Sung Prayers

At church this week I was struck by one of the worship songs we sang. I haven't been back to the church I grew up in for  a few months. It was planted on the day I was born ( I was born on a Sunday over twenty years ago) they sing different things than I am used to now. Not because they are stuck in the past  but because the worship leaders like to mix the songs we have always sung in with some new ones but they as  a tiny church in a community centre tend to favour the more acoustic over the power worship music we have these days. Also the congregation is on average a little older so they are less likely to follow the new stuff but not so old that they are in hymns ancient and modern. The service is different and it often ends saying to grace to each other making eye contact with everyone during it.

As a child I always sang loudly but I would always sing with all my heart even as a teenager. I had a few favourites and I would sing it not really minding to the words but as I sung this on Sunday I was reminded that if your heart is in what comes out of your mouth as you sing to him God will take it as a prayer. I was struck how much God had answered the prayer of a child who just wanted to sing with all her heart the dancing song. Now of course it is pretty much my prayer - as you can tell by my previous blog post! ( I am trying to post one ahead so that I can be on top of this.... so I wrote that one Friday and Saturday...)

Anyway this is the song:

Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart
Teach me to move in the power of your Spirit
Teach me to walk in the light of your presence
Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart

Teach me to love with your heart of compassion
Teach me to trust in the word of your promise
Teach me to hope in the day of your coming
Teach me to dance to the beat of your heart 

You wrote the rhythm of life
Created heaven and earth
In You is joy without measure
So, like a child in your sight
I dance to see your delight
For I was made for your pleasure
Pleasure

Let all my movements express

A heart that loves to say 'yes'
A will that leaps to obey you

Let all my energy blaze
To see the joy in your face
Let my whole being praise you
Praise you 
Graham Kendrick 
Copyright © 1993 Make Way Music, 
www.grahamkendrick.co.uk

The path unchosen.

Have you ever been seconded. that moment where you have been told to move somewhere or do something you are not sure you want to go to. Its all part of following Jesus right? in this life you will have trouble... I only do what I see my father doing....

Whilst I was at the Christian conference I was told to move to a team that I would not have chosen for myself and yet God met me in a profound way that I couldn't have  even comprehended. I guess that the life that is chosen is the preserve of the sinful after all sin is saying No to God's plan and choosing your own way or method. I have no qualms about living this life unchosen the  narrow path through trust and patience.

I have been thinking about the future a lot recently and also how I got to the place I have and what God has been teaching me along the way.  I suppose that once you choose to surrender your life to Christ it means that is a path chosen but I don't think this is the life I would have chosen for myself.  Walking in this wild goose chase could lead me anywhere. This year as a set text for the course I was on they chose James Bryan Smith's 'A good and beautiful God.' it really challenged me especially on the topic of spiritual discipline. So I bought the second book in the series A good and beautiful life. The first chapter it tells you to write a letter to god starting with the line ' the life I want most for myself is..."  Which as much as I love the previous book and the chapter I am not sure is right. maybe I am being pernickity but surely it should be the life I hope most for myself is... however after much thought and deliberation I felt i should play by the rules of the book.

I feel I should share the letter I wrote. mostly because I want to challenge you and because it speaks of his faithfulness his choosing to deny me my desires for a greater design and purpose.

16th August 2014

Dear God ,
       The life I want most for myself is, one where I dance to your song and drumbeat. where I sing only the song of obedience to my king. 

I want to laugh like it is going out of fashion and love consumingly. to sail by your spirit through the waters of this world.under the banner of your grace, love and freedom. 

I could tell you all I desire to achieve and know it before I speak it  but what once I considered as gain I now count as loss for the sake of your glory.  You require this sacrifice of praise and a contrite heart with open hands. 

You lord have ruined me for the ordinary where once I desired a simple life with a steady job  you've bestowed a nomadic adventure. I desired comfort and you required faith yet gave me a peace  in the places that comfort couldn't quench. I wanted normal but you chose extravagance for me. I desired world riches but you gave me people to serve and invest in and I have lacked for nothing. 

I'd chosen Education to have qualifications, but you qualified me and taught me how to serve in a way that is  teachable. I wanted to win and be the top and you gave me victory over strongholds and taught me humility. I desired to be a woman of many impressive gifts and talents, but you gave me of yourself  extravagant gifts that were meant to bless others. I yearned to be selected to be above but you chose and purposed me before my heart beat. I desired to be confident but in you I have all confidence.

