Beginning Monday, November 10, 2025, I will introduce a book that has been over a year in the making: “Saints, Sinners, and Scandals: The Real Story of Jesus’ Birth.
Most people start the Christmas story with angels, shepherds, and a manger.
But the real story starts with a family tree—and it’s full of saints, sinners, scandals, and scoundrels.
Before there was Silent Night, there was chaos. Before “peace on earth,” there were centuries of bloodlines, betrayals, and bold grace. The family history of the Messiah reads like a tabloid: Tamar disguising herself to confront injustice, Rahab the prostitute risking her life to protect spies, Ruth lying at Boaz’s feet, Bathsheba drawn into royal adultery, and Mary—a teenage girl from a town no one respected—carrying God’s Son under whispers of scandal.
If God chose that family to bring His Son into the world, there’s hope for yours and mine.
What You’ll Find in This New Series
“Saints, Sinners, and Scandals” launches the the upcoming devotional book God With Us… 31 Days of Wonder, Waiting, and Worship.
Each week we’ll peel back the sentimental glaze that tradition has layered over Scripture and rediscover the raw, redemptive, and very human story that changed the world.
Zacharias: the priest who doubted, went silent, and learned to listen.
Mary: the teenage girl whose courage changed history.
Joseph: the quiet, righteous man who heard God in dreams.
Shepherds: the outcasts who became first evangelists.
Magi and Herod: a collision of wisdom and paranoia, light and darkness.
Simeon and Anna: the elders who waited a lifetime and finally saw salvation.
Each story unmasks centuries of mistranslation and misconception. You’ll see how Hebrew numerology shapes Matthew’s genealogy, why Luke’s version goes backward to Adam, what kataluma really means (hint: not an inn), and why “fear not” might be the most repeated command of Advent.
Why This Matters Now
The Christmas story isn’t meant to be polished—it’s meant to be lived.
God entered a world of confusion, politics, shame, and waiting—not a perfect Hallmark set. That same God still steps into our mess today.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your story is too complicated for God to use, this is the book—and season—for you. Every hidden name and broken choice in Jesus’ family tree becomes a reminder: grace doesn’t erase the mess; it redeems it.
Coming Soon
The introduction to the book drops this week.
The first chapter—“The Lists– Saints, Sinners, and Scoundrels in Jesus’ Family Tree”—drops next week.
We’ll uncover the secrets buried in those long lists of names and why Matthew and Luke tell the story so differently.
Until then, take a moment to look at your own story—the places that feel unredeemable or overlooked—and imagine how they might look as part of God’s plan. The Christmas story begins with people like that.
Let’s rediscover the wild grace of God in the stories behind the story.
God could have chosen any family line. He chose this one.
He could have sanitized the story—but He didn’t.
He left the mess in, because the mess is part of the miracle.