Author: kezha1

The shepherds stood in wonder at His birth. For what the angels had proclaimed to them was true. The Messiah had been born & they had been the first to witness His arrival. Soon they spread The Good News to everyone, and all who heard it were amazed.

The soldiers stood in wonder at His death. These Gentile Roman soldiers may not have known Old Testament Jewish prophecy – but in wonderment they made an appropriate confession of Jesus’ identity when they proclaimed in Matthew 27:54, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

The witnesses stood in wonder at His resurrection. In Luke 24:50-53, Jesus’ followers stand in utter amazement as He ascended in Shekinah glory – a moment of remarkable splendor as God’s radiant glory was manifested for them to see.

Someday the entire world will stand in wonder at His return. Across Scriptures we see it – Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, and Philippians 2:10 all allude to the Second Coming of Christ when all mankind will stand before the Judgment Seat in total submission. ” Jesus the Name above every Name – so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The source of all of Jesus’ teachings came directly from His Father…He made this very plain from the start of His Ministry here on earth. Also plain from the start was His absolute resolve to obey His Father’s Will and not His own. We see this in the garden when He prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as You Will.” (Matthew 26:39) Everyday we’re making the same kind of conscious decisions of following our own will or God’s…but we’ll soon discover that if we earnestly seek to do God’s Will over ours, His plan & purpose for our life will blossom & grow into something beautiful indeed.

Mercy…Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” In I Peter 1:3, the idea of mercy is taken a little farther, “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Mercy is connected to God’s covenant and the basis of our trust in Him to Salvation. And by showing mercy in this present unredeemed world, we are promised we will receive it in the life to come. But understand this, God’s mercy isn’t a reward we somehow earn, but rather, as we recognize the true height & depth of His mercy towards us, we in turn out of our profound gratefulness, desire to show the same compassion to others. We receive mercy in order to show it to others… plain & simple.

To have unwavering trust in the promises of God…to have a steadfast belief in all His Words, no matter what, we need to know what they are. For how can we rely on something we haven’t read for ourselves? The answer is simple, you need to be in His Word on a regular basis in order to build a firm foundation upon His very great & precious promises. (II Peter 1:4) For only there you will find peace, security, & comfort against any storm that comes into your life.  May the Lord bless you with a very amazing Christmas, today & and for the year to come.

A King should come in a gold coach drawn by white horses…this King came on the back of a donkey. A King should come in the prime of the day with people cheering, trumpets blasting, and flags flying high welcoming him…this King in the quiet silence of the darkened streets of Bethlehem. No crowds to welcome Him, no trumpets or flags…just the sound of the donkey’s shuffling along the street. A King should come with all the opulence and honor due him as he arrives at his castle…this King arrived at a stable with no fanfare, just the watchful eyes of the cattle & sheep to attend Him. That night mankind was silent, not even realizing that the King of Kings had been born…but the angels couldn’t contain themselves, so instead, the angels proclaimed His birth. Glory to God! Christ is born!

The birth of Jesus Christ put into motion the beginning of God’s redemptive plan…a plan that would change the world forever. Ephesians 1:7 tells us, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of sins…” So think of it this way…Jesus was born to rescue us from sin, through His sacrificial death on the Cross. For our world was once a perfect place to live, but now it’s broken by sinfulness. But if we repent & trust in Jesus, and ask Him into our life, we can be restored, forgiven, and saved…becoming a new creation. Christ’s birth brought God to man; the Cross of Christ brought man to God and with it the gift of eternal life. So we should care about the Nativity…for it was there that God made a way, away in the manger…the greatest gift on earth.

Caesar Augustus ordered a census of the entire Roman Empire with everyone going to their hometown to register. It tells us in Luke 2:4 that, ” Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.” It was custom to travel to your ancestral home so that families could be counted together…and since Joseph was of the lineage & descendance of King David, off he went dutifully, with Mary his betrothed in tow.  But why the undistinguished & insignificant little town of Bethlehem (located about 5 miles Southwest of Jerusalem)? It was commonly known among the people that the Messiah would come from that unimportant tiny town…first prophesied in Micah 5:2, that God would raise up a Ruler from David’s lineage…a King that would rule & reign forever…Jesus Christ Himself. So in the eyes of most, Bethlehem wasn’t a prominent town…but to God it was of the upmost importance to His plan of Salvation.

Matthew tells us that, “Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the One Who has been born King of the Jews?'” These wise men were ancient astrologers interpreting astronomical phenomena, all the while searching through the writings of others for interpretation. In the fourth book of the Pentateuch, Moses wrote about God’s revealed message, “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.” (Numbers 24:17) So they knew that a future Ruler would come out of Jacob…and when this star arose (whether it was some planetary conjunction, supernova, or something purely supernatural) they tied everything together and set off to see this King for themselves.     “And nations shall come to Your light, and kings to the brightness of Your rising.” (Isaiah 60:3)

Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus tells us that, “There were shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night.”… when suddenly a great company of heavenly host filled the night sky in brilliant light, announcing the birth of the Christ child, the Messiah. But why them? The Jews were sure that the Messiah would come as a great Political Leader & Warrior…destroying the Roman Empire in one fell swoop, along with His amassed army of mighty & valiant troops. But from the very beginning, God had portrayed Himself as a Shepherd of His people. When Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd in John 10:11, He was fulfilling the prophecy first spoken from Ezekiel in Chapter 34:7-16,23. We even see this in the first verse of the well known Psalm 23 of David, “The Lord is my Shepherd…” So it’s beyond reason that the Messiah’s birth would first be announced to those closest to God’s heart of a Shepherd…those who cared for, looked out for, provided & protected the flock…even to the point of laying down their own lives for them.

Joseph, the husband of Mary, isn’t mentioned much in the Bible…but from what we do read, we have a picture of character & heart. A hardworking & humble carpenter…devout in his worship of God & in adherence of the Law. But still considerate and loving enough to want to spare his betrothed Mary the embarrassment & indignities when he discovered she was pregnant, but not with his child. But regardless, still Joseph raised Jesus as his own flesh & blood…leading a quiet life in Nazareth providing for his family as a village builder/repairman…all the while teaching his boy, Jesus, the trade. But Jesus learned so much more than carpentry from Joseph…He learned integrity, honesty, and a work ethic standing there beside His earthly father.