I desired to be married, romanced by a man a Romeo of lovely words and devoted love whom I could give the whole of my heart to but you restored my image of marriage as a covenant partnership by wedding me to your heart before I was born. Choosing sacrificial love for me and dying so that I may be yours. You required my heart in its entirety  to love and to be broken for injustice. for unless you have both the earthly bride and the groom's hearts how can we run the race together towards you. You showed me that it was not enough to love each other but to be wholly in love with you  that mattered. So I choose to wait for a man who is wholly and recklessly abandoned to loving you and following you no matter the cost and no matter the route. 

I desired for a family and you have given me communities. I desired to be loved and you defined and displayed it to me and asked me to love where the world had neglected.  

I wanted it all now and you showed me how to be patient. I wanted to see revival in our nation instead you began in my heart. 

My life has not conformed to my desires and maybe some days I cling onto my broken bucket list and shattered dreams and wave them at you with one hand and cling to you with the other. but the truth is I would never swap my character for my way, nor would I swap my pride for confidence in you. I'd no even swap assured security for trust because the truth is I chose you over my desires  your way over mine. Whatever that means and wherever it takes me - no plan B, no opt out through hardship and joy. I'm on this wild goose chase adventure and that is all I want for my life and myself.  

Your Allie. 

Speed dating - a step into the purple.

I have just spent the last two weeks at a national Christian conference, Over the next couple of weeks I will be blogging about what I have learned and about what is going on because I am in a season of waiting which usually means I will be blogging more than usual.

I thought I would start with my experiences of Speed dating

WK1 Thursday

I've never really dated. In fact I have only been on one pre relationship date. So, speed dating sounded like a fun night and who knows right? 

It was a simple thing right I am at a national Christian conference so why not? 

I prayed for the lord to guard my heart and against akward. Put a smile on my face and said hello to guy number 1 I ticked the guys I had a good conversation with and were going in similar directions in terms of passion and ministry. 14 dates later the final klaxon sounded and I met all but 2 of the guys in my age group. I did chat to both at the bar after. My initial assessment was that I hadn't met my husband tonight - but who knows right. There was no one guy I especially hit it off with. So I did what any sane single girl would do which was to tick the ones who I felt I would like to be friends with and whose conversation did not contradict what I know of God's plan for me. So I didn't tick Africa Guy who was itching to get back there as my heart is broken for those who need Jesus here in the UK or the guy who wanted to work with the inner city youth after all I ache for the wordly rich spiritually poor who have more than everything but not Jesus.. 

I didn't think through the whole thing that the next day there would be an envelope with my results. It felt weird. You have a match stared back at me and I was like a oh, See its only a match if you tick each other.. See I fully expected a zero match scenario.See the thing was because I did it for a laugh because I wasn't out to find a husband  after all I am more than likely flying out to the US in 6 weeks or so, I don't want a relationship right now. I loved meeting new people and chatting. It wasn't that I have no self esteem and thought no one would like me it was that I didn't go into that scenario thinking I would get a date out of it.

I suddenly felt 14 again trying to work out what to do when that note is passed you know the one ' He likes you.' and you are not exactly sure if it was a joke or not. I didn't think I would feel like that after all it was all a laugh right? Luckily, I definitely remembered who he was and some of our conversation - Nice guy - asked good questions and had decent come backs. Questions swirled in my head does that mean he likes me? What if he ticked the wrong box? What if he had lost his sheet? Should I text him? ahhh!!!! The dangerous adventurer in me told me to go for it - to text him and see. So I did - we will see what happens with that.  

WK2 Monday

A text telling me he didn't have time came a day or so after I text him. I let it go thinking I would leave it up to him, I wasn't going to chase anything or push myself on anyone. I was slightly bemused by the whole experience if I am honest. Decided that I would do it again next week. Awkwardly the match guy was on the catering team. Every time I was in the lunch or dinner queue and I could see him  at the stationwhere those of us who can't eat the dinner went for the other options( ie vegetarian) I would pray that I wasn't allergic to the food. I didn't want to have that awkward conversation - perhaps not a mature response but all I could think of was the akwardness. 

