We don’t have a traditional devotional this week. But here are a few things to help guide your reading:

Check out The Bible Project’s overview video of 1 Corinthians. It is an excellent source for background information and context that walks through the book’s sections and themes. It can be really helpful for those who appreciate some visuals while learning.

And here’s a simple guide you can use whenever you want to dig a little deeper while reading God’s Word:

Observation:

This is how to learn what a passage of scripture says.

Questions to ask: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? What does it say? What do I notice?

Interpretation:

This is how to accurately interpret scripture and understand what it means in the right context.

Questions to ask: What are the key themes or truths? What is the writer’s intended meaning? What is the context? What questions do I have?

Application:

This is how to correctly apply the truth of the text to everyday life.

Questions to ask: How do I apply it? What are the implications in my life? What does this mean for me?

I have this terrible habit of ruining things for people. You see, I like to learn the backstories, interesting details, and opposing perspectives of things. Whether it’s historical figures, current events, word origins, Biblical translations, or theological views, I can’t help but research. What gets me into trouble is that I can’t keep what I’ve learned to myself. And that’s when I end up, as my friends would accuse, ruining things. So, this is your warning that I’m about to ruin something in the next couple of paragraphs—a beloved Christmas song, to be exact.

“Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord all creation? Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations? Did you know that your baby boy was Heaven’s perfect Lamb, and the sleeping Child you’re holding is the great, the Great I AM? Oh, Mary, Mary, did you know?” – Mary Did You Know by Mark Lowry

Every time I hear that song, I can’t help but say out loud, “Yes! She knew!” All you have to do is look at Luke 1:26-38 to see that Mary knew.

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” ³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.” ³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

It’s right there. God sends Gabriel to tell Mary just who her son would be. Now, did Mary know that Jesus would walk on water or calm storms or restore sight like the song mentions in the first two verses? No, from the text, we see that she didn’t know all the details. But she definitely knew her baby was going to be incredibly special.

I’m not trying to say that this song is terrible or Mark Lowry was wrong for writing it. But I do think it’s important to pay attention to the lyrics of the songs we sing and their accuracy and the theology behind them. And I hope that I haven’t really ruined this song for you. But I also hope that every time you hear it now, you’ll pause to remember that Mary knew—that God spoke to her and told her all about what He was up to.

Mary knew. And we know now too. And when we hear this song, we can say to ourselves, “yes, Mary knew” and then we can celebrate just who Mary’s baby grew up to be and all He did for us. – Sarah Neel

Do you have questions about this week’s Bible reading? We’d love to help! Rather than relying on the first thing you find on the internet, email us at biblequestions@warsaw.cc. We are more than happy to answer that nagging question you have, provide you with some clarity, or point you in the right direction for further study.

“I just can’t do it anymore.”

I have spoken these words more in my life than I would like to admit. And I have thought them countless times more. These words have been shouted while in the midst of physical pain during childbirth. They have been whispered in the dark of the night when anxiety’s grip was so firm that I didn’t know how I would ever have peace again. These thoughts swirled as I watched helplessly as a child struggled through a debilitating season of physical and mental anguish. This phrase has come many times, but what I can attest to more than the times it has come and gone is the change that has happened when these words are confronted with truth.

As often as I have struggled with physical, emotional, and spiritual battles that felt like they would win, I recognize I have no idea what the battles were like for Jesus and His disciples in the days and hours leading up to Jesus’ arrest. When reading the Gospels, I see what a chaotic, draining, and tiring few days the disciples had leading up to their time at Gethsemane. They had heard new, confusing things during a time of tradition, they watched Jesus break many cultural rules, and they even heard of betrayal and denial within their own tight band of brotherhood. I can only imagine the exhaustion they felt going into the garden the night Jesus was wrongly arrested.

Take a moment to read Mark 14:32-42. Feel free to go back further and read Mark 11-14 to get a full picture of all that had been happening leading up to their time in Gethsemane. Many scholars believe all that happened in these chapters occurred in just five days.

