The Christian life was never designed to be comfortable, and yet our personal comfort drives us to safe and predictable places.

We tend to resist change and long for security.

Well, today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall describes a first-century couple that was thrust into the limelight.

Mary and her betrothed Joseph carried the Christ child onto the human stage,

and their unconventional calling was fraught with potential danger,

and yet Joseph abandoned his own comfort in exchange for courageous obedience

to God's plan.

Chuck titled today's message, Joseph, did you know?

One of the things that had attracted Joseph to Mary was her humble desire to live transparently before her God and before the community of believers around her.

But now, in one brief conversation, he found himself confused.

His perception of Mary shattered. His life in shambles. When Joseph asked her who the father was,

Mary said that an angel of God had spoken to her and told her she would conceive miraculously.

Her son would be the promised deliverer, the Messiah,

God's son. She said it so calmly and confidently, but how could Joseph believe a story like that?

So, verse 20, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying,

Joseph, son of David, the angel said,

Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,

for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

The angel affirms Mary's story. He adds,

she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus. Joseph woke up, he did, as the angel of the

Lord commanded. You imagine his buddies that he went to synagogue school with when they get word, did he

married a pregnant girl?

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