I got chatting with another guy in the bar that night - speed dating ground zero-I mean. We hung out a bit had dinner together a few times, he was lovely but you know when you are getting to know someone as a friend then they get ahead of themselves. He asked if it was going anywhere. All I could think of was that I had only known him four days. What could have been a great friendship potentially plus turned sour. This dating stuff something Christian youth leaders call 'purpleing' ( Pink+ Blue = Purple.) seems to be a mine field, I realised that I was dipping my toe into a confusing world.

WK2 Thursday

"Allie you are going to be joining the catering team."  The team manager of my team told me totally out of the blue yesterday. I was being seconded to them.  needless to say it did not cross my mind  in the hours which followed that week 1 match was on that team. I was more afraid of the fact that there would be food I am allergic to. ( I will blog about this experience another time.) 

After my first breakfast shift. I spoke to the washing up crew (what an awesome bunch of individuals).

"you did speed dating didn't you." one of the girls asked "get any matches?!"

I told her that I did and as I told her I realised that he was on this team then it dawned on me because I am a compulsive over thinker that he might have thought I'd followed him to the team because - I liked him that much! Cringe ( the thought of it makes me squirm- who does that? seriously? because manipulating a situation to be near someone is plain desperate - I am sorry but it is) oh dear. She asked who and I told her. They all laughed. 

He then came to speak to me during lunch explaining that inebriation had caused amnesia and he couldn't remember much of speed dating. Which whilst explained the texting predicament was hardly flattering. Drinking and ticking does not entirely make a good combo and Dutch courage only stretches so far. I know I am a beautiful woman and I am secure in Christ who defines my identity but honestly its not very nice to say that alcohol is the only reason I might be interested in you, to someone. Still it answered the question. No, he wasn't for me.

WK2 Saturday

Speed dating round two I came prepared to take it all as a laugh. It wasn't too much different except for the awkward moment of being sat opposite someone you know. I enjoyed it but again no one particularly stood out to me and I thought about God's timing and knew that I need to be single to keep my eyes on him for the next season - marriage and family can wait.

After all I am not looking for a Romeo or even a husband right now but if I were I think the whole experience has taught me that someone who loves Jesus with every fibre of their being and is ready for his wild goose chase is worth the wait.

As for speed dating...

The experience was great and perhaps I will repeat it but I think you you have to do it for a laugh else it may mess with your mind a little bit and your ego. That is why it is so important that you go into dating as a Christian with your identity firmly rooted and established in God's love...

Qualifications

Picking up my parents local paper today I read this article.

"Girl in year ten at *LOCAL SCHOOL* gets singing coaching qualification. whilst many would not attempt the qualification until many years later this girl did. with a smiling face in front of a piano"

My stomach lurched I couldn't  believe it. I was under the impression that they wouldn't let you do it until you were 18 anyway and I at 18 years and 6.5 months was one of the youngest ever to attempt it and to pass with Merit. I wasn't even sure what I thought of the article or that the board had even let her take the qualification as you would not be able to get insurance to teach or  be able to have your own business teaching anything like that until you were 18  she would not be able to earn money until after her 16th birthday. Did they bend the rules? there were so many questions in my head none of which I could answer.

Then I thought about the qualification I had  and how like its certificate it is gathering dust somewhere. Does it matter that this girl did it or does it matter more what is next how she uses it? I failed to use it really and perhaps God has other plans for it.

I thought about all the certificates I have and what they mean. I have many letters after my name, but none of them matter if i do nothing with them. If my Geography GCSE and history degree are worth no more than a few pub quiz answers what does that make me. Clearly I use them for more than that - with a good understanding of maths I can make sure I get value for money. With my geography GCSE I can make sense of the lines on the weather map. you get the idea.

In this season God has been apprenticing me but I have no idea what for but what I have learnt could be applied in all sorts of ways, and there is still some to come. However, what matters is not my learning or achievement but my willingness to love, my desire to walk in his way and the only qualification that matters is that I love him and I do.

Gap year or gap life?

I have just completed what seems from the outside like my third gap year ... I have had a paid Job albeit not a graduate job in some swanky office somewhere that is cool. I have even been promoted. I wouldn't change the last three years for anything.

