Therefore I also come
after I heard of your faith
and the Lord Jesus
and your love for all the saints,
do not cease to give
thanks for you,
making mention of you
in my prayers:
that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory,
may give to you
the spirit of wisdom
and revelation
in the knowledge of
Him, the eyes
of your understanding
being enlightened; or
that you may know
what is the hope of His calling,
what are the riches
of the glory of His
inheritance in the
saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward
us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
which He worked in Christ
when He raised Him
from the dead and seated Him
at His right hand in
the heavenly places
Ephesians 1:15 -- 20
Christmas
is three days away and the world has turned Christmas, a celebration that
Christian view for the coming of the Only Begotten Son of God. Christmas has become so commercialized, so
much about partying, so much about giving of gifts and getting gifts, that the
real meaning for Christmas is all but lost.
Yes, it is good to give gifts, it is good to enjoy this time and
celebrate, celebrate family, celebrate friends, and most of all to celebrate
our Savior Jesus Christ. Yet, we suffer
a possibility of overdoing the celebration to the point where the real meaning
of Christmas is lost in the mad rush to buy gifts, to decorate, to show off as
some do with great decorations on their homes, which I do enjoy, yet few on
that celebrated day actually talk about Jesus Christ. We speak of the baby Jesus Christ's, and we speak of Him in songs
and Christmas carols, all may be good and healthy for those particularly are in
convalescent care homes where they get very little attention from others than
the nurses and aides, so a visit by those caroling is good. But, do they actually hear the gospel? Christmas is a wonderful time, a time of
joy, and a time for celebration, and not to be denigrated, rather, use this time
to celebrate one another and especially the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, this
brings a question to mind: why did Jesus come to earth? Why did I Jesus come many years before? Why did he come in this era, some 2000 years
ago and not come in our age? Another
question: why were you saved? Why did
Jesus have to come as a baby? God can
create so why did he not just create Jesus as a mature man? we could even get
into the question is why do we celebrate the coming of Jesus on December 25th
as some do and other religious organizations.
Many questions, not only by those who are not Christian but are also in
many of the minds of Christians even though not as audibly spoken. Well let's take a look at this why did Jesus
come to earth? First, God, incarnate,
came to earth to satisfy His justice.
They see did by dining upon the cross as an innocent man who remains
sinless in his entire life unlike Adam who was sinless but then sinned and had
no way to pay back to God for that sin.
Man cannot pay to God this debt owed to Him, therefore, God came in the
only way He could come to satisfy this debt, a debt that man cannot pay, so He
paid it Himself. So, God did not come
firstly to save man as so many people teach and believe as though they are so
important that God would save them.
God's justice had to be satisfied and until that satisfaction occurred
man could not be saved. God saves man by
the only means by which man can be saved, and that is through the life, death,
resurrection, and ascension into heaven by the Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ. Now, through Jesus Christ salvation can be given to man. You cannot do anything
for your salvation! So why did God save
you? It is so that the Son of God might
be manifested in your mortal flesh. God
elects His children yes this means that God elects whomever He chooses to
elect and when you realize your election then you are to bend your energy, your
whole energy, your powers to realize your election as a child of God. When you realize His election you should
rise to the occasion of that election every time. It is true you cannot save yourself, but this does not take you
off the hook of what it means to be an elected child of God for you must do
something to manifest this election, for you must work out that which God has worked in
you. The question for each of us is are you working out by your speech, by
your thinking, by your nerves, that is are you still trying to be the same old
person and remain in your own way and if this is true then you are lying to say that
God has saved you and has sanctified you.
We have to exercise ourselves in the order that the Son of God may be
manifested in our mortal flesh. God's
only aim of life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and that
everything else is placed before God, that which has a higher priority than
God, vanishes. We're not here to
dictate to God, no, we are here to submit to His will that He may work through
us what He desires. When we realize this,
God will make us broken bread and poured out of wine to feed and nourish others. This is Christmas, this is what God has done
by His coming. We have much to
celebrate about and celebrate we should do.
We should get together with family and friends, we should give gifts to
remind us of the gift that God has given to His children and that gift is Jesus
Christ and by means of Jesus Christ the ultimate gift of everlasting life is
given to His children. As Paul said: " that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; or that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:17 -- 18).
There shall come forth a Rod
from the
stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots,
the Spirit of
the LORD shall rest upon Him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit
of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
Isaiah
11:1 -- 2
Behold the coming of our Savior
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