Bethlehem is known as the “House of Bread” because its name comes from the Hebrew words bet (house) and lehem (bread). the significance of Bethlehem, as a birthplace of Jesus and the fulfillment of prophecy is central, to its meaning as the “House of Bread.”
Jesus’s Birth
Jesus, His birth and Bethlehem was a fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus calls himself the “Bread of Life” and said, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me, shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
The Lamb of God
Jesus was the Lamb of God, son of David, and was born in Bethlehem.
The Story of Redemption
Jesus chose Bethlehem to tell the story of redemption.
The Bread of Life
Jesus provided the true bread from heaven, unlike the manna in the desert, which was a daily provision.
My top grocery store Items that I get every shopping trip are:
Ginger root
Mushrooms
Eggs
Meat
Avocados
Going to the grocery store hungry Is the worst. So, I try not to do it. Otherwise, I buy a bunch of high-sugar high-carb foods that just leave me hungry an hour later. ,
In the past I have been an emotional eater, it has been my go-to to cope when I’m stressed out or upset. I am trying to overcome that.
Sticking to my grocery list after meal planning has made a huge difference. Food companies have gotten good at food marketing on television, social media, the radio, and the internet to promote their food. And it’s kind of hand in America.
I try to stick to healthy preservative free foods when I shop. After all “we are what we eat.”
Every decision has consequences, each choice you make no matter how small, will inevitably lead to some kind of result or outcome, weather, positive or negative, which we need to deal with. Essentially, there are always repercussions to our actions.
This is a lesson. I’ve tried to teach my children all through their life. “Think about the consequences when you make the decision.” It emphasizes the importance of taking ownership for your choices and being accountable for the results that follow.
Before making a decision, it’s crucial to think about the potential consequences, both good and bad, to make informed choices.
You cannot avoid the results of your own decisions, even if you didn’t intend for them to happen.
Every decision has consequences that affect you as well as the other people involved.
These consequences can be immediate or long lasting. The consequences of decisions can be positive, negative, or combination of both.
Life often offers us the opportunity to decide what suitable for us in the present moment. But too often we’re making decisions. We aren’t always thinking about what consequences will follow. Some decisions might be made on a whim or thoughtless impulse. But once we choose our action, the consequences have a wheel of their own.
So before taking action, you might want to take a moment to pause and analyze the situation rather than making a hasty choice. Regardless of the circumstance, there are things to take into consideration.
We all have intuitive skills that can be accessed when we become more conscious. By assessing the skills, we can transcend most personal matters, bringing about awareness that can guide us to think before going forward…before acting.
Remember that every choice comes with a consequence, so choose wisely. Make sure the choices you make are. “your” choices and not someone else’s
Follow your instincts. Learn to pause… then decide.
Inner strength, clarity, and confidence will allow you to trust in your choices with certainty, helping you to move beyond your obstacles in your path.
Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.
One of the men that has made a positive impact in my life was my father. This didn’t not come until my late teens. But I cherish my father. Every father should give his daughter a sense of security, and teach self-reliance as well as provide a strong role for future interactions with men and ultimately contribute to her emotional well-being.
My father just as with all human beings have to deal with their giants. My father had to overcome his battle of alcoholism after my brother drowned at a the age of 12. Alcohol was his coping mechanism for many years.
Later in life my father taught me how to handle the challenges of life. I knew that anything I was dealing with I could talk to him. Sometimes I would go to him before I went to my husband with anything.
When he passed away I was devastated. I was the only one around to make some hard decisions in the hospital which was painful. After he passed I felt completely alone. I hadn’t cried so hard in my life. After his funeral I put all his belongings into boxes and that’s where they sat for 6 years. Until I felt I was strong enough to go through them.
People say you get over deaths of a loved one, but I miss my father horribly everyday. I still cry to this day. And knowing Christmas was his favorite holiday is tough. To this day struggle through Christmas. I see him in the Christmas lights, the opening of Christmas presents, the old time Christmas songs that he loved so much.
Even though I didn’t get to know him until later in life. I cherish the times I had with my father. There is still a tear in my eye and a pain in my heart to know he’s gone. I still feel the little pieces of him that are alive in my heart.
We know that we can encounter God’s presence in His Word, in church or in small group Bible studies, and in small prayer groups. But the presence of God can be seen in everything around us. Nature is a reflection of God and we can see Him through all He has created for us.