I have worked for the church for three years, contrary to popular belief all Christians work for God not just worship leaders... also teachers, milkmen, shop girls and lawyers but I have spent three working for his bride;  two years just outside London doing anything and everything the church there needed me to and one on a national discipleship program in the west country being an intern in a larger church specifically working in two areas of ministry and I supported myself by working in what is absolutely definitely  the most awesome shop ever.

Looking at my three years post uni life I haven't exactly 'lived the dream' - most of my fellow alumni have salaries and some even have mortgages... gulp! Many have married got engaged or something like that and some even have started families..Eek. then there is me a law unto herself always gallivanting but not settling after move number 18 or 19 - four counties, many many postcodes.

But little old me - no I haven't done the normal expected thing at all. I didn't even do a gap yah travelling  across the world and having pictures taken with orphans that I was doing something really really important for the kingdom for which you can't really translate to people who are not there.... I get it, I do... people are dying of things that are treatable . But it's so easy to gloss over what is happening here and what people here are crying out for is also Jesus. See in the developing world you see their poverty in their lack of food and every day things. Here you see it in the never satisfied abundance in the have to have in the trying desperately to use anything to fill the space in their lives that only Jesus was designed to fill... the  unending loneliness of staring in the black mirrors. The self worth measured by social media friends and followers. Does someone liking a post or retweeting define me? no Jesus defines me my sole purpose is to reflect his glory and delight in his pleasure.

So rather than racking up stamps on my passport I was getting my hands dirty in the local church here in the UK where it desperately needs young people, not just in the building but in the community. We live in a age where the UK needs gap year students and young people more than you can possibly imagine to really make a difference for his kingdom in our kingdom. 97% of people in the UK don't go to Church we are one of the most spiritually poor nations in the world.   Actually taking a year out is not the issue  its viewing our own nation as the mission field that tends to boggle most people, although the tide is now turning in churches it seems to viewing their normal every day acquaintances, friends and colleagues as the mission field.

I have learned so much about the kingdom of God and I have seen God in ways I simply cannot describe and I know who I am in Christ now. But most of all I have seen over the last three years is the local Church - at its best and its worst and in all levels in between. There is one thing that trounces the statistics and never ceases to awe me is how much God loves the local church no matter how high or low Anglican
(or otherwise), weather they like the word religion and however much they are spirit led or lacking the church in all its brokenness and glory is beautiful. I think we have forgotten how to serve the local church - we have forgotten that it is his bride made of us.  I am the bride of Christ and so are you my brothers and sisters.

 The problem is she has got rather too skinny and a little bit vain. After all what is fed grows and what is left wastes away and the church has on the whole become individualistic and introverted - the mentality to go where you get fed  until you don't is understandable but not biblical and all it results in is spiritual constipation. Gone is the one thing I am most passionate about - the whole family of God. Many churches don't let the children ever sit through an entire service all age services are gone in favour of what nourishes the adults. One of the best services I have ever been to a teenager preached with a bottle of a popular cleaning product and everyone loved it. Many are reluctant to help with the outreach to the elderly  because they are afraid of them. Gone are the days when young and old worshipped together and your church was your community through the good and the downright awful. I see why its happened, however my heart rings with Psalm 145 One generation will commend your works to another. How can they when they don't even go to the same services any more?

  I am recklessly abandoned for his kingdom and in his love. Its like he's the wind and I sail where he leads me. I chose to leave an Ok relationship - which would have inevitably ended in marriage to pursue a covenant relationship of a different kind.  God has seriously broken my heart for the west and the elderly and perhaps that colours my opinion. However, I choose obedience and for me that means - for this season at least I will live an unconventional life one that requires being a nomad, leaving a job I love for the one I love but most of all it means that I go where he leads. To be honest I wouldn't have it any other way - wherever I end up. Next stop is the USA ( visa permitting.) on what could easily seem like the fourth gap year. I have learned that my perception of a Gap year for God was essentially time you let God have free reign of your life then well the real stuff begins the Salary, engagement and morgage. For some people that might be the case, that might even be what God has for them but for me, I am on a Gap life, My life is his whether I end up in Asia at an orphanage or in America with an international missionary organisation  or  in a local church just loving the elderly.

The thing is you only get one shot at life and mine belongs to Jesus - the whole shot- not just the easy bits or the normal bits. The whole lot. I love him and do you know what I'd rather have his adventure than my career success. I would rather have him than all the gold in the world, I'd rather his intimacy than a husband- really- but most of all I would rather be with him  and dwell  in the presence of the lord living by his word than anywhere - conventional or not!

