Christian Life Center

06/14/2026

06/05/2026

Don't miss the huge parking lot sale this Saturday, June 6, at Christian Life Center 2020 Vista Street in Belle Fourche. We have items donated from multiple families, retail outlets, churches and estates - clothing, footwear, household items, furniture, appliances, books, DVDs, church items, home decor items, sound equipment and much more. This is an annual fund raiser for the church and a way to help our ministry in Belle Fourche. Sale starts at 7:00 am and goes until 2:00 pm. Hope to see you there.

02/10/2026

The emergency road trip to Egypt is over. Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and Sully have reached safety.

From their perspective, the future remains uncertain, and probably frightening. Surely they are well beyond the reach of Herod, but perhaps a seed of fear remains in their hearts. Maybe they were never able to relax entirely until word reached them, several years later, that Herod had died. (If you want to see this story’s villain get what’s coming to him, search “how did King Herod die.” The answer isn’t for the squeamish.)

From our perspective, though, the future of Jesus and his family is certain. From Matthew 2:19-21, we know that several years after the family arrived in Egypt, an angel appeared to Joseph and let him know it was safe to return home. (I wonder if Joseph thought something like, What is it with all these angels … could I just get a simple text?!) And we know from Luke 2:40 that Jesus “grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.”

So if we already know all of this, what did we learn?

Road trips like this aren’t meant to prepare us for some theology test. Imagining what might have happened in a story from scripture is supposed to crack open our hearts and minds, hopefully so we can see our faith, and God, in new ways.

Still, a few themes emerged as we traveled. First and foremost, Joseph and Mary were real people with real hopes and dreams and emotions. We might be tempted to see them as saints, but let’s not forget that they were new parents navigating a confusing and dangerous world. Like countless others throughout history, they were forced to become refugees—but that not only saved them, it prepared them to raise Jesus, the only one who could truly change the world.

Second, faith makes us capable of amazing things. This whole story begins with a dream, which is something easily ignored or misunderstood. But Joseph sensed God in the dream, and Mary had the faith and trust to believe Joseph. Faith like that can make us brave. The comfortable thing for Joseph and Mary would have been to ignore the dream, stay briefly in Bethlehem, and then travel back home. Instead, they packed their bags and headed out on an unpredictable, open-ended adventure. For them, faith didn’t make their journey easier, but it did make it possible.

Third, tension is where spiritual growth tends to happen. At least that’s been my experience. When I’m pulled between faith and doubt, or between hope and despair, I usually grow. I think the same was true for Mary and Joseph. And like them, we have Jesus with us. So when life gets confusing, complicated, or even dangerous, let’s remember that God often meets us when we’re wrestling.

Oh, and one last point about Herod. As far as I can tell, he was as close to pure evil as an individual can be. But his story reminds me of what another Joseph says. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). Herod’s evil plan was never going to overpower God’s good plan. Herod was powerful, but Mary and Joseph had “the zeal of the Lord Almighty” at their backs. And because of that, they were able to witness that the harm Herod intended was transformed into the saving of many lives. The saving of all our lives.

Thanks again for traveling with me on this road trip to Egypt, and let me know what lessons you learned—I’d love to hear!

I look forward to connecting again when our 2026 Lent series begins next week. And by the way, if you or someone you know would like a published devotional guide this Lent season, check out my new book Junkyard Wisdom Lent, which contains over forty entries paired with thought-provoking questions.

Roy

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Copyright © 2026 Roy Goble, All rights reserved.

Lead, follow, or go your own way

02/09/2026

Mary and Joseph stayed a few days in Pelusium, hoping they had escaped Herod’s reach. Mary appreciated a comfortable bed, Sully ate his weight in fresh greenery, and Joseph snuck away for an hour to visit a brew pub.

Their next job was to reach Alexandria, located on the opposite side of the Nile Delta from Pelusium. Joseph could find work there, and the family would be part of a welcoming community. The walk across the Nile Delta would have been beautiful, disorienting, and utterly foreign to Mary and Joseph. Having left behind the dry, empty silence of the Sinai desert, they entered one of the most densely populated, fertile, and culturally layered landscapes on Earth.