“The heavens declare the glory of God: the skies proclaim the work of His hands” -Psalm 19:1
God is the creator of heaven and earth. Everything we see in nature has been carefully designed to the last detail and brought to life by God. So many people go about their day and notice nothing around them.
The beauty we see in nature all comes from God and was perfectly and intentionally designed by Him and Him alone.
If you ever felt like God is far from you and want to find Him. Get out into nature. Today living in busy times, it’s easy to not feel God’s presence. But taking a few minutes to get out into nature and look around at the trees, mountains, natural bodies of water, or maybe a flower growing up through the concrete. We can see God through it all.
I remember in Luke 19: 39-40 when Jesus is talking about the Pharisees when they told Jesus to rebuke His disciples. He answered them saying “I tell you that is these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
Even if no one praised God the rocks, trees, and rivers, would cry out in praise to God.
Spending time in nature may be all we need when don’t feel God is close to us.
It’s crazy how I can look back a year ago and realize how much everything has changed. The amount of people who have come into my life and left. Some memories I want to forget and some I want to hold onto forever.
A year ago I never thought of how my life has changed for the good and the bad. Life changes and I don’t think anyone is what we pictured it would be. Every day we grow and learn new things.
Change is a constant in life and no situation lasts forever. The plans I’ve made have changed due to unforeseen circumstances. The main thing is I’ve learned to change as life changes.
There is what we call worship in the church today. The songs that are sung and our prayers are equated with the concept of worship. Some even equate to emotional experiences.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such worship” -John 4:23
God is looking for those who worship in spirit and truth. Not, music, singing, and experiences because that does not constitute true worship.
In the Greek translation, “worship” (proskuneo) literally means to kiss. I find It Interesting to see how God the Father and Son view worship. God seeks out those who truly seek to kiss Him. Like a child who would climb onto the lap of their father and kiss his cheek out of a pure heart and desire to be with him. It doesn’t matter where it takes place just the joy of it taking place brings delight to him. The idea of worshiping God relates to that ultimate time with the intimate personal God.
When my husband and I go on our anniversary trip together every year to celebrate our years together, it doesn’t matter where we go, or the music that is playing, what makes it special is the communion of our hearts. The music only creates an atmosphere where we can enjoy intimate fellowship. That’s the kind of relationship we need to have when we worship God.
God knows when we superficially worship Him, He describes it to Isaiah of Israel, “these people come near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. (Isaiah 29:13). Some have the propensity to go through the motions of worship with no heart to it. After all Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
Our worship must be directed toward God, He must be the object of our worship. If we enter into worship only for what we can get from it, the direction is not toward God, but toward ourselves, which is unprofitable, and unfulfilling. Wholehearted devotion towards God, and attributing the worth He rightly deserves as God. Then and only then we grow deeper in knowledge of who He is as He has revealed Himself in scripture is the kind of spirit and truth the God seeks after from the worshipper. That’s the kind of kiss God wants from us.
I haven’t learned any new skills or lessons recently, that I haven’t shared with you. My lessons begin in January 2 2025.
But I’m excited. I recently was given the opportunity to sign up for some lessons about learning Davidic Worship. Learning how and why David worshiped The Lord.
Davidic worship is model of worship that focuses on the presence of the Lord among people.
David’s life is a model of worship that focuses on the presence of the Lord among His people.
David’s life is a model for worship, as he showed how to seek God, praise Him, and connect with Him.
David can teach us so much about worship and repentance. He offers some very practical steps we can take to become people after God’s own heart.
One thing I’ve learned throughout my life is that people wear masks. Being an observer is much better than being a talker.
A person shows their true character when they let their guard down and their masks slip off.
A person who is kind to you but not to others is not genuinely kind and is potentially a calculating person, because their behavior suggests they are acting with a specific self-serving motive, potentially to gain something from you by appearing kind while not extending that same courtesy to others.
I once went out to lunch with a friend who invited some of her friends. They seemed nice enough when I met them before lunch but when we sat down and the waitress came to our table, it was a different scenario. They were rude and condescending to her. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. My first thought was the poor waitress having to listen to them spew ugliness out of their mouths. And my second thought was, I needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
As I was leaving I got the waitresses attention and apologized to her for having to deal with them. To say the least I never associated with them after that.
There is no need to surround yourself with that kind of people. Don’t be afraid of pushing these kind of people away.
“Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what I’d good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear” -Ephesians 4:29
Cities have generally higher crime rates than rural areas. With that in mind, I would not been too keen on visiting a city unless I had completely prepared for it.