I remember reading Mark 14:32-42 during a new and difficult season of my life. I was a new mom learning to adjust to little sleep while keeping a child alive, working, and battling rapidly changing hormones that seemed to impact every aspect of my life. This passage stood out to me in many ways, but the part that struck me the most was how Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to do the difficult: “Stay here and keep watch.” He found them asleep and again asked them to “Watch and pray.” After returning a third time, He noted their inability to stay awake. What stood out to me during that season was that although Jesus knew this was a physically difficult task to ask of them, He still asked them to rise to the occasion.

While calling the three disciples up to a difficult task in an environment that was not conducive to allowing them to succeed, Jesus acknowledged the complexity of this task. “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” was Jesus’ response to Peter when He found him asleep. Although they tried to stay awake and watch and pray, they failed twice more. Jesus continued to ask them to do the difficult, but He seemed to recognize their humanity and the physical difficultly of this ask. He asked them to do this, not for His sake, but theirs. Jesus knew that if they were able to push through the physical and mental task of staying present when it felt like they “just can’t do it anymore,” they would learn from Him, and it would bless them more than a few moments of sleep would.

Although Jesus was entering into the most crucial, eternity-changing hours of our world, He had compassion on His disciples when they “just couldn’t.” Our Savior showed His character in His darkest times and met His disciples exactly where they were.

Jesus has done the same for me. He does the same for you. He knows when we are at our points of giving in, giving up, or breaking down. And He meets us with His compassion and generosity and carries us through in HIS power. Every time I have said and thought, “I just can’t do it anymore,” Jesus shows me how I can’t, but if I submit to Him and allow His Spirit to move in me, He can. I take comfort in this reminder of how Jesus will call us up to difficult challenges, and His understanding and compassion cover us when we “just can’t.” – Laura Robertson

“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me; turn your ear to me and save me.” – Psalm 71:1-2

We live in a world of self-reliance and a “do-it-yourself” mentality. Our minds like to tell us that we can handle everything that comes our way, in our own strength. This, however, is not how God designed us to operate. We are inherently created to rely on His strength and depend on Him completely and wholeheartedly. God sent His Son Jesus to be our RESCUER and our REFUGE.

“Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.” – Psalm 71:3

Mark lays out the miraculous actions of Jesus during His time here on earth. We see Jesus paving the way for His disciples, and us, to follow. We also see an up-close view of Jesus’ sovereignty and grace. He led the way and took on the punishment for our sins so that we could live in unity with Him forever. God’s plan for Jesus was to be our Savior and the hope of the world. And we’re told in scripture that all we must do to receive that gift is to simply believe and give our lives over to Him.

Jesus called a crowd near Him and taught them God’s plan for Him and what they, and we, must do to gain access to the unending hope in Him:

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?’” – Mark 8:34-36

When we deny ourselves for the sake of Christ, we gain ALL we need in Him. We are offered safety, strength, and a place of shelter. Our strength is deficient on its own, but with the power of Christ working in us, we can do and handle all circumstances that come our way.

As I reflect on the miracle of Jesus’ birth, life, and resurrection this Christmas, I want to be reminded that all I ever need is found directly in Him. I, like most, struggle with an attitude of self-sufficiency, but these passages of scripture remind me just how reliant on Him I was created to be. Christmas is a time of joy, peace, and hopeful anticipation. And it’s the perfect time to remember who Jesus is and all we’ve received in Him. Through Jesus, we have the gifts of salvation, hope, peace, joy, love, and refuge. And Psalm 71:23 shows us how we can respond to those wonderful gifts: “My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you—I whom you have delivered.” – Brooke Price

• Do you have questions about this week’s Bible reading? We’d love to help! Rather than relying on the first thing you find on the internet, email us at biblequestions@warsaw.cc. We are more than happy to answer that nagging question you have, provide you with some clarity, or point you in the right direction for further study.

An urgent volunteer opportunity:

The Villa at Catholic Charities in Ft Wayne has an inspection on Friday, December 10 for the facility to receive some new Afghan refugees. Unfortunately, Ft. Wayne is coming up short on volunteers and Catholic Charities asked if we could help reach out to the Warsaw area in this time of urgency.

There are at least 20 slots available in multiple categories (moving furniture, cleaning rooms, transporting furniture) for Wednesday, December 8 and Thursday, December 9 during the hours of 10am – 3pm. You can go for any amount of time you are able to give. And if you can bring dollies, vacuums, and cleaning supplies, that would help as well. Sign up online here. Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone you think might be interested or able to help now or in the future.

