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God always does everything just right:

There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, another fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and yet another fourteen from the Babylonian exile to Christ. -Matt 1:17

This is Matthews way of telling us Jesus came at just the right time.

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced. -Matt 1:18-19

And this is Matthew showing us he came to just the right people.

Joseph was an honorable man. He took a “single mother” and he chose to love her. 

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I am inviting everyone at Crossroads Baptist Church to read the Bible together.

You don’t have to be a member of Crossroads to participate, simply click (below) the version you prefer, put your email address in the white box at the bottom of the page, and “click to subscribe”

• English Standard Version (ESV) – what Pastor John preaches from
• New International Version (NIV) – very popular & readable
• New American Standard (NASB) – a standard for in-depth study
• Holman Christian Standard (HCSB) – Southern Baptist
• New Living Translation (NLT) – very readable
• The Message Bible (MSG) – the easiest to understand (good for “family reading”)
• King James Version (KJV) – old school
• New King James Version (NKJV) – the new old school

You’ll receive the reading in your email inbox each day as we read one chapter of the New Testament every weekday.

I’ll also be writing a brief blog posts about each reading, each day. You can check back here or enter your email address in the top right corner to subscribe to receive blog updates around 2:00pm central.

See Crossroads on Facebook and twitter as well

There are all kinds of useful tips you’ll get when you (and the other 2.77M in the US) get married, some of my favorite have to do with the fact that “she’s always right…”

We started a new Sunday School class at church, and we are going through “Love and Respect.” This is a great book taken from the principle found in various places in the Bible, and succinctly by the Apostle Paul:

…let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

-Eph 5:33

This is true as a biblical command, but is also proven correct through research practical research (as brought out by Dr. Eggrich).

I firmly believe, “do this” or “tweak that” fixes to your marriage will not ultimately be effective unless you put Jesus at the center of your lives. The true purpose of marriage is communion with God, not to make you happy.

It is, however, interesting to see the things that have been present in those individuals who have a lower rate of divorce. Here are some of the things that are more true of people who do not get divorced than those who do… In other words, how to not get divorced  (from a purely statistical perspective)

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For years I’ve followed First Baptist Church Woodstock, under the direction of their Minister of Education Allan Taylor, as a model for discipleship.

His book is a great resource to begin doing Small Groups (Sunday School) right. Not just Bible Study and fellowship, but to REACH people, TEACH people, and MINISTER to people. Sunday School is not an event to attend, it’s a ministry to mobilize.