Always have someone who could handle themselves with me, as well as knowing the areas not to go to.
That being said I would like to visit New Orleans and Florida, as well as South Carolina, I have a niece in South Carolina, whom I haven’t seen in a few years.
We are all builders whether we realize it or not. We are constantly building someone or something. Our buildings could be our own lives, children, families, homes, careers, businesses, work churches.
Although God gives us someone or something to build, He is the builder of all things.
“For every house is built by someone, but he who builds all things is God” -Hebrews 3:4
Whenever God calls us to build for Him, He is simply calling us into building a partnership with Him.
As co-builders with God, we are not expected to build anything independently of God. Sadly many people today are building without any respect for God -His plan, proceeds, pattern, principle, or purpose.
Although everyone is a builder, not everyone is a wise builder.
So, how do we know if we are wise builders or foolish builders?
There are primary only two ways to know, by the tests we have in his life and by God‘s response.
A wise builder:
A wise builder is someone who builds according to God‘s plan or pattern, following God’s instructions and principles, what you build will withstand the tests, trials and pressures of life.
No matter what comes against your life, your relationships,, your home, family, career, or business, if it is built on God solid foundation, and according to God’s pattern, it will stand and not fall apart, crumble, or collapse.
Jesus gives us an example of this in Matthew 7:24-27:
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand, and he said descended the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it fell, and great was its fall.”
You are a wise builder if you are conforming to Jesus’s teachings and example.
Many marriages, homes, families, businesses, and even churches are falling apart today not because Satan has become wiser, stronger, or fiercer in his attacks that he used to be, but because independently of God and in utter disregard of God’s building plans, patterns, and principles.
When someone chooses to build, run, or manage their marriage, home, family, business, or career, according to the wisdom pattern, waves and principles of this world, whatever he builds cannot withstand the attacks of Satan or the pressures of life, but will eventually fall apart and collapse (Matthew 7:26-27).
If God takes delight what you have built and fills it with His awesome presence and glory then you are a wise builder.
For followers of God, the ultimate end or purpose of whatever we build is God‘s glory. But if God rejects what we have built and refuses to fill it with His presence, then we are foolish builders, and have not built according to God‘s pattern.
Sadly, God‘s awesome glory and present is visibly absent today in many homes, families,careers, businesses, and churches. this is simply showing that we are not building today according to God‘s plans, patterns, and principles.
God always shows His delight and approval of anything we build according to His specifications, plans, or principles but in dwelling and feeling it with His awesome presence and glory.
Before Moses started to build the tabernacle for God in the wilderness, he was called up to the mountain where God sold him the divine design, plan pattern, and specifications for His tabernacle.
Afterward, Moses was instructed:
“And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain” – Exodus 25:40
When Moses had finished building and setting up the tabernacle, according to God’s specifications, God showed His delight approval by His glory filling the tabernacle.
Apparently, Moses was a wise builder, for God and habitant and feel this tabernacle he built with His glory. Moses was a wise builder.
If we examine our home marriage, family, career, business, or churches, and we cannot visibly see, perceive or discern God’s glory, then you are not building in conformity to God’s specifications.
If we cannot see this in our lives, maybe we should go and ask God for wisdom and receive His blueprint or pattern for He has called us to do.
God said loud and clear from heaven:
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him” -Matthew 17:5
We cannot build anything to God delight, without knowing Jesus, leaving in Jesus, surrendering to Jesus, listening to Jesus, and conforming to Jesus’s teachings and examples.
In my opinion this is what is wrong in the world today. Until we put God first this will continue.
God is the Master Weaver. His ability to intricately weave together the threads of people’s lives, even through difficult circumstances to create a beautiful and meaningful tapestry, signifies that He has a plan and purpose for each individual, even when the details seem chaotic or unclear. God is in control and works behind the scenes to bring good, even when we are unable to see it.
Just like a skilled weaver carefully selecting and intertwining different color threads to create a complex pattern. He weaves together our experiences and events in our lives, both the joyful and the painful to make a unique and meaningful tapestry.
I find it amazing that He took my broken-down world and turned it into something beautiful and meaningful. But only God could do that. This is why I choose to have faith and trust in Him wholeheartedly. I know I am sitting behind the tapestry wall, while He creates something more precious than rubies (Proverbs 3:15). Even when I don’t understand the current challenge I face. Because ultimately, He is the one guiding the process.
“To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes. The oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” -Isaiah 61:3.
From Pity to Praise 