Overview of the situation:

• Catholic Charities is the government directed organization that is leading the relocation and assimilation efforts for Northern Indiana (Ft Wayne & South Bend).
• 6,700 refugees were sent to Camp Atterbury, south of Indianapolis in the fall.
• Between September 2021 and March 2022, 50 to 70 people will be relocated to Ft Wayne. However, 56 have already been relocated thus far, so they suspect the number could be higher. Numbers for South Bend were not shared at the meeting.
• The federal plan dictates that families with children have kids in school within 30 days, and adults have 90 days to go through relocation programming and job training.
• Catholic Charities of Ft Wayne has been gifted an abandoned retirement facility they are remodeling to help with temporary placement, while they find more permanent housing.
• Because of the already existent small Afghan population in Ft Wayne, the hope is to allow people to be relocated in Ft Wayne so they have some community with people that share their home culture. Relocations to Warsaw may or may not happen. However that could change in the spring if additional families are sent to the area and housing opportunities arise.

 Ongoing basic needs and volunteer opportunities:

• Giving financially to Catholic Charities. 
• Material donations (based on current needs – see their Amazon Wish List for specifics)
  • Ft Wayne Supply List
  • South Bend Supply List
  • Additional current needs, include: comforters, a dryer, light bulbs, metal storage shelves and food storage containers
• Pick up donations/organize the donation room at their facility in Ft Wayne
• Set-up housing options
• Clean and move furniture when a location becomes available
• Family mentorship
• Homework help
• ESL tutor
• Host a refugee simulation
• Host a refugee info session

For more information about Catholic Charities Refugee Relocation efforts, you can visit their website at https://ccfwsb.org/service/preserving-life-dignity#immigration or contact Nicole Kurut at nkurut@ccfwsb.org if you want email updates or future volunteer opportunities. Additionally, Dick Rooker is point person for the Warsaw area. You can find an article from the Times Union here about the community meeting. Greg Demopoulos, Community Outreach Director is the contact person for Warsaw Community Church (574-268-0188, ext.256) if you have questions about WCC’s involvement.

Please join us in praying for these families as they look to reestablish their lives in a foreign land. Pray that they are welcomed with the love of Christ. Pray for their family and friends that they had to leave behind. 

Thanks for taking the time to learn, share, pray, and serve!

Please purchase a set of pajamas and a Bible that corresponds to the size and age of your own children. Don’t have any children, but want to participate? Larger sizes of Youth XL through Adult Medium sizes of pajamas are needed as well. Please bring your pajamas unwrapped to the drop-off locations in the lobby and outside the Sonlight classrooms, or have them delivered to WCC (Attn: Sonlight PJ’s, 1855 S County Farm Road, Warsaw, Indiana 46580) by Sunday, December 12.

For the Bibles, you can stop by the PJ’s & Bibles booth in the lobby on Sundays through December 12 and we’ll take care of the delivery to CCS.

Sonlight recommends the following Bible versions:

  The Beginner’s Bible
  Early Childhood

  My First Hands-on Bible (NLT)
  Preschool – Kindergarten ages

 Adventure Bible (NIV)
  1st – 6th Grade ages

Please be sure to pray for the children that will receive these new pajamas and a Bible this Christmas.

For more details or questions about WCC’s PJ’s & Bibles Sonlight Offering project, contact: Ruth Romeo (574) 268-0188 x242

NOTE: Adopt-a-Family is a community-wide Christmas initiative overseen by Combined Community Services. If you would like to adopt a family by purchasing and delivering gifts, please contact CCS online or at (574) 269-6019.

Moving into the Gospel of Mark this week makes it a great good time to take a look at the four different gospel accounts – who they were for, their distinct features, what they have in common, etc.

Matthew

This gospel was written for a Jewish audience and focuses on Jesus as the promised Messiah and king. The account begins with a genealogy of Jesus as the son of David, and in the second chapter, we see the Magi saying, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east ad have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:2) As Jewish readers were very familiar with the Old Testament, Matthew references it more than the other three gospels. The account focuses on how Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecies. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish but to fulfill them.”

