The Greatest Gift of All.

I haven't writen a blog in a while and it is Christmas time, so I figured  I would. Please just take the 4 or 5 minutes it takes to read this; it could give you a completely different outlook or inspire you or something. It might just touch your heart. (not that I'm saying my writing is that good...but...you'll see. lol)

I was at Elevate the other night for CBCNW and we watched this video sermon and it really opened my eyes to something I didn't realize until that point. It also tied in to what I had learned at church that morning. (Ain't it funny how God plans things like that?)

Of course, because it's Christmas time, the lessons were about the birth of Christ (Yay!!!). So, I settled into my seat and prepared to hear the story for the 800th time. But as the pastor (in both church and the video sermon) started to speak, I was shocked because it wasn't the same old story I'd heard before; It was something different.

The first story (at church) was about the prophet Isaiah (I believe we're in Isaiah 7) The kingdom of Israel had split in two: The north remained Israel and the south became the kingdom of Judah. The king of Judah, Ahaz, was a very ungodly king. His father and grandfather were both very godly in their reign, so the people of Judah were fearful. One day, the people of Israel and Aram joined forces and declared war on Judah. King Ahaz knew he was no match for these powerful kingdoms. Through Isaiah, God told the people of Judah to remain faithful; that He would take care of them. He also told Ahaz that if he put his faith in Him, God would protect him as well. But Ahaz refused and chose to join forces with Assryia. Isaiah came back to Ahaz one last time and told him that God would give him another chance; God even told Ahaz to test Him. But Ahaz refused again. So God told Ahaz that he would prove it to him. He said, through Isaiah, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (wich means "God with us")(Isaiah 7: 14, NIV). About 400 years later, after Ahaz and Isaiah were long gone, God kept His promise and the virgin Mary gave birth the Jesus Christ. God made a promise to His people, and God kept that promise.

Which brings me to the story at Elevate. It (the video sermon) talked about the 12 words of Christmas and how these words and the Baby were the greatest gift of all.
(We're in Matthew 1 now)
It talked about the day Jesus was born. Most of us think that Chirstmas is a super-happpy-go-lucky time of the year; and for some people, it is. But for others, it can be a very rough time of the year.
For Mary and Joseph, it was a horrible day. It was tax day (which we all know as the worst day of the year. lol). This means that Mary and Joseph had to travel to the city of David. So, they traveled all day (on a donkey, mind you.), were late and no place to stay. I mean, how much worse can your day get than that? So, because they had no where else to go, they stayed in a stable (which was really more like a cave in the side of a mountain; how horrible is that? I mean if I were them, I would be throwing all kinds of fits and praying that my baby did not come that night.). Mary prayed to the Lord that her baby would not come that night, but He did. And Jesus, the savior of the world, was born, right there, in probably the worst conditions and during the worst day possible. But before this, was the story of Ahaz (see above). That was the last time anyone on earth had heard from God. That was a period of 400 years. 400 years!!! That's a really really long time. People began to wonder if God had died, or if He was extremely angry with them. I mean, wouldn't you start to wonder things like that if you hadn't heard from God, in any way, shape or form, for 400 years? But the first sound He made, after so long of a time, was a baby's cry. When I thought about that, I was dumbfounded. The Creator, God of the universe, who created anything and everything, could've come into this world with a loud crash like a hurricane or something HUGE! But instead, He chose to come in quietly, like a snow fall (those metaphors are from Chris Tomlin, btw. THANK YOU CHRIS TOMLIN.). I mean, wow. That humbled me. But that's not all. God made a promise to Ahaz that a virgin would give birth to a boy who would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14) and 400 years later, God kept that promise. "All this took place to fufill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.'" (Matthew 1:22-23, NIV)

I was so humbled that day, and it gave me a completely new outlook on the Christmas story. It's so much more than just a Savior being given to us; it's about God making, AND keeping, His promises to His people. So, please think about that this, and every Christmas season. It's not just about the gifts or Santa or any of that. It's about God keeping His promise that He would be with us (Immanuel = "God with us") to save us from ourselves.

Oh. And the 12 words of Christmas?
"A savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord." (Luke 2:11, NIV)

I pray that you and your famlies have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Blessed New Year.

xoxo
Linds