How many mangers?

 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. Luke 2:15-16

What hit me this year, as I heard this story again, was, "How many managers were there in Bethlehem?" This took me to the second question, "How long did it take them to find him?" 

Sure, Bethlehem wasn't a huge city, but it was crowded with those who came as they were from the family of David. The town was probably filled with homes that had their livestock with them, and so they had feeding boxes for their animals. It was night, so how many people did they tell about the visitation even before they found the baby? 

Of course, you might be thinking, "Who cares?" This has nothing to do with me, but are you sure? I'm not. Jesus later told his disciples in Luke 11:9, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The shepherds sought, and they found. There are truths that Jesus wants to tell us, but we need to seek (in the Bible). There is a life out there God wants us to live, but we have to be willing to go and find it. 

Are you (and I) willing to do the work of finding what God has told us about, or are we just going to stare at the sky and wonder what it all means? 

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Going Forward

One of the great dangers for anyone is taking on too much. We can allow ourselves to become like Titan and try to carry the world. For myself, I never see myself as having done enough, which can keep me from being lazy but can also force me into a frame of mind that doesn't allow me to rest as God commands.

Balance in life is not the old-fashioned scales, where we add to one side or another. Balance isn't equality in our lives. I say that because we are people and not measuring devices. Balance for people is often more nuanced.

Balance is often something we talk about, but in understanding it, we create something it isn't. Balance for a pregnant woman isn't the same as a teenage boy, or an unemployed steelworker, or a pastor. Balance is adding the right amount of force to the right areas of our lives to keep us from falling over or falling into error. It means turning off the TV or going home early from work to take care of a sick wife or child. It may mean taking an extra job to pay off debt. It may mean not watching TV or reading fiction to finish the master’s Program. It may mean doing nothing so that your body can recover.

To say it another way, balance for an introvert may mean only a few hours or less around people who drain you. For an extrovert, your balance is to be intact with more stimuli. For a cactus, balance is only a little water and lots of sun, but an impatiens needs lots of water and shade. As a Christian, you always need God and His word. For an infant or someone who is older, balance might mean taking a nap. Balance for you won’t be the same as for others.

Find the balance that God wants you to have and live into it, but remember to let God be your instructor in this.

PERSONAL APPLICATION: This is where it comes to me. I need to keep a balance. Currently, I am starting to work with a Bible scholar on reviewing the Bible Reflections Series. This is something due to our schedules that will take a lot of time. We will begin with Bible Reflections 5 and continue so that the book and the blog, https://biblereflections4you.blogspot.com will be as accurate as I can make them. To do this and not become overloaded, I will not be continuing to add more comments as we go through Bible Reflections, even though I am still doing the readings.

 

For the few who follow here, thanks for your understanding. I will still be posting, but less frequently and not about Bible Reflections. See you in 2026.

REMEMBER: Balance is adding the right amount of force to the right areas of our lives to keep us from falling over or falling into error.

Jeremiah 37

 

Don’t think this reprieve means you're getting off. There are times when it appears that people who are doing wrong are going to get away with consequences. The truth is that everyone will face judgment. Here, it seems they'll be okay, but God warns them they won't. What Judah should have done is take this time to call for people to repent and call out to God. What do we see? They arrest the prophet on trumped-up charges. Instead of seeking the prophet to return to God, they beat him and might have killed him if the king hadn't stepped in. The king, though protecting Isaiah, shows no sign of calling for repentance either. How sad.  

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Romans 16

 

Paul and Romans Chapter 16 has a list of people that are just one after another of people who are in Christ or are working for Christ or have helped in the work of Christ and it's amazing to see these names listed one after another, some of which are new people we haven't heard of before, some of which we can read about it in the Book of Acts. But it's amazing to see the number of people who came beside Paul and were working for the gospel.

Yet in the middle of all this, Paul says, greet them and do wonderful things to them and treat them right. Paul warns 16 and verse 17 to watch out for those who cause divisions, obstacles, and keep away from them. After saying "greet these people," do nice things. There's this warning: watch out for those who are causing division. Watch out for those who are causing trouble and serving themselves. And why? Because God wants us to be innocent about what is evil. Don't get caught up in those things that cause divisions that cause problems with those people who do that. But serve God faithfully. And as Paul says, "God of peace will crush Satan." You don't have to. I don't have to. And to me, that is a relief. I have things to do, you have things to do, but God will have the victory.

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Romans 15

 

As we look at Romans Chapter 15, Paul starts out in verse 14, 15, that he understands that the people in Rome are, they're doing good, they have knowledge, they have competence, they can instruct one another, but he says that he's, because of his ministry, he's spoken boldly on some points to remind them. And I'm reminded that the reason we go sometimes to church isn't just to help other people, which we should. It isn't just to hear new things. Sometimes we do. Sometimes it's good to be reminded. That's the ministry sometimes for our pastor. Just to remind people of what they already know.

Also, I found it interesting that at the end of this chapter, Paul asks for prayer. He asks him, he says, "Pray for me." Now, if anyone was good enough, it would have been Paul, we would think. But yet Paul the Apostle says, "I want you to pray for me." He realized that the prayers of others would help him in the things he was about to face.

Finally, if I may, verse 13 sounds like a great conclusion. "May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Amen. Go with God today.

Psalm 86

 

There are two prayers in the chapter that have me thinking today. The first is that God would guard our lives, and the second is that God would give us an undivided heart. When I consider it, these aren’t two prayers but one; if our lives are going to be all that they need to be for God, our hearts can’t be divided. We have to be fully committed to God and his ways. James gives the warning that a divided heart won’t receive anything from God, so this is a real concern. The great thing is God knows our weakness and will help us when we find our heart divided between what He says and other desires that come up within us. God will if we let him give us undivided hearts, and in that He is guarding our lives.

2 Samuel 14

  

As I look into 2 Samuel 14, I see something that I see as a reflection of 2 Samuel 13. Jonadab gave advice to his brother. And now Joab is giving advice through someone else to David to try to make them feel better about themselves and about what's going on in their life. The problem is that both of these choices led to disaster, which is a reminder to me that we need to make sure to pick wise counselors and not just people who will tell us what we want to hear. 

If I'm on a diet, I don't need to ask the bakery owner, "Should I buy a donut?" Of course, he's going to say "yes." "He's going to say, one's not going to hurt you. It's okay". If I have a friend who just wants me to feel better, he'll say, "Yes, eat it." My doctor? Well, he's not going to say that. And real, honest, good advisors tell us what we don't want to hear, not just what we want to hear. 

Choose wisely.

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