To start with I would like to share a few thoughts about being a true Christian. There are many heresies out there but scripture says it must need be that there be heresies among you that those who are commended are made manifest. (loosely translated)

When it comes to Christianity it swings from one end of the balance to the other.

Some think if you have trouble in your life or you don't fit their little self made mold of what a Christian should be you are lost. I know this from experience. I have lost many friends and ex fellowship mates because they think I am lost. Many times over foolishness.

Think about what it was like for Mary and Joseph.

To start with an angel told Mary she would bear a son and name him Jesus.

That is fine but she wasn't married. To those who judged according to the seeing of the eye she appeared a harlot. An unwed mother.

This also was the equivalent of getting the death penalty. In their culture Joseph could have put her away or had her stoned. Yet she was quick to say let the will of the Lord be done.

Joseph probably looked like a fool in the eyes of the town people. The poor sucker that got trapped by a harlot and suckered into raising someone else's kid.

It's true he raised someone else's kid but that someone else was the highest power on earth and in heaven!

Next they had to travel to Bethlehem to pay taxes.

Since they lived in Nazareth the Lord allowed a greedy ruler to arise that wanted everyone to be taxed in the city of their heritage. Christ was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. This appears bad and meant a lot of traveling pain but the point is that the Lord will use whatever means he needs to get people where they need to be. In this case a greedy king.

Imagine the anguish Mary went through being near delivery time and riding a donkey some hundred miles or so.

Any woman that has given birth knows the last thing a woman in such shape would ever want is to ride a donkey. Much worse when you stop to consider that she probably had to get off the donkey in the hot desert and use the bathroom many times.

Today if people have to sit in church longer than an hour or don't have padded theater seats they cry. If they have to wear decent clothing they cry. If they don't hear a sermon that tickles their little ears they cry.

Imagine all this then having no body give you a room. Talk about heartless.

Today some do the same without seeing it.

"I won't let that kook that believes in the baptism of the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues preach in my church."

Or.

"We don't want THEIR KIND in our church."

Here you have this Christ child in you (in your heart by faith spiritually speaking) but you don't fit their mold of what a Christian should be.

Imagine then that after being abandoned by all her fellow Jews (us being abandoned by friends and other so-called Christians) giving birth in a manger.

Or:

All has gone wrong all along and now you're just doing what is right and it isn't bad enough that every body abandons you but to top it off now you're in pain. An illness takes you or an affliction (maybe bills and the worry about them) gets a hold of you and you have no where to turn.

Many today would say surely Joseph and Mary were out of the will of God.

Finally Mary gave birth in a foul smelly dung and urine filled place. Today hospitals make people take all sorts of precautions.

People would say surely he wouldn't have the Son of God born there!

Or as with us: If they're truly Christians God wouldn't allow their whole life to stink and be so foul and disease ridden!

So much for man's methods. The Lord was born among feces and urine and who knows what else and grew up healthy just as my grandparents did before hospital births.

Today if these things are happening and you are doing your best to love the Lord with all your heart and walk in accordance with his word take comfort in knowing that the same thing happened to Job and Joseph and Mary.

Sometimes those who appear the farthest from being in the will of God are the ones walking the closest to him.

As written, Judge not by appearance but judge the righteous judgment.