I wonder if it felt a bit like arriving in heaven. I don’t mean to compare the region to capital-H Heaven, but think about the imagery. Jesus’s family flees a brutal, dictatorial king across a hellish landscape, only to arrive in one of the richest, greenest, most luxurious natural landscapes in the world.

And it was populated by people from all walks of life and all corners of the world. They heard vendors shouting in Greek, Coptic, and Aramaic, plus Romans speaking Latin. They saw bright Egyptian linen sheets flowing in the wind, along with colorful fruits and vegetables. They walked through, over, and around canals and irrigation ditches brimming with water from the Nile. They spotted new bird species and beautiful flowers. They tasted new kinds of fish and garlic-grilled food, felt the texture of papyrus, and smelled incense from small shrines. Whether all of this felt like heaven to Mary and Joseph, it certainly did to Sully!

What a wondrous place it must have seemed to them. I can imagine Mary grinning at the abundance of goodness. God had delivered them, as promised. Jesus was safe, as promised.

As the family reached the outskirts of Alexandria, Mary and Joseph would have caught their first glimpse of the Pharos Lighthouse. As tall as a pyramid, it was one of the wonders of the ancient world, and so much bigger than anything they’d ever imagined back in Nazareth.

Then they entered the city. Alexandria was the second-largest city in the Roman Empire, and the Jewish Quarter must have been amazing. Dozens of synagogues. Huge neighborhoods where more than 200,000 Jews lived. Their own civic council and courts. It was a seat of Jewish learning, research, and study.

Best of all, it was welcoming. It was the community they longed for, their home away from home.

Mary and Joseph had been forced to flee to save their baby’s life, but even so … what a celebration they must have had!

JUNKYARDWISDOM.COM
Copyright © 2026 Roy Goble, All rights reserved.

02/09/2026

When Jesus was born, the border between Egypt and Judea was fluid, so it’s not possible to say exactly when Joseph, Mary, Jesus, and Sully took the final step to put them out of Herod’s reach.

For a couple with a baby walking alongside a donkey, it was a grueling trek through the dusty frontier before continuing along the sea to Pelusium, the nearest Egyptian city. It’s unlikely there was anything official to note their arrival in a foreign land, but I like to imagine Jesus getting his first passport stamp.

They had made it. They were happy, or at least safe for the time being.

Well, mostly. We can’t forget that they were still refugees. They were strangers living in a strange land. Egypt had a reputation for welcoming people from around the world, but Mary and Joseph must have been well aware of the history of the Jewish people in Egypt.

So as they settled in Pelusium for a few days to rest, acclimate, and get their Egyptian driver’s licenses (Sully was happy to take a break), they probably felt a note of caution. They were glad they had arrived, but not sure what might come next.

In a way, this reminds me of our spiritual journey. When we begin to follow Jesus, we’ve already arrived somewhere: we are redeemed, we know God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we feel deep gratitude. That’s quite an arrival! At the same time, we can never know what will happen next. We may continue to feel hunted, or haunted by our past. Fear and anxiety may continue to dog us.

This tension is uncomfortable. We feel guilty about feeling good. We feel guilty about feeling guilty. In our most twisted moments, we even feel good about feeling guilty.

So maybe it helps to know that Mary and Joseph could relate to that tension. Oddly, the tension is partly what keeps us learning, trusting, growing, and loving God. Also, like Mary and Joseph, we have Jesus with us. He must’ve provided them with a sense of hope and joy, just as he does for us today.

I know I’ll always picture the Flight to Egypt as a dim reflection of my own spiritual journey. Living for Jesus—and all the hope and responsibility that required—changed Mary and Joseph forever.

The same is true for us.

JUNKYARDWISDOM.COM
Copyright © 2026 Roy Goble, All rights reserved.