Now that Christmas is over, what do I do with the Christ Child?

       During the Christmas Season, we celebrated the coming of the Messiah.  The birth of Jesus symbolizes the arrival of hope into a lost world.  Sometimes it is hard for us to wrap our heads around the grace that has been afforded us by God.  People often, incorrectly, say that if there is a God, he doesn't care about the trials and tribulations that we mortals face on a daily basis.  I say that the Christmas story proves exactly the opposite.

      If God did not care about our daily struggles, then he surely would not have sent his Son into this corrupt world to be beaten, mutilated and put to death in order to create a path for our salvation.  No, often times when we face hardships that do not seem fair to us, in our desperation and despair, we begin to question God.  We pray earnest prayers and when we do not see the desired results we pout like spoiled children who received full stockings, but not the toy they most coveted.  Too often we live blessed lives, full of God's gifts, yet we focus too much on what we are lacking.

    Christmas has brought us a season of hope, a season of love, and above all a season of rejoicing that our God is Immanuel, God with us.  What should we carry with us as we prepare for the New Year?  We should carry with us the  knowledge that we are not just an after thought of God.  He cares and he hears each and every one of our prayers.  As with any father, when your children ask for things sometimes the answer is "yes", sometimes the answer is "no", and sometimes the answer is "not right now."  Just as our earthly children don't always understand our reasoning for the answers we give, sometimes we don't understand the "no" and "not now" answers we get from God.

  Rest assured,  just as a good parent has the best interest of their child in mind, so God has the best interest of his people in mind when he answers.  We may not be able to see it now, we may not even agree with it , but we didn't form the universe and we can't comprehend the power of a God who did.  Isn't it cool that a God who can create all things cares enough for us to put on skin and not only dwell with us, but die for us.

What should you take into the New Year?

1.  You are loved by the one and only God.

2.  God is not a distant dictator waiting to crush us when we do wrong.  Instead he is a loving father who gave up his own blameless Son just to be able to spend eternity with us sinners.

3.  Even when we feel alone because what we want is not what we get, God is still with us and still loves us.

May you have a blessed New Year filled with the love of Christ!

     See more devotional thoughts and lessons at http://cszdevotion.blogspot.com/.


Chris Tomlin--Amazing Grace

Narrowing Down the Field

Some have suggested that the fact Jesus fulfills so many prophecies can be canceled out because he was trying to fulfill them.  Now, we could argue the numerical improbability of this occurring, even if someone tried to act out each prophecy, but that is not what I want to look at tonight.  No, tonight I would like to look at a few prophecies that Jesus could not have possibly "worked on" himself.

In Genesis 12:3, " I will bless those who bless you,
       and whoever curses you I will curse;
       and all peoples on earth
       will be blessed through you."

God promises Abram, later renamed Abraham, that he will bless the entire world through his lineage.  The Messiah will come from Abraham.

Then in Genesis 17:19  we are told, "Then God said, 'Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.  I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.'"

God narrows down the Messiah's ancestors to the line of Isaac.

In Genesis 28:14 God establishes the line with Jacob, "¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring."

In Genesis 49:10 Jacob, called Israel by God,  has his line further focused to the house of Judah, "The scepter will not depart from Judah,
       nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
       until he comes to whom it belongs 
       and the obedience of the nations is his.

In 2 Samuel 7:12-13  David is promised through the prophet Nathan to be the ancestor of the Messiah.
      "When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.  He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever."

Why is all of this important?  A quick look at the opening of Matthew answers that question.

Matthew Chapter 1

 ¹A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
    ²Abraham was the father of Isaac,
         Isaac the father of Jacob,
         Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
       ³Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
         Perez the father of Hezron,
         Hezron the father of Ram,
       ⁴Ram the father of Amminadab,
         Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
         Nahshon the father of Salmon,
       ⁵Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
         Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
         Obed the father of Jesse,
       ⁶and Jesse the father of King David.
      David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,
    ⁷Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
         Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
         Abijah the father of Asa,
       ⁸Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
         Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
         Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
       ⁹Uzziah the father of Jotham,
         Jotham the father of Ahaz,
         Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
       ¹⁰Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
         Manasseh the father of Amon,
         Amon the father of Josiah,
       ¹¹and Josiah the father of Jeconiah^[a] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
    ¹²After the exile to Babylon:
         Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
         Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
       ¹³Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
         Abiud the father of Eliakim,
         Eliakim the father of Azor,
       ¹⁴Azor the father of Zadok,
         Zadok the father of Akim,
         Akim the father of Eliud,
       ¹⁵Eliud the father of Eleazar,
         Eleazar the father of Matthan,
         Matthan the father of Jacob,
       ¹⁶and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Jesus would have had no way of controlling these facts, if he wasn't God.  Isn't it kind of amazing that he fits into each one of these categories, categories that were written down hundreds and even thousands of years before his birth.