Christmas 2013 :And you shall call him Emmanuel

Emmanuel - God with us. 

I guess you probably expected me to post again on the 23rd and I did expect to post but someone needed me and I was the only person close enough to help her. So you would be right I had intended the three days leading up to christmas but well a friend in need is more important than anything on a computer- sorry but to me it is. I count my real friends not my face book friends. So I think this post will be posted Christmas eve and the third  perhaps on boxing day. 

God is with, in and for us. This year I heard a theologian speak these words at the beginning of this year in London. ( Or at least I think they were these words) because God seems to have a bad rap sheet. and he ( an american preacher with his own specifically nuanced theology) I even read the book to go with it. but whether or not you agree with him theologically on any points at all as a christian or a non christian the fact still remains that God is with us, Emmanuel the person of Christ Jesus if god is all powerful and all present then it would make sense to say he is around us. But being present is not the same as being with someone as any  person who has ever felt the pang of unrequited love would tell you. 

God being with us isn't just about him showing up but its about him wanting relationship with us. Regardless of whether or not you are a Christian God persues you ( not I might add in a stalkerish or weird way) he loves us each so much he wants us to know him and to speak to him about stuff. Someone I met recently said to me ' I am not like you Allie I haven't got God to talk to about the S that happens in my life'  it jarred with me  because the truth was he had. God was with him through it all, God still is desperately seeking to be in relationship with him as he has been every day since he was born.Thing is my friend he just can't see it- he doesn't notice.

I like to think about being in relationship with God is like going on a long walk with others cross country. I am a keen hiker and I love to be out - not in the rain mind- walking. The thing is when you go on these walks if you go with friends or family you talk along the way you build relationship. God is with us on our life walk, sometimes we are silent and listen to him ( like when we read his word or seek his face) sometimes he is silent and we talk and sometimes we are both silent. But in our culture its like many people are listening to their music or watching stuff on their phone as they walk through life and just don't notice him and he loves them way too much to like tap them on the shoulder and say ' hey I am walking with you.'. If you know anything about rambling or hiking you know that well its a sociable thing. how can you see the beauty that surrounds you if you are on your phone or whatever how can you enjoy it. How can you see the dangers. how can you know where you are going. So maybe it is a long winded slightly tenuous analogy but God walks with us whether we choose it or not and he is the one with the map and the compass! 


  God with us is a promise Emmanuel is spoken about because Jesus is alive now on the cusp of 2014 as much as he was in 6BC when Mary gave birth... and even before that. Moreover, God isn't with us just because he is in us, he was with us before we chose him. In my last post I spoke about the prophets this is what it says about God with us in the person of Jesus. 

The propehcy
Isiaiah 9: And you shall call his name... Emmanuel god with us. 
Zecariah 2:10-13
 10 “Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord. 11 “Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that theLord Almighty has sent me to you. 12 The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.” (NIV)

This year I have really noticed the word Emmanuel, its really hit me God is with us. not just  in the birth and person of jesus although that is important but god is with us its not just about the fact that God is in us because God is with us he chose to make us ( this' us' means those who have chosen to be his children) living vessels of his presence. Where I go God goes not just because he is in me' Christ in me the hope of Glory...' ' you are a temple of the Holy Spirit.'. but because he is with me. I have often when re living and remembering difficult moment in my life imagined Jesus in the memory. Having my friend there with me makes it less horrible helps the healing because he was there in the good moments and the bad. 

Its kind of crazy if you think about it  that the God who made the universe " he made the stars also" kind of God that each star in space was worth noting down as an aside in the creation narrative he breathed would want to share each of our tiny and momentary existences with us is kind of breath-taking. God who spoke and there was life would want to speak to us, walk with us, is remarkable really. God with us, Emmanuel, is kind of breathtaking. 

God is not with me just when I lay hands on the sick and pray in Jesus name that they be well or when I speak a word of truth over someone. he is with me when I'm in the shower or stocking shelves at the shop where I work. God is with me always. Its my choice whether I include him in what I do or not.

Perhaps there is one question on your lips why? why is God with us? I have prayed about it and of course there are many reasons but I think its because he wants to be with us, he wants to be in us and he wants to be for us.  That is quite shocking until you realise God is love and our god the name above all names is a relational God  one who designed us in Eden to ' walk with him in the cool of the day' 

May you know God with you today and always

Christmas 2013: A Christ foretold.

