Choices; they impact who I am as a person. Some can change the course of my life for a moment or forever. I can struggle against them or welcome them as God-given assignments intended to develop within me a teachable mind and a gracious spirit.
Our story would also end very differently had Christ, the Light of the world, not come to rescue us from spiritual darkness for light and obscurity cannot coexist. Where light enters, darkness must flee. Without Christ, we would be lost forever. Only He can offer the salvation we so desperately need.
I am so thankful we do not serve a God who sits on His heavenly throne, watching us muddle through each day. He came to our world as a baby, lived among us, and died for us. Jesus loves us, He cares about every struggle. He sees each tear we shed and makes note of them in His tearbook. He knows how many hairs we have on our heads. He knows our thoughts and our words before we even speak. It doesn’t get any more personal than that.
Every day is Christmas for those who have placed their trust in Christ. His mercies are new every single morning, packaged and waiting for you to unwrap and claim them as your own. So go on, thank God, then open your gift. It’s everything you need for today plus a tad more.
Are you watching, waiting for God to answer your prayers? Be patient. Hang on to His promises. Don’t give up. God is never late. He will answer according to His will and His perfect timing.
We don’t need a special star to guide us to Jesus. We have His Word to guide us and His Spirit to lead us. When our earthly journey is over, we will end up right where we were always meant to be; in the presence of Jesus.
Once they finally returned to the hillside above Bethlehem, they were still the same men on the outside; same looks, same names, same occupation. But they were transformed on the inside. Their life would never be the same because they had seen the Savior. That’s what happens when you meet Jesus.
In English, the word peace conveys an absence of strife. It is a passive state of being. Yet peace in this particular passage is anything but passive. The peace God offers is active; it refers to the act of reconciliation between God and man. Jesus laid aside His royal privileges and took on the flesh and limitations of man, in order to tear down the wall of sin which separates mankind from a holy God.
God’s love is not exclusive. It is not provisional. It emcompasses every human being, every soul, every person – the only condition is that they believe in Him and receive His gift of grace.
Jesus cannot be confined to just one name. The more we learn about Him, the more He becomes undefinable. Even one-hundred names cannot contain all that Christ is. Jesus – name above all names – our eternal hope and salvation.
