The Process Path TPP

When Matthew began the genealogy of Jesus, he could have simply listed generation after generation of men and moved on. But he did something unusual. He stopped to mention women. And not just women whose stories were easy to celebrate. He deliberately placed five women around the story of the Messiah: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary. If you look closely at their stories, you will discover something profound. Their backgrounds were different. Their struggles were different. Their circumstances were different. Their stories contained pain, scandal, vulnerability, foreignness, complicated relationships and, in Mary's case, a pregnancy that would become the subject of misunderstanding. Yet all five somehow appear in the lineage of the most magnificent Person who ever walked the earth. Jesus Christ. This should make us pause. Perhaps God was teaching us something about grace. Tamar's story was complicated. She was Judah's daughter-in-law, widowed twice and left without th...

There are stories in Scripture that make us pause and wonder at the depth of God's compassion. The story of Rahab is one of them. She was introduced to us as Rahab the harlot, a woman with a past that Scripture did not hide or excuse. Yet, somehow, the same woman who entered the biblical narrative with a reputation became a woman whose faith would later be celebrated among the heroes of faith. This is what grace can do. Grace can meet a person at the point where life has reduced them and begin a process that takes them into what God intended them to become. Rahab lived in Jericho, a city marked for destruction. She was not an Israelite, she did not belong to the covenant people, and nothing about her background suggested that she would become part of God's redemptive story. Yet, in the midst of that city, she heard about the God of Israel. She heard what He had done, how He had brought His people through the Red Sea and how He had given them victory over powerful kings. While o...

There are two scenarios of virginity benchmarks in the Scripture that carry profound lessons about what you are becoming as a young man. They are loaded with pointers that emphasize the fact that virginity is never enough. It is important to be a virgin, and that connotes an undefiled testimony. It speaks of separation from corruption, pollution and the ways of the world. But separation alone is not enough. No, you have to do more. The other parameters revealed in these two occurrences are what you must imbibe to truly shape what you are becoming. The rise of Esther in place of Vashti is one laced with lessons. The queen fumbled and ignored the instructions of the king, and the verdict was given to replace her. The criteria for a suitable replacement included virginity, beauty and other qualities. However, you cannot meet the basic requirement if you are not a virgin, even if you have the most beautiful face on earth. What the king will choose must not be defiled. The royal crown canno...