A Birth Announcement

Did you know that an elephant’s pregnancy is 18 to 22 months long? Can you imagine being pregnant that long? Waddling everywhere. Belly stretching beyond its normal shape. Feeling that baby kick, move and squirm. Enduring the baby sitting on your bladder or up in your ribs.

Since I’ve never been pregnant, I wouldn’t even begin to know how that feels, but I do equate the time that we began trying to have a baby until our first baby was placed in my arms as my pregnancy, and it rivals that of the elephant.

Most women anticipate the birth of their baby for 7-8 months depending on when they discover they are pregnant. When you go through fertility treatments and adoption, you are anticipating the birth of your baby from the first time you try to conceive and fail.

Our daughter has a wonderful adoption story. Hers is an open adoption, and I was allowed to be in the delivery room when she was born. It is something I will always treasure and remember. Three years of fertility treatments, failed adoptions, and depression culminated in the climax of hearing my baby’s first cry. It was something I had waited for and anticipated for a very long time. Sometimes the waiting was just excruciating as many of my friends became pregnant with ease.

For this child I have prayed and the Lord has granted the desires of my heart.
                                        -  1 Samuel 1:27

Every year beginning with Black Friday shopping, people anticipate Christmas morning. Unfortunately, the anticipation is not for the birth of the Christ child but for the presents under the tree.

This year, I challenge you to be in anticipation of the birth announcement that a Savior has been born. Anticipate the birth of your Redeemer. Anticipate the birth of the perfect sacrifice.

I remember sending out our daughter’s birth announcement. It was with great joy that I finally got to tell everyone we were the proud parents of a baby girl. She was actually due at the end of December, but true to her personality, she came in her sweet time. Our birth mom had to be induced at the end of the first week in January, and our daughter came out overdone. She was content to stay where she was and was in no great rush to make her entrance.

But when she made her entrance, my husband and I were blowing up our phones calling all of our family and friends to tell them the good news. She’s here! She’s here! She’s perfect, and she’s here!

My eyes still tear up when I think of that day.

And as excited as we were and as many calls as we made and as many birth announcements we sent out which was a lot, it could not compare to God’s birth announcement.

God had told His children 400 to 500 years before He would be sending a child who would redeem them. He gave them prophesy after prophesy, and then silence because His children were not listening.

Fast-forward 400 to 500 years, an announcement to Mary and Elizabeth and her husband began the ripples of anticipation once again that a baby was coming, a King, a Redeemer.

And when Jesus, Immanuel was born, the heavens could not contain the celebration. Luke 2:8-14 says the angels came out of heaven. They pierced the pitch dark sky. God’s glory was around the angel announcing the birth of His one and only Son. If you remember, God’s glory was so bright He had to hide Moses in the cleft of the rock, and Moses was able to see the back trail of God’s glory only, so can you imagine how bright this glory was in comparison to the darkness of the night?

The angel told them not to be afraid. The angel told them a Savior had been born and where to find Him. And then a multitude of angels start pouring out of heaven praising God, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!” 

Isaiah 6 tells us that 6 seraphim angels were praising God, and their praise was so loud it shook the door posts. If 6 angels can shake the door posts, then a multitude could shake the foundation of the earth. Think of the loudest concert you have ever been to and magnify the volume by 10, and it still wouldn’t do this announcement justice. Those shepherds’ insides were vibrating with the praise of the Most High God.

Now that was a birth announcement worth anticipating. And do you know what stands out to me about the birth announcement? In verse 11, “Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord was born for you…” He was BORN FOR YOU! God is excited about the birth of His Son, but He’s excited because His Son’s birth was for YOU!

Are you anticipating the birth of your Redeemer, or are you stressed because you haven’t gotten your shopping done?

Are you anticipating the birth of the One who is your Savior, or are you focused on the lights and tinsel on the tree?

Are you anticipating the birth of the One who wrote history before time began, or are you anticipating making memories with your family?

Love your family and friends enough to be excited and anticipate the birth of Jesus and share your faith with them. They need to know you are anticipating a birth announcement.

"Goppeldy-goo" Hebrew for "Clear as Mud" Southern for "I do NOT understand"

Have you ever read a verse and thought, “Well, that’s a bunch of goppeldy-goo” or “That was clear as mud”? Both of those are Southern for the same thing. It means we didn’t understand it…at all.

When I hit those verses I really have to take my time and break it down, so I get the depth of the words, the richness of the truth, and the treasure of its meaning.

Deuteronomy 10:16 was that verse for me. It says, Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

Part of it, I immediately associated with because God had called me stiff-necked before. After we had gone through fertility treatments and a failed private adoption, it seemed as if God was silent even though I was praying many times a day, pouring my heart out to Him. Because of what I perceived as silence and an uncaring God, I became angry and depressed. What kind of God wants me to call Him “Father” but won’t even talk to me? It was during this time, my employer moved me to Dallas for training for 3-4 months. I was without my husband, my church and my friends which made my depression go even deeper. On August 28, 2000, I called my momma at 10 PM doing the ugly, snotty-nose crying, ranting and raving like a lunatic about how I was so furious with God.

She allowed my steam to die down when she asked me, When was the last time you had your quiet time? I told her I wasn’t talking to God. She told me a quiet time was when God talks to us, and that the next morning I was to get up and read the Proverbs of the day before my feet hit the ground. Still being defiant I told her I hadn’t brought my Bible with me. This was serious because it goes everywhere I go. She assured me the good Gideons had left a Bible in the stand next to my bed, and she was right.

The next morning before my feet hit the floor, the first verse I read was Proverbs 29:1, Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.(NIV) That was God’s first words to me. Can we say two-by-four to the forehead? Yes, yes we can.

So when I read Deuteronomy 10:16, my mind immediately jumped to Proverbs 29:1, and I recognized myself in the Deuteronomy verse. Then I had to reread Deuteronomy 10:16.

The first thing I notice is there are three parts of the body identified:

1.    Foreskin – Jewish males are circumcised on the 8th day after their birth. The foreskin is removed based on the Abrahamic Covenant.

2.    Heart – The inner most organ. May refer to soul or conscience, the seat of emotions

3.    Stiff-necked – Stubborn, prideful, rebellious

The next thing I want you to pay attention to is the word circumcise. It means to cut off, to destroy, remove impurities, and purge.

So to summarize up to this point, you must purge your heart of evil, wicked, prideful ways.You are no longer to be stiff-necked stubborn people. You have to cut away things and desires of the flesh and ask for the heart of the Spirit.

Why does anyone have to do this?

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. James 4:4

It’s that “friendship with the world” that causes us to be stiff-necked.

It’s that “friendship with the world” that causes our heart to become calloused and in need of circumcision of fleshly desires because you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)- Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18

Do you see? Whatever you feed flourishes and whatever you starve dies. If you feed the flesh, fleshly desires will rule your heart which results in the need for you to ask God to circumcise your heart. But if you feed the Spirit, then the Spirit thrives in your life.

And just for the record, Deuteronomy 10:16 isn’t something you can do for yourself. The only way to apply this verse in your life and to succeed is to pray Psalm 51:10 - 12, Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

God is faithful. You pray Psalm 51:10-12 in earnest and He will do whatever it takes to circumcise the fleshly desires out of your heart and return the joy into your life. It won’t be pleasant, pretty or fun, but it will so be worth it.

Did you have any idea this verse could take you to this place and convict you so, or is it just me? Conviction and redemption is what this verse has brought to me. I pray that you will take time to work through this verse. Meditate on it. Cling to it. And release those ways that are not Christ-like.