Hey Friends. May my greeting to you today find you doing well. These are uncertain times but God is on His throne. He is in control.
Jesus, the Father’s Son did leave the glory of Heaven for a while to come to earth over 2000 years ago. We are about to celebrate once again His coming to earth. The most important question a person can have is “why did He come?” The most important answer is that He came to rescue me — and you. Christmas is about God’s amazing grace, His amazing rescue plan. God’s Christmas rescue plan is described in John 3:16-18:
16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (NIV, Bible)
God’s rescue plan was the Christmas gift of His own Son to come to earth, to grow up and go to the cross to take upon Himself the condemnation for my sin that I might be forgiven and set free, and to have everlasting life. It is because of God’s great gift that we remember Bethlehem and we share gifts with each other at this time.
Isaiah 9:6 prophesied of Jesus’s coming many years before He arrived in Bethlehem’s manger. Isaiah wrote as though the time had already come in his day. When God promises, it is a certainty, friends. Isaiah wrote in Is. 9:6:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (NIV, Bible)
As we celebrate Christmas this year, we indeed have reason to be merry for the Lord Jesus Christ, Heaven’s Messiah, has come to us. He grew up from that baby in a manger and was crucified for our sin. He cleaned my balance sheet debt of sin owed to God, saying the words “It is finished” in John 19:30. No more sacrifice for sin is needed. The gates of Heaven were opened because of Christmas. God invites each person to believe on His gift of Jesus and to receive the certainty of Heaven.
Jesus, God’s great gift arose from the grave. He returned to the glory of Heaven. And He will come again the Scriptures tell us as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Again, we live in uncertain times but because of God’s great gift of Jesus — of salvation — we can know the rest of the story every minute of our lives here.
May God bless you and keep you healthy. I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a happy 2021.
Paul
Amen…Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Perry, thanks. We’ve been friends for a long time, a true blessing for which I’m very thankful!