Praying the Spirit of the Wondrous Christmas Season fill you as we welcome in the Birth of God’s Son, Jesus!
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Leave the Lights On
In John 14:16-18, we find wonderful words of consolation. Although they were spoken
in times past to comfort the early disciples, they are relevant for us today. The promise of
an abiding (taking up residency) Comforter permanently and forever points to the intention
of God. It is not half-hearted. In fact, the Spirit of Comfort will both dwell with and in us.
You cannot get much closer than that. Finally, Jesus states in verse eighteen, “I will not leave
you comfortless (or as orphans) I will come to you.”
I was impressed to share this word recently. There are many in the Body of Christ who
suffer from the feeling that Christ has abandonded them. Obviously, the source of this is a
lie. The enemy of our souls would have us believe it to distance us from our very source
of help.
Imagine a house or an automobile that has been abandoned. At one time, people
lived in the house daily and cared for it. That fine car used to be the somebody’s mode of daily
transportation to his/her destination. Many are living like a deserted house or abandoned car.
People act lifeless as if they are inanimate having no power, drive, or motivation. The Father
has promised “to never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) You may have been
abandoned by others, but God is not like man-He never lies. (Numbers 23:19) If He says it,
He will make good on it. If you have found yourself like this lately, it’s time to leave the
light on! Live like you have a purpose and a destiny. Because you do!
God never starts a project that He does not finish. He doesn’t build His house in us to
move away. The Lord doesn’t lift us up only to let us down. Leave the Light on! Let the Holy
Spirit’s presence remove the darkness so that you may see clearly. The days ahead of you
are greater than the ones behind you. Live again. Give it another try with Him. You will
be glad you did!
Blessings,
Christmas – The Good News of Christmas
All Scripture taken from the New Living Translation
I want to share with you the good news of Christmas… And why I think it really is the greatest holiday to celebrate!
But nonetheless, Christmas is a time of anticipation… A time of being together with people we love… Making someone happy with that special gift…
Or maybe your anticipation is getting the holiday over with so life can go back to normal!
Me, personally… As each year goes by, I have come to enjoy this time of year more and more… I love my family… I love my church family… Believe it or not, I love life!!
I have learned to grow content and happy no matter the circumstances…
But again… Why do I think this is the greatest holiday to celebrate?
Next to Easter of course… The Christian faith is rooted in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The Christmas Story is really kind of messy when you think about… It’s full of twists and turns (Joseph and Mary)… Drama (Travelling, no room at the inn)…
Excitement (Angels coming and going)… And the weirdest part about it all is that God chose everyday ordinary people to carry out the most extraordinary of worldwide historical events known to man!
And even though it boggles my mind as to why God chose to do it the way He did…
God never does anything without a plan and a purpose… Let me read to you the first public announcement of the coming Savior to the world…
Luke 2:8-12 – 8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.”
This is the description of Jesus to all people… He brings us great joy!
What exactly does that mean?
For starters… Jesus came to reveal to mankind who God is…
John 1:17-18 – For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
Jesus is the only One who has ever seen God… As He is God…
And so naturally Jesus came to earth as the Son of God… In the form of a man…
To reveal God’s true nature to mankind.
You see prior to Jesus, and the same can be said for many of us today…
God was, or is, seen as a God of wrath… A God to be feared… A God who made the laws by which we are to live by… Laws given to man through Moses…
Laws that we can never live up to unless we are the perfect person.
So naturally, God was, and maybe is, seen as unattainable… Judgmental…
And maybe even someone whose standards we will never meet…
His grace and mercy were often overlooked… Until Jesus came…
Jesus did away with all the misconceptions of God…
He is a loving God, full of grace and mercy… He is a God of order and not chaos…
He created all that we see…Just look at nature… The sun, moon and stars… the planets… Everything operates to perfection!
When Jesus walked the earth, He stirred the hearts of those who encountered Him in way they’ve never experienced…
The Kingdom of God was now something man can experience on a personal level…
Because God is real… God is alive… God is a person who wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us… He is known as our Father in heaven…
He is caring and compassionate… But nobody has seen Him… Until Jesus!
