10A Worship

This morning my dear friend Mark Bassett, pastor of Our Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Ephrata, will be leading and preaching … get ready for the unexpected. I wish I could be here to hear him … but I’ll be in Ephrata.

This morning, we are five days into 2025. How do we prepare for the year ahead? Do we make resolutions, promises, hoping to change? One of the beautiful convictions Christians have is that every day is a new beginning. God is all about changing lives, changing us. The power for a changed life came to us in Bethlehem.

Nine months earlier God sent an angel to Mary to tell her that she would be the one to give birth to the Savior of the World. She believed the unbelievable and she broke out in song. Her song in Luke chapter 1, called the Magnificat, celebrates God’s reversal of the priorities and power of this world. God scatters the proud, He takes the throne from the mighty and sends the rich away empty. The poor are exalted. The humble and poor are filled with good things, the humble are seated in places of honor.

This “new” way of living, this God redefinition of power, was what Jesus lived, taught, and invited us to embrace. This power to live a God-honoring, people-loving, life has its roots in the baby born in Bethlehem. Overlooked by most, Jesus had in Him the power of the universe, and the love of our heavenly Father.