Mark

This is the shortest of the four gospels, the earliest account, and was written for a broad audience. The other gospels include sermons and discourses, but Mark is all about action and reads most like a story. This gospel focuses on Jesus as the suffering servant and Son of God. And it challenges believers to understand what it means to follow Him. In Mark 8:34-35, Jesus “called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple he must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’”

Luke

The gospel of Luke approaches the story of Jesus from a historical, somewhat journalistic perspective. The account begins with Luke saying, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account…” (Luke 1:1-3) It provides a rich story of Jesus’ life and ministry in chronological order and focuses on Jesus as the fulfillment of scripture and the savior of all nations.

John

The focus of John’s gospel is to present the teachings and miracles of Jesus in a way that emphasizes His divine nature as the Son of God. It begins not with the Christmas story like Matthew and Luke or Jesus’ baptism like Mark, but with His presence at the beginning of everything: “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) John tells the story of the divine becoming flesh, dwelling among us, and dying so that we might have eternal life. John 20:31 says, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke… and then there’s John. Or: John and the Synoptic Gospels.

The word synoptic is a Greek term for ‘having a common view.’ What this means for these three gospel accounts is that they tell a similar story from a similar view. And the majority of Mark is contained in both Matthew and Luke. Like I mentioned before, Mark is full of action, so Matthew and Luke feature the action of Mark with additional teaching and discourse. Scholars suggest that Matthew and Luke had copies of Mark’s gospel that they used as reference when writing their accounts. And then John’s gospel wasn’t written using Mark as a reference and does not have as many similarities are the other three accounts.

Four accounts of the same Good News

There were about 40 years between Christ’s death and these written gospel accounts. During that time, gospel accounts were spread through oral tradition. Keeping those details in mind will help you reconcile the differences between the four gospels. Consider what it’s like when multiple people tell the same story of an event. Each account will have a slightly different flavor – depending on what the storyteller experienced, who they’re telling a story to, if they were there originally or heard the story first from someone else, and how long ago the event took place.

But as Michael Pfundner says, “At the end of the day, each of the four accounts is ‘good news’ (the meaning of euangélion, the Greek word for gospel); all four are about a distinctly first century, Galilean Jewish teacher; all are about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God; all four focus ultimately on his sacrificial death and miraculous return to life; and all four invite us to trust and follow him today.”

Hopefully, this overview provided you with a bit of clarity and energized you to jump into our reading of Mark. – Sarah Neel

• Check out The Bible Project’s overview video of the book of Mark. It is an excellent source for background information and context that walks through the book’s sections and themes. It can be really helpful for those who appreciate some visuals while learning.

• Do you have questions about this week’s Bible reading? We’d love to help! Rather than relying on the first thing you find on the internet, email us at biblequestions@warsaw.cc. We are more than happy to answer that nagging question you have, provide you with some clarity, or point you in the right direction for further study.

David is by far one of my favorite characters in the Bible. He was told at an early age that he would become the next king of Israel, but that didn’t happen right away. David defeated Goliath, became a mighty warrior in his own right, and earned Jonathan’s unwavering friendship. He then experienced multiple attempts on his life by Saul and was chased across and out of the country in order to survive. In time, David became king, but it was not an easy route to get there. During this time and throughout the challenging path as king, David wrote many poems of prayer, praise, grief, and worship.

These poems are scattered throughout the book of Psalms, one of which is Psalm 68. David begins this psalm by worshiping God. He recognizes God as a father to the fatherless, a protector to the widows, a provider for the needy, and more. As this psalm progresses, a foreshadowing Jesus appears, especially in verses 18-21:

You ascended on high, You have lead captive Your captives; 

You have received gifts among men, 

Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord may dwell there.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, 

The God who is our salvation.

God is to us a God of deliverances; 

And to God the Lord belong escapes from death.

Surely God will shatter the head of His enemies, 

The hairy crown of him who goes on in his guilty deeds.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul references verse 18, almost word for word, as he refers to the gift of grace Christ has given us (Ephesians 4:8). He states that Christ died for us, descended into hell, and took on our sins so that we could receive the grace He provides and share that hope with others as we grow and mature in Christ.

In several psalms, we see God bearing our burdens and providing rest, care, and rescuing us from trouble – sometimes even rescuing us from death itself (see Psalm 55:22, Psalm 81:6-7, Psalm 138:7, and Psalm 50:15). As we look at Psalm 68:19-20 through the lens of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we see that God provides the ultimate gift of salvation. He bears our burdens and sins, granting an undeniable escape from death (see Matthew 11:27-30 and John 3:16).

