Christmas! Jesus Birth!
The more like Christ you become, the more you exalt Christ and not yourself.
Is there someone you can share God’s Love with today as a result of your faith, and in spite of your feelings?
* “And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”
Luke 6:32
Let’s Bring Jesus Back for our Children!! How we do this will determine future generations of Christmas celebrations. *We Are Christmas to Our Little Children Because What We DO on Christmas is an Acted out Statement of OUR Faith.
To our children, we are Christmas. We are their memories. We are the story. We are acting out both the surprised shepherds in the fields with their problems and squabbles and regular lives, and also the heavenly host that came to them singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.”
*Please Bring Jesus Back! If we don’t do it—–who will?
*****Christmas IS The Birth of Christ!
Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Isaiah 7:14)
Jesus Birth in History. “The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35.)
*Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it.
*Jesus did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. *Jesus is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside.
*Jesus life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent.
*When Jesus came to earth, He came in order to penetrate the very kingdom of darkness with light.
*Jesus came to bring healing to sickness, replace sadness with joy, and fill meaninglessness with purpose.
*Jesus came to change things for the better for a world that had no hope outside of God.
*Jesus came to bring the Kingdom of God on earth.
*So why has God allowed us to receive new birth and remain on earth? It is so that we might bring the Kingdom of God into our world-our families, our workplace, and our communities.
God wants you to bring the Kingdom of God into the territory He has given you so that His will can be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Your domain is your workplace, family, and community. Ask God to show you how He wants to penetrate the darkness of your domain with His light. Then you will see and experience all the features of this gift that has been given to you.
His Birth in Me. “Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.” (Gal. 4:19.)
*Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside.
* Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth.
“Ye must be born again.” (JN 3:3) This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me.
Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.
We must ask God to search our hearts. What will He find when He looks into our hearts? Will He find rebellion? Will He find obedience? Will He find unforgiveness?
*God wants us to leave the place of rebellion and punishment.
*God wants us to return to the place of obedience and blessing. ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart!… See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!’(Psalm 139:23-24).
The Holy Spirit is our Comforter & Counselor!!!
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”Jude 1:20-21
** We have to build ourselves up in God.
* How do you do that? Read the word of God.
*God created us for Himself but we sold ourselves into slavery to the devil.
*If we’re only loving in order to change the other person or the circumstances, our motivation is totally wrong.
That’s conditional human love, and not God’s Love at all.
If selfishness is motivating us, the fruit of our actions will be rotten.
* “Love…does not seek its own…”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
God is wonderfully free; He is not impressed by our bigness; He does nothing in order to attract attention to our accomplishments; He does everything to magnify His glorious freedom and mercy.
*God chose a stable so no innkeeper could boast, “He chose the comfort of my inn!”
* God chose a manger so that no wood worker could boast, “He chose the craftsmanship of my bed!”
* He chose Bethlehem so no one could boast, “The greatness of our city constrained the divine choice!”
* And he chose you and me, freely and unconditionally, to stop the mouth of all human boasting. This is the point of
Romans 11 and this is the point of
Micah 5.
The deepest meaning of the littleness and insignificance of Bethlehem is that God does not bestow the blessings of the Messiah–the blessings of salvation–on the basis of our greatness or our merit or our achievement.
He does not elect cities or people because of their prominence or grandeur or distinction.
*When HE chooses HE chooses freely, in order to magnify the glory of HIS own mercy, not the glory of our distinctions. So let us say with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest!” Not glory to us. We get the joy. He gets the glory.
This Christmas, Jesus, come to the manger of my heart. Invade my soul like Bethlehem, bringing peace to every part. Dwell within and around me, as I unwrap Your presence each day.
Keep me close to You, Lord. It’s in Your wonderful Name I pray. Amen
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
Have a Merry Merry Christmas