Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…It appears to be Christmas season right here in Southshore Falls, Apollo Beach, FL. Even though It’s only early December and our temperature today will hover around 75 degrees, our community is in the holiday spirit and could not be more beautifully decorated. Almost everyone we pass on our walks comments on the splendid decorations.
While I too love the sheer beauty of our surroundings, at the same time I am saddened by the fact that the Christmas being celebrated is “commercial Christmas.” There is no shortage of Santas, snowmen, reindeer, bells, carolers and wrapped presents, but the reason for the season is missing. I can count on one hand any reference to the glory of Jesus’ birth. I could write it off as, “just the state of our culture today”, but I don’t want to do that because Christmas is the first of two events that completely transformed both heaven and earth. No celebration on earth could begin to compare to the celebration that took place that holy night when the heavenly host proclaimed the truth of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. Therefore, I would like to share, not only the beauty of the Nativity story itself, but some background information that I hope will clarify the necessity for this extraordinary event.
In the Beginning was God’s Perfect Plan: The good news is… this plan begins with, and ends with LOVE. We are told in Genesis, the first book of Scripture, that once God had the world prepared for human inhabitance – which took the first five days of Creation – at the end of the sixth day, He breathed life into His “proudest creation” -.Man. Genesis 2:7 tells us that “God created Man in His own image, male and female He created them.” God created Man (us) for a loving relationship…and not just to be a here-and-now relationship, but for an eternal relationship. Therefore, before that all-important relationship could develop, we had to have the ability to “make the choice” to enter (or not to enter) into that all-important union. That is why we are His “proudest creation”. God gifted Man with a brain for rational thinking; we can think and plan. (All other animals rely on instinct.)
God placed the first occupants of this world in the Garden of Eden, which was Paradise. He provided for all of their needs; He communed with them, and they wanted for nothing. His only directive to His occupants was, “Do not eat from the tree in the center of the Garden. If you do, you will surely die! (Genesis 2:16-17) As I’m sure you know, they did disobey God’s directive, and at that moment the Spiritual connection that existed between God and Man was severed. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, sin now existed in the world, and paradise came to an end.
SIN– the Chasm That Separates Man from God: Sin, when spelled with capital letter, is a noun and denotes a state of being. Sin simply means that Man is living separated from God. Instead of honoring God, Man’s focus is on “self”. (Therefore, we are outside of God’s will because our behavior is contrary to His first Commandment.) Now let’s look at “sin” (with a small letter). This is a verb and denotes action. Since Man, without God, is a Sinner, the action (or behavior) that results is sin.
Sin is what keeps Man and God separated. God is LOVE; Sin spreads, kills and destroys. Love and sin are polar opposites, therefore they can never be partners? But fear not, because Ephesians 1:4 reveals God’s perfect plan for bridging the chasm that exists between a Sinful Man and a Holy God. “Long ago, even before God created the world (and Man), He loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.” Let’s take a moment and examine the grandeur of that Scripture.
This Scripture attests to God’s Omniscience (His ability to look into the future). Even before God created the world (and Man), He knew that Man was going fall victim to satan’s deception in the Garden. This first act of disobedience is what created the inevitable chasm between Sin and Righteousness. (holiness). But here is the most incredible part of this story so far: God still created us! Can you imagine that?
God’s Plan for Our Salvation: This incredible plan reveals His unconditional, unending, and unfailing love for us. This is evidenced by the last part of this Scripture that specifically reveals His plan to save US!. Because we are in Christ, “He would find us holy and without fault in His eyes.” He knew we could never save ourselves, therefore His plan was always to provide a Savior (Jesus Christ) to do for us what we would prove we could never do for ourselves. Verse 5 concludes this “Good News”: “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and this gave Him great pleasure.”
Man had from Creation until the coming of Jesus 2021 years ago to wrestle with the dilemma of Sin, but instead of overcoming our “sin nature”, we continued to spiral downward into a dark abyss. Romans 5:6 is the report card on our best effort at overcoming sin: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Utterly helpless…Wow! That’s quite an inditement?
Now let’s turn our attention to the implementation of God’s plan for our salvation: The coming of Jesus Christ into this world. (These Scriptures are taken from the Gospel of Luke 1,2) “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored woman! The Lord has found favor with you! Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. ‘Don’t be frightened, Mary’, the angel told her, ‘for God has decided to bless you! You will become pregnant and will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David. He will reign over Israel forever; His Kingdom will have no end!’ Then Mary asked the angel, ‘But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.’
The angel replied, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The baby born to you will be holy, and He will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age. People used to say she was barren, but she’s already in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God!’ Mary responded, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. I am willing to accept whatever He wants. May everything you have said come true.’ Then the angel left.”
The night of Jesus’ birth, shepherds were in the fields outside the village of Bethlehem, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize Him: You will find the baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!’ Suddenly, the angel was joined by other heavenly hosts – armies of angels – praising God and proclaiming, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.!’
When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Come, let’s go to Bethlehem and see this wonderful thing the Lord revealed to us.’ They ran to the village and found the Baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger. Filled with joy, the shepherds then told everyone what had happened, and what the angel had told them about this child.”
God’s unfathomable, perfect plan to save His proudest creation was just presented in these wonderful Scriptures. Here’s what that means to you: The fruit of this plan is available to anyone who wants to experience eternal life. How’s that for the ultimate Christmas gift? Are you ready to receive the Gift He is prepared to give YOU? John 3:16 succinctly presents that plan: “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.”
Feel free to respond to this message, and please share it with other social media friends.
May God bless you abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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