God is such a God of order He that tells us in advance what to look for…
Isaiah 7:14 – … The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
John 1:14 – So, the Word (Jesus) became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
And then later in life Jesus straight up tells His disciples…
John 14:9 – … Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father…
The meaning behind the name Jesus is, “The Lord is salvation.”
Here’s the thing… Every one of us has eternity written on our hearts…
The desire we have for something better than this life here on earth is the hole we have that can only be satisfied in a relationship with Jesus…
If we want to know what God is like… We must start with Jesus… Because Jesus reveals the character of God …
And when we truly realize who God is to us it will bring great joy!
Great joy also comes when we realize the freedom that is found in Jesus…
John 12:44-47 – 44 Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. 45 For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. 47 I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it.
Jesus is shouting this so that all who are listening can hear that He in fact was sent by God… That He in fact, is God!!
And by trusting Him… We are also trusting God, the One who sent Him!
Trust is a big deal, right? Often it takes us a while to trust someone or something.
Real trust holds weight in a relationship… Because real trust brings freedom!
Whoever believes in Jesus… Whoever trusts in Jesus… Will no longer live in darkness…
This world is full of darkness… For some of us it covers us like a blanket… It can be suffocating…
Jesus is shouting to the crowds, “I have come as a light to shine in this dark world!”
If you trust Me, He says…
Some of us in this room can feel the weight of Jesus’ words at this very moment!!
I don’t know what everyone in this room is going through right now… But chances are some of us are going through a dark time…
Maybe it’s marital problems… Financial… Job related… Personal… Emotional… Family… Health… Stress levels are unreal… Life just seems dark!
Jesus is the only One who can shine some light on what’s tormenting us!
It is the truth He offers that sets us free…
John 14:6 – … “I am the way, the truth, and the life… “
Jesus came to this earth to show us the way to the Father… The way to our eternal destination in heaven…
He came to reveal the truth and to offer life in abundance. There is freedom in this!
He came to show us what God is really like… That God is with us… That God is for us… That God will help us… And that God cares for us!
Another reason why Jesus is the good news that brings great joy to all people…
Is because He came to the earth to recover God’s creation… The Christmas Story is actually a recovery mission!
Let me explain…
The Bible tells us in the very beginning that when God made the world it was perfect…
In the Garden of Eden where the first people (Adam and Eve) lived it was perfect…
No suffering… No sadness… No pain… No problems… As a matter of fact, Adam and Eve spend time with God in the garden… It was a perfect environment!
But then begins the classic battle of good vs evil… satan, the serpent tempts Adam and Eve to question God’s word and gets them to eat from the one tree they are to stay away from…
They broke their trust in God’s Word and sin entered the world… And now the world is broken, flawed…
We live in a world where the original order of things does not work correctly…
I’m sure we all see it… Our bodies don’t work correctly, they age and decay…
Relationships are messy… People are messy… Government structures and world systems are messy… The weather, the planets, the economy…
We could go on forever about how broken everything, but have you ever wondered why? It all has to do with sin… The evil that dwells in man’s heart…
Jesus came to fix this… He came to restore what was lost… He came to rebuild what was broken…
He came to renew what is falling apart in the life of every person who calls upon His name!
Luke 19:10 – “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
This is Jesus talking to a man by the name of Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus was a tax collector who had become very wealthy… Mostly by cheating people… Long story short, Zacchaeus was lost in life… He was part of the brokenness we deal with in an unfair world…
But He had heard Jesus was near and something inside of Him said He needed to find more out about Jesus… That day Zacchaeus’ life was radically changed by an encounter with Jesus
The day sin entered the world all has been lost… The original intention of our relationship with God… The harmony of nature and the elements of the earth…
All things that were intended to be perfect are no longer perfect…
All because mankind questioned the truth of God’s Word!
And ever sense mankind has been spiritually lost… Wandering through life with no spiritual direction from its Creator.
