Today is Epiphany

Just so you will know I am a Baptist Minister but I am also fascinated with religious holidays and what they represent. So it is because of this interest that I am writing about Epiphany today.

Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of December 25th until the morning of January 6th, which is the Twelfth Day. In following this older custom of counting the days beginning at sundown, the evening of January 5th is the Twelfth Night. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some church traditions, only the full days are counted so that January 5th is the Eleventh Day of Christmas, January 6th is the Twelfth Day, and the evening of January 6th is counted as the Twelfth Night.

Epiphany is observed in most Christian Religious because it commemorates the coming of the Magi or Wise Men to present gifts to the Christ Child and to make him known to other non Jewish people. What is amazing is that we teach our children that the wise men came to present gifts the night he was born but if you will study the scriptures you will see the wise men did not actually find the child until he was about two years old. Think about it, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Christ was Born. Also the scriptures tell us that he was taken to the temple for his brisk or circumcision when he was 8 days old. And there they were met by Simeon and a prophetess who knew who this child was by sight. It was when the wise men came to Herod asking about the child that he became scared this child would take his throne and he ordered that all males 3 years and under to be killed.

During this time the wise men found Joseph, Mary and the Christ child and presented their gifts to him. And God sent an Angel who warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod but to go home another way. God Also sent an Angel to Joseph to warn him Herod was trying to find the child to kill him and told him to take Mary and the child into Egypt and remain there until he told him that it was safe to bring the child back home.

Just study the first four Gospels of the New Testament and think about it. Also use your commentaries and you will see but most of all let the Holy Spirit teach you. That is why God sent the Holy Spirit, to be our comforter and our guide.

God still amazes me.

A lot has transpired since my last post. First of all, I am now an ordained minister and pastor of Macedonia South Bapitst Church in Montevallo, AL. I was called as the pastor a year ago and was ordained in December 2010 and I have been the bi-vocational pastor there since. I still find it truly remarkable how God works because this is the Church I have attended since I was 14. The Church where Kathy and I were married and raised our children in, the church where our children were baptized. And I had the wonderful privelidge of baptizing my daughter and son-in-law earlier this year. During all of this time I have been working on completing my seminary studies and I am hoping to be completed with my Master in DIV/Pastoral Preaching degree by the end 2013.

Our family has grown consiberably in the past couple of years, we now have 8 grandchildren, one of our grandsons is in heaven, and we are looking forward to welcoming his brother into the world next month. In July we had two added, one born July 26 and one July 27, WOW WHAT A WEEK for Poppa and Grandma. You ask how can this be, you see we took our nephews and neice in when my brother, their father, died in 2000. And we claim their children as our grandchildren because they are grand children.

In 2011 we also said goodbye to many family members, my father went home to be with the Lord on March 20, 2011 and one month to the day on April 20th, Kathy's mother passed away quite unexpected. It was a very hard and trying time because on July 30, 2010 we said hello and good bye to our grandson Isaac and Goodbye to an Aunt in June of 2010 and in November of 2011 to a dear friend we have known all our married life. But Life goes on.

What lies ahead? After much prayer and thought, A new beginning, Kathy and I are trying to adopt an young boy with hearying loss. We will post more details in the coming days. Also you may ask why a child with hearing loss, my reply is why not? You see I have deafness in my family on both sides. Both of my parents younger siblings are both deaf, and I have a hearing loss myself and wear hearing aids. So signing and talking with deaf is something that we grew up with and is a part of our family and this little boy will need that kind of family support around him.

What will 2012 bring, God only knows but I know that what ever comes we can handle all of them because, "We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength."