detour Ahead
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.” (Luke 2:1)
I can’t think of two words that I’d rather see less on a freeway filled with red lights other than “Detour Ahead.” That just means that our journey will be much longer and that I might not get to where I need to be, at least not in the time frame that I had planned. We tend to like our plans. We like to believe that our path is straight, predictable, and manageable. But the Scriptures seem to suggest that God often does some of his best work in the midst of our detours.
This is exactly what happened to Mary and Joseph. Their journey to Bethlehem wasn’t a carefully chosen travel destination. It wasn’t a “Babymoon” or a fun trip down to visit family. It was an unplanned detour in their family plan, and it all happened because some genius in the government, someone on the other side of the known world, decided that it would be a good idea to have all his subjects counted. Why? We have no idea. Caesar signed some paperwork, and their life was put on a detour. Just like that, Joseph found himself preparing for a 90-mile journey with a very pregnant wife.
If anyone had a reason to resist, complain, or question this timing, it was these two. Yet Luke tells the story without drama: “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem…” They simply obeyed. They walked forward into circumstances they didn’t choose.
What Caesar could never have known is that God was quietly orchestrating something far bigger than what could be imagined. Centuries earlier, Micah had prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. So while Rome flexed its muscles, God was fulfilling His promise. This “entire Roman world” decree became a divine delivery system… not just for the census of that part of the world, but for the Savior of the world as a whole!
Sometimes God’s direction can feel like a detour. A job change you didn’t ask for. A diagnosis you never expected. A plan that suddenly shifts. A door that closes before you understand why. But what looks like a detour from our perspective may actually be God's careful guidance.
Mary and Joseph didn’t have the whole picture. They just had an annoying order to follow, which gave them a place to go. Even though the timing felt inconvenient and the road felt long, they discovered that God was in the detour. He was ahead of them in Bethlehem, preparing a place and fulfilling a promise. This detour ended up being a much bigger story than they could see.
This experience may be more common than we realize. Maybe the circumstances that seem like detours, feeling forced, unwanted, or unexpected, are actually the way God leads us in the story that is so much bigger than we can comprehend. You may not have chosen the road you’re on, but God wastes no journey. And when you finally arrive at the place that the latest detour leads, you might just find that God was leading you there all along.
Josh Rose
Family Pastor
The Risky Path to Confirmation
Every now and again, we notice a little detail in a passage of scripture that we have read hundreds of times, and we realize that it carries more meaning than we had ever noticed. Luke tells us that after the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, she “arose and went with haste” to visit Elizabeth (Luke 1:39). It’s one of those line I have never stopped to notice, but let’s pause to open up its world of meaning.
The distance from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea was around 80 miles. No cars. No smooth highways. No heated seats or podcasts. We’re talking about a minimum of four full days of travel, mostly uphill. Anyone making that trip in the ancient world knew it wasn’t a casual stroll. And yet Mary doesn’t hesitate. She doesn’t seem to spend much time thinking about it. She just gets up and goes.
Why? My best guess is that Mary was hungry for confirmation. Gabriel had given her a promise more astonishing than she could comprehend. She would carry the very Messiah of God, the Savior of the Hebrew people and of the world! The Holy Spirit would overshadow her. Did she understand how much her life was about to change? I assume with Gabriel’s promise came a tidal wave of uncertainty. Did that just happen? Am I sure I wasn’t dreaming? What will Joseph think? What would her family say? How do you even begin to process a calling like that?
Mary chooses to seek confirmation ASAP! And what a blessing that God had already offered to her: “Your relative Elizabeth… is in her sixth month.” That detail was such a beautiful gift of God’s grace to this young, frightened teenager. So she didn’t hesitate to embark on this 80-mile journey.
In Mary’s world, women often traveled during pregnancy to be with trusted relatives. It was practical, relational, and sometimes simply necessary. Luke isn’t describing something strange; he’s describing something deeply human. Mary is seeking the safest place for her soul to land, a place where someone will understand. Someone who will believe her. Someone who will speak blessing, not doubt.
And sure enough, the moment she arrives, confirmation abounds. Elizabeth’s child leapt. Elizabeth prophesized. Joy replaced uncertainty. Faith replaced fear.
It makes me wonder how often does God invite us on an uphill journey because the confirmation we’re longing for is on the other side of the risky path?
Maybe obedience feels steep right now, and possibly a bit risky. Maybe you are in need of confirmation about a direction or a path. What we learn from Mary is that God often meets us with clarity, joy, and blessing on the road of obedience, not before it.