Think about it like this… When something is lost… The value of that something determines the effort we are going to put into finding that item, correct?
Jesus gave His life so that we might find life… A fulfilled life here in this broken world we call earth… But more than that… Eternal life in heaven!
That’s how valuable we are to Him… He sacriciced His life for ours!
Matthew 20:28 – “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
This is a Savior, this is who we can trust! He’s not a politician… He’s not a military leader… He’s not a doctor… And He’s not full of empty promises… He is our Creator…
Jesus stepped out of eternity to experience life as a human being…
To become one of us… And to show us the value of the Kingdom of God if we so choose to follow Him!
John 3:16-17 – “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”
In John 10:10 Jesus teaches that His purpose is to give a rich and satisfying life for all who follow Him, as He is the Good Shepherd who sacrifices His life for His sheep.
We are so valuable to Him that gave His life for us… He conquered death on the cross as a way of pointing us to salvation…
It is through the death and resurrections of Jesus that we too can have eternal life in heaven when the time comes…
And it is a gift… A gift offered to all who call upon the name of Jesus and put their trust in Him!
I’ll bring this message home with this…
Jesus is the best gift we have been given… And what He has to offer is more valuable than anything we will ever find on our own…
What if I told you that in Jesus all negativity in life can be absorbed by Him…. All loneliness… Depression… Sadness… Anger… Hurt and unforgiveness…
That in Jesus you have someone who will walk through every trial with you and offer wisdom, comfort, peace, and stability while things seem to be crumbling…
In Jesus you will find contentment when there was once confusion… And that…
Psalm 147:3 – He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.
Would any of this make a difference as you may be feeling Him knocking at the door of your heart?
Revelation 3:20 – “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”
This is the meaning of Christmas… This is why Jesus came to the earth in the form of a baby… Born in the humblest of ways…
So that we could be friends… All He asks is that we answer the door and let Him in!
A CHRISTMAS PRAYER
by Robert Lewis Stevenson
Loving Father, help us to remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from the evil by the blessing which Christ brings and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen!
Twas the Night Before Christmas
‘Twas the first night of Christmas a long time ago,
The hillside was peaceful, the moon was aglow.
The world couldn’t know from what happened before, that men would remember this night evermore.
The sheep on the hillside—their days journey over,
Were dreaming sweet dreams of a field full of clover. The shepherds were watchful while guarding their flock, the earth was their pillow, the stars were their clock.
Then all of a sudden, they jumped at the sight of the sky all a blaze with a heavenly light. They huddled in fear, then they started to rise as the lightening-like flash tore open the skies.
The heavens were split by the silvery ray, the dark disappeared and the night became day. And lo, at the end of the rainbow of light appeared then an angel to banish their fright.
The angel brought news of a birth in a manger and bade them to hasten to welcome the stranger. For Mary had just given birth to a boy whose coming would bring so much comfort and joy.
A choir of angels looked down from the sky and heavenly voices were heard from on high: Peace be on earth and good will to all men. The Savior has come on this night, Amen.
The heavenly angels then faded from sight, the sky once again turned from day to night. The shepherds all quietly rose from the ground, and hurried to go where the child would be found.
As they reached Bethlehem and the inn was in sight from the barn came a trickle of half-hidden light.
It led like a path to a soft little bed and shone very tenderly on a child’s head.
The child in the manger was sleeping so sound, his eyes were still closed, as the shepherds stood round.
From that instant of grace on that night long ago thousands of years would be warmed by the glow.
Guided by light from a bright shining star came a pilgrimage led of three kings from afar.
They were dressed in the finest of satins and lace, their complexions were that of an Orient race.
The three wealthy kings were wise men and proud, but they went to the Christ child and solemnly bowed. They came bearing treasures of incense and gold to that sweet little child, still not very old.
The star in the sky twinkled down from above, the world was awakened to kindness and love. The past was forgotten, the future was bright, and the spirit of Christmas was born on that night.