Going back to Adam and Eve, God had always spoken to mankind. How wonderful it must have been as He walked in Garden of Eden with them. Can you hear Him laughing with them as they walked and talked? Throughout the Old Testament times He communicated through the Jews. He loved them and often let them know that He wanted to care for them. God’s desire was to have a loving relationship with them. He wanted them to obey him and to be close to Him so He could protect them…He, being a loving parent. Since mankind’s original sin by Adam and Eve, man has had an inherited fallen nature (prone to sin). God would be served for a time, but then rebelled against. This rebellion was a rejection of God and His ways. God would then release them as they had wanted. Therefore the troubles that happened to them were really what happens when we want to be free from God. It also means being free from His protection and blessings. Overwhelmed by troubles, they would repent and call out to God. God, in His great love, He forgave them and restored their blessings. Then they would reject Him again. Rejection, repentance and forgiveness was the often repeated pattern. Then, for about 400 years, God was silent and didn’t speak to the Jews. They felt abandoned and they wondered “Where is God?” They cried out to God “Oh Lord, how long will you not hear our cries and not speak to us?” How desperate they must have felt! How alone in their worries. But He had promised He would send the Messiah and Savior to the Jew, and to all people. God does not forget His promises
True to His word, God sent a messenger to the world to prepare the way for Jesus. John the Baptist’s mission was to bring