Josh Rose
Family Pastor
Connected to the Holy Spirit
I dreamt that I stopped my Jeep at an intersection near my house, then noticed a wild lion on the corner. The lion walked to my vehicle and climbed into the passenger seat. I was scared but not harmed, so I drove the lion directly to the place I figured it should go, the Wild Animal Park. On the drive there, the lion leaned closer and closer, pressing my arm, hand, and body into his mane. The dream didn’t last long, but the feeling of fear, mixed with wonder at the closeness I felt to that creature, stuck with me when I awoke. I found myself praying and thanking the Lord for that dream and the feeling that followed it. Perhaps the comparison will seem like a stretch to you, but I found myself asking the Lord to bless me, bless us with similar experiences of connection to the Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures describe a moment like that in Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mom.
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” – Luke 1:39-45
Elizabeth utters amazing things after Mary’s greeting because she was “filled with the Holy Spirit”! As a result of that filling, she knew what God had been up to and was able to confirm it and therefore bless Mary with that truth without having been told the story yet. She knew Mary was carrying the Messiah. She knew Mary was trusting the Lord and believing that God was working in her, as the angel had said. Please pray with me that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit to confirm God’s truth and works in each other through the faith challenges we face as people and a church.
Pastor John Riley
A Safe Hiding Place
Many years ago I read “The Hiding Place,” the true story of Corrie ten Boom’s life. She and her family’s lives were changed forever when the Dutch surrendered to Hitler’s Germany in 1940. Like her father, Corrie was a watchmaker, the first woman to be licensed as a watchmaker in the Netherlands. They began hiding Jews and others in danger, even building a secret room in their home for added protection. Eventually, all were caught and sent to different concentration and work camps. Corrie and her sister Betsie eventually ended up in Ravensbruck where Betsie died, but not before many there heard about God’s love, even in the middle of the unspeakable cruelty they endured. In that horrible place, they had smuggled a bible, they had each other and their safe place was Jesus.
In Luke 1:39-45, a very young Mary is making haste to the home of her older cousin, after the angel Gabriel tells her she is pregnant, carrying Jesus, the Savior of the world. (Was she in shock and scared?) Elizabeth doesn’t live close by, but Mary doesn’t care–she will understand because she too is unexpectedly pregnant, but in her advanced years. Elizabeth was Mary’s safe place and the Lord knew they needed each other, even silencing Zechariah (Elizabeth’s husband) maybe so they could have “girl time.” (Luke 1: 18-19)
There is something safe about having a close family member (or friend) to go to in a crisis, or even a time of great joy. They’ve known you for a long time and loved you. Elizabeth probably had the wisdom of years, but they were both in the same boat! Both women were pregnant for the first time–exciting yet scary.
We all need to have a safe person to share with, but no matter what, we always have a safe place in the Lord. Psalm 36:7 tells us, “How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.” Under His wings is a place to find safety.
David also makes it clear God hides us in the day of trouble as stated in Psalm 27:5 (NLV): “For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His holy tent. In the secret place of His tent He will hide me. He will set me high upon a rock.” Think of an eagle. The mother spreads her majestic wings over her little ones in order to protect them from any storms or predators. She will actually face injury in order to protect her little ones.
God’s Holy Spirit lives within us and we are always with Him in His holy tent. We know from other Psalms that God is our rock, our shelter and our strong tower of refuge. What a friend we have in Jesus–the ultimate safe place!
Deb Hill
EFCC Member
Carrying the Supernatural
After Mary received the news from Gabriel the angel that she would be the virgin mother of Jesus, she hurried to her cousin Elizabeth’s place. But when she greeted Elizabeth, something supernatural occurred: “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Luke 1:41).
That is an extraordinary response to an act as simple as a greeting! The joyful reaction from the baby and Elizabeth wasn’t because of Mary herself. It’s because of Who she was carrying: Jesus. She was the vessel of the Savior of the world.
In the same way, we as followers of Jesus are vessels of hope because we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we have the opportunity to spark joy and other fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in others—even through our mundane actions—just as 1 Thessalonians 5:11 states, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
But how can God work the supernatural through our everyday lives? Looking back at Mary, she reveals the key during Gabriel’s visit: “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:38).
Mary recognized herself as God’s servant and submitted herself to Him, even if it was the tougher choice. This type of surrender requires faith that God will come through like He has in the past and trust that His plans are always superior to ours because He is our sovereign, yet loving Father. God can only work through those who are willing to be His vessel.
For the next couple of minutes, close your eyes or open your journal and invite God to help pinpoint what is hindering you from being His vessel in your day-to-day life. Ask God to reveal the reasons behind the hindrance. Then allow Him to show you the loving truth about Him and His promises, His Love washing away the blockage, making way for the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you in being His vessel today.
Christina Chaiban
EFCC Attender