My Christmas Story

This Christmas is an interesting one for me. I have quietly watched the Lord bless our home and household repeatedly in many unexpected ways. It is both humbling and awe inspiring to watch the Lord at work. Since 2004 my walk with the Lord has been like that, but this past year seems to be snowballing in the best of ways.

Christmas is the day set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior. God, in all His Glory and Majesty, chose to dwell among us as one of us, God incarnate. How interesting it must have been for Mary and Joseph who were chosen to birth and foster the Son of God. Oftentimes with God I feel like I am on a need-to-know basis and it usually seems He feels I don’t need to know much. That is His wisdom and how our faith operates. I really don’t desire to know the hows and whys of what He may ask me to do. I trust Him, so fully and completely. He has never let me down, forgotten or forsaken me, betrayed me or anything else that may violate that trust. Therefore, the trust that began so many years ago has steadily grown, uninterrupted.

The faith of of Mary and Joseph, set against the time period they lived in, must have been incredible. At age 30 Jesus entered into His ministry and work of spreading the Good News, gathered His disciples and changed the rest of history while fulfilling prophecies of old…all within three years. He was murdered in our stead, His innocent blood shed for the cleansing our sins and then buried in a borrowed tomb. Not to be outdone nor overcome by death He was resurrected on the third day and ascended into Heaven. He sits at the Father’s right hand, making intercession for us.

I can only imagine what He must feel when daily, repeatedly, every second, someone somewhere is rejecting Him…the Son of God, Love incarnate who humbly came and made a sacrifice of self that we cannot begin to comprehend.

Rather than let Jesus into their hearts and lives people build walls around themselves and don’t realize that they are trapped by the very thing they built to protect themselves. Some walls are formed by logic, some by hate, pain, unforgiveness, abuse and rejection. Some walls are built by Christians who misrepresent the message of Christ, cults or other religious ideologies. I am sure there is no end to how one can build an internal wall. Some decorate their walls with masks so that those around them will not know about their walls. They smile, volunteer, participate in various activities and often seem to just have it all together. It is quite the quandary.

Faith in Jesus is so simple, yet we make it complex. Here is how I understand it to be:

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Romans 10:9-13 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."1 John 4:7-11 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 Corinthians 13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

It starts and ends with love. If your walk with Jesus is lacking love it is not too late to make a Christmas prayer to receive His love for you so that you may share His love with others.

If you do not know Jesus but would like to know more about his love and forgiveness, then please write me. He has bestowed so much love on me throughout my life I can only hope to give it away as freely as it was given to me. Merry CHRISTmas to you all!!