We Three Kings (Even though there were probably a lot more than that, just three types of gifts.)

Psalm 72:9-12

 ⁹ The desert tribes will bow before him
       and his enemies will lick the dust.
 ¹⁰ The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
       will bring tribute to him;
       the kings of Sheba and Seba
       will present him gifts.
 ¹¹ All kings will bow down to him
       and all nations will serve him.
 ¹² For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
       the afflicted who have no one to help.

Matthew 2:1-11

¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."  ³When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
 ⁶" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
      are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
   for out of you will come a ruler
      who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"
 ⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
 ⁹After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.


Isn't it cool that the arrival of the Son of God was such an event that it brought men of different faiths from afar because even they could recognize the signs.  They found Jesus, not in the nativity, but when he was bout 2 or 3 years old.  Isn't it also amazing that the gifts that these magi brought were probably used to finance Jesus' family moving to Egypt to escape the fury of Herod.  God works in great ways, and the coolest thing is he told us hundreds of years in advance, "Hey I'm going to do something cool.  Watch this." Then he did it!

Messianic Prophecy Part 3--One Sacrificial Lamb to Another

Genesis 22: 9-19

 ⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
      "Here I am," he replied.
 ¹² "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
 ¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
 ¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring  all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
 ¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.

 --bold and italics added for prophetic emphasis.

Matthew 1: 1-17

 ¹A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
    ²Abraham was the father of Isaac,
         Isaac the father of Jacob,
         Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
       ³Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
         Perez the father of Hezron,
         Hezron the father of Ram,
       ⁴Ram the father of Amminadab,
         Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
         Nahshon the father of Salmon,
       ⁵Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
         Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
         Obed the father of Jesse,
       ⁶and Jesse the father of King David.
      David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,
    ⁷Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
         Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
         Abijah the father of Asa,
       ⁸Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
         Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
         Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
       ⁹Uzziah the father of Jotham,
         Jotham the father of Ahaz,
         Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
       ¹⁰Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
         Manasseh the father of Amon,
         Amon the father of Josiah,
       ¹¹and Josiah the father of Jeconiah^[a] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
    ¹²After the exile to Babylon:
         Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
         Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
       ¹³Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
         Abiud the father of Eliakim,
         Eliakim the father of Azor,
       ¹⁴Azor the father of Zadok,
         Zadok the father of Akim,
         Akim the father of Eliud,
       ¹⁵Eliud the father of Eleazar,
         Eleazar the father of Matthan,
         Matthan the father of Jacob,
       ¹⁶and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.  ¹⁷Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.


      Forty-two generations from Abraham to Jesus.  Abraham was a man of extraordinary faith.  He left his home to follow God without knowing where he was going.  He believed that God would bring him a child even when he and his wife were so old that her eggs had pretty much petrified.  When he was blessed with a child he was ready to sacrifice him because he thought that was God's will.  Don't get me wrong, Abraham was a flawed man as well.  He did a lot of things wrong along the way, but it's easy to see why God would want to show favor to Abraham.
   
      It is hard to miss the symbolism, or possibly the irony, shown here by God.  In order to spare Abraham's son, Isaac, God provided a ram to be sacrificed.   Later, to provide the blessing to all nations that he speaks of in Genesis 22:18, God provides a lamb to cover the sins of all men--Jesus.  Just another way that the promises of God are fulfilled in the person and deity of Jesus the Christ.

Messianic Prophecy-- Isaiah 7:13-14

Isaiah 7:13-14

13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.



Matthew 1: 18-25

18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.



This seems hard for us to wrap our minds around. We have been taught from the time we were young that 1 + 1 = 2. But the math in this equation just doesn't add up. It seems that we are missing a crucial addend. Then again that's just like God. God works through improbable people and through impossible situations. While Jesus was very much a man he was also the Immanuel--God in man's skin. So how else would he enter the world, born as a human but in a supernatural way.

There are millions of people that will scoff at the idea of immaculate conception. They will say that those of us who believe in the Nativity and the Messiah are simpletons. This is nothing new, it is nothing we haven't been told by Jesus to expect. For a moment though, pause and consider. If you are open to the idea of divine creation. If you can look at the world, the universe, and say there had to be some kind of intelligent design. If all of these little perfections seem to be too much to be a coincidence of chaos and chance, then why could the hand that set the world in motion not come to earth in an unusual way?

What makes this even more amazing, it was told it was coming, and come it did! Hallelujah.