TwelveTwelve: The Leader Blog of North Wake Church

Steadiness in a Year of Suffering Marshall Segal (@marshallsegal) is a writer and managing editor at desiringGod.org. He’s the author of Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness & Dating. He graduated from Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Faye, have two children and live in Minneapolis. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/more-bad-news-may-come Read: Mark 6:34  At the end of a year like ours — with tens of millions infected and over a million dead, with rising political hostility and upheaval, with racial friction and distrust inflamed, with economic uncertainty and instability, with more devastating wildfires, with churches struggling to know how to respond —

Written by Yvonne Nannette.  http://www.hopeinthehealing.com/2014/12/03/what-child-is-this-story-behind-carol/ READ: Luke 2.1-20; Phil. 2.5-11 As a manager of an insurance company, you would not think that William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898) would have written one of our favorite Christmas Carols. Born in Bristol, England, his father was a surgeon who had also written a biography on Thomas Chatterton, the poet, and also the reason for William’s middle name. Dix became very sick and was in bed for a long time recovering. He had plenty of time to pray and read the Word of God and from this experience his life was truly changed for the better. He began

READ:  Matthew 1:1, 18-25 In 2012, Larry preached a sermon from the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew 1. That sermon and the sermon from the following Sunday sparked an idea for a new hymn that would express the glorious significance of the way in which God the Father brought His Son into this world. This Sunday we will be examining the Scriptures that unpack the importance that Jesus is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, and the Son of God. As you prepare for Sunday, read through these lyrics and listen to the song here. Take time

Written by Phillip Holmes  https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/hark-the-herald-angels-sing READ:  John 3:16-21 When I was growing up, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” by Charles Wesley (revised by George Whitfield) was one of my favorite Christmas songs — but the point of the first line went completely over my head. Don’t get me wrong, I understood lines like “Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled” and “Light and life to all he brings, Risen with healing in his wings / Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die.” However, there was that lead archaic imperative that escaped

Adapted from:  https://www.thirdrva.org/sermons-index/o-come-emmanuel READ:  Isaiah 64:1-12 O Come O Come Emmanuel may be one of the most ancient hymns that we sing. Probably written in the 8th Century by monks, the Latin text was discovered by an English pastor named John Mason Neale in the 19th Century. He translated it into English and introduced it to the English speaking world.  The hymn is jam-packed with biblical imagery about the long-awaited Messiah. Each of the seven verses addresses Jesus by a different name, from “Emmanuel” to “Root of Jesse” to “Key of David.” And in each of the verses we are crying out for

Written by Mike Pettengill.  https://www.billygraham.ca/stories/living-in-light-of-the-resurrection-the-same-power-that-raised-jesus-from-the-dead-is-at-work-in-us/ Read:  Genesis 12:1-2 God has provided enormous blessings to today’s Christian church in the Western world. We enjoy amazing freedom, resources, and opportunity. Yet world poverty and Christian persecution endures. Why has God blessed our churches in such times? God’s call to Abraham gives us insight: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). Our country, our churches, and our families have been blessed in order to be a blessing to the world. Are we using