I am currently doing an internhsip program/ discipleship year and working part time in an amazing shop. I realise I haven't posted in a while which is kind of stupid because last week we did a spiritual gifts inventory and two of my top scores were artisan and writer. Which has made it rather obvious to me that I have not painted nor written  in some time which is denying what god has placed within me... 

Therefore I am going to be blogging over the next few days on the things that God has challenged me on this Christmas:

A Christ foretold ( the prophetic surrounding christ's life as the turning point of human history)

And he shall be called Emmanuel - God with us.( the amazing truth of a God whom dwelt amonst us and is with, for and in us.)

Mary's Boy Child - how our culture seeks to keep Jesus as a baby.

and maybe something else if God challenges me more...

A Christ Foretold

As someone who would call themselves, if anything, a Historian with a BA(hons) to prove it. The fact that hundreds ( arguably thousands) of years before that bethlehem night  so many of God's prophets ( God's mouthpieces) were proclaiming almost every aspect of Christ Jesus' birth is astounding to me ( notably the only thing missing was the date unless of course you count Daniel's gold head Dan 8-9). Not because it isn't in God's power to do so but that God would. Think about it, of course God knew as he knows the date, time,circumstance and place of all births ( lives and deaths ) in creation. But that he bothered to share something so great with his children, even if they didn't understand it, astounds me. If nothing else in the bible (and believe me a lot does) tell you that God cares about people that he told his people that hope was coming is kind of crazy. Sure some of the prophecies are nothing if a little tenuous if you don't know much about Jesus life and ministry or you have read Jesus life and ministry with your own agenda ( Isaiah 61- if you are reading the prosperity gospel will make no sense!) 

There is no point in human history that has been spoken more about (before during and after) than Jesus life thirty three years that changed everything. None, not even the year 2000, space travel or tv remakes of the medieval period. 

We live in the post modern era where truth is relative and well everyone's opinion is well, equally valid and if you are vehement about any truth it is seen as a negative thing that you are imposing your opinion on others ( and as all opinions are equal well that isn't the done thing).  The truth is that we  don't get it. the whole prophesyed king part, firstly because there is on the whole exponentially less historical evidence as you get further back in history ie we have lots of sources from the twentieth century but very few from say the sixth Century BCE.  This means that we tend to see history in larger blocks the further we go back. The prophet Isaiah spoke around 700 years before the birth of jesus (Isaiah 9 amongst others) we don't think about it as that long and even the prophet Daniel was proclaiming 400 years before. its like Thomas Aquinas in the 1200s talking about methodist Wesley or Martin Luther ( the german reformer) discussing Justin Welby or pope Francis or proclaiming the birth of Prince George. Obviously Jesus ministry is more important than all of these combined and they themselves would agree with that except prince G who can't speak yet being as he is 6 months old... but still we don't think about it like that as it is all in such distant past we don't count it. Now there are some things about your life and ministry that you can control but there is no way Jesus could have controlled the cirmstances around his birth... I mean come on - no one chooses where they are born or that their mum was 'knocked up' by the holy spirit. 


So why would God do it? why would God give us all the clues... well in a way it is obvious so we knew that there was no denying this was him. The long awaited messiah. That his life was the pinnacle of human history. It kind of makes it undenable - beyond post modernist reasoning beyond relative truth one life stands the most foretold and the odds of him fulfilling every single prophecy that is billions to one possibility of happening (which is crazier odds than it being a white Christmas every year for a decade!) therefore it has to be of God.

... the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light ( I am the light of the world)....a virgin shall concieve and bear a son ( how can this be since I am a virgin)... out of you bethlehem a future ruler will come from you (so joseph went from nazereth to the town of bethlehem in Judea)... a shepherd to his people ( I am the good shepherd).... the house and line of david ( david begot... joseph)... I will remove this land's sin on a single day ( Christ died for us so that we should not perish but have eternal life)....

There are hundreds of them literally. The mesmerising truth that God loved us so much he put a big pointing arrow throughout all of scripture... look here is my son with whom I am well pleased ( Yep God is down with the street lingo). He died to reconcile us back into the heart of God and that my friends is the true Christmas miracle.