In Psalm 68:21, David fully believed God would defeat his enemies for him. David witnessed time and time again his enemies fall by the wayside in battle, so much so that people would sing, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.” (1 Samuel 18:7) After winning in battle that often, it would come as no surprise, David would believe that God would shatter the head of His enemies. This verse is a reference to Genesis 3:15, where just after the fall of man, God speaks to the serpent stating his head will be crushed, just as the serpent will strike man’s heel. Thousands of years later, the gospels give an account, summarized in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, of Christ dying on the cross for our sins, laying in a tomb for three days, and then rising again after defeating death once and for all. After knowing and believing God will and has defeated his enemies, it’s no wonder David ends Psalm 68 by worshiping God for His power, majesty, and strength. – Abby Sroufe

Do you have questions about this week’s Bible reading? We’d love to help! Rather than relying on the first thing you find on the internet, email us at biblequestions@warsaw.cc. We are more than happy to answer that nagging question you have, provide you with some clarity, or point you in the right direction for further study.

We first met Joseph during last week’s reading. And his story began on a high note. Genesis 37:3 says, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.” And Joseph had dreams that he’d have great power and influence – that all his brothers and parents would bow down to him. But before chapter 37 ends, things quickly turn sour. “When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him… And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.” (Genesis 37:4 & 8) Because Joseph’s brothers couldn’t stand him, they captured him, held him captive, sold him into slavery, and then told their father that he died. After that, Joseph was sold again, accused of sexual assault, and then thrown in prison for more than two years.

That’s exactly where this week’s reading picks up. “When two full years had passed…” (Genesis 41:1) Think about that. Joseph sat in prison for two years. Knowing he was innocent. Just waiting. That sure makes me pause and think about the times that I’ve waited for things. And the things I’m still waiting for. Some of us wait for some really big things: jobs, healing, spouses, kids, restored relationships, answers to big questions, reasons for hard things, etc. Take a few minutes to think about your experience with waiting. Would you consider yourself good at waiting? What’s the longest you’ve waited for something? Are you waiting for something right now?

Psalm 27:14 says to “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Take heart. And wait. Joseph is the perfect example of someone who lived that out. There he sat in prison, innocent, holding onto the God-given dreams of his youth, waiting.

I think if I were in his shoes, I’d have been pretty discouraged by then. I imagine I’d be asking myself things like, “Is God going to rescue me? Does God see me? Is God even real? Did God give me those dreams, or did I just make them up? Did I do something wrong – something to deserve this? How the heck did I end up here? I just can’t catch a break, huh?…” And yet, we don’t see that type of response from Joseph. He remained faithful. He lived out Psalm 27:14 – he was strong, took heart, and waited for the Lord.

Eventually, Joseph was pulled from prison, interpreted the Pharaoh’s dreams, and got put in charge of everything. Quite a turnaround, huh? Long story short, famine came to the land, Joseph’s family traveled to Egypt for food, he strung them along a bit, and eventually revealed himself to them. In Genesis 45:5, Joseph said to his brothers, “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” And in Genesis 50:20, we see what he ultimately said about his whole saga: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

So, what are we supposed to take away from this story? I’d say there are a few things to take with us from our reading. First, we can be encouraged and challenged by Joseph’s example of faithfully waiting on God. Next, I think we see that God does work – but not necessarily in our timing or the ways we’d predict. But God can use any situation. God can work in and through anything.

I want to leave you with a few questions I’m going to be pondering this week that I hope you take some time to think about as well. They could be especially beneficial for those of us in seasons of waiting or hardship. So here they are: Will we trust God? Will we be patient? Will we stay faithful? Will we “be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord?” Will we look for the ways that God is at work in the world around us? Will we give up our expectations for timing and resolutions and rest in the fact that God can work in whatever we may find ourselves in? – Sarah Neel

Do you have questions about this week’s Bible reading? We’d love to help! Rather than relying on the first thing you find on the internet, email us at biblequestions@warsaw.cc. We are more than happy to answer that nagging question you have, provide you with some clarity, or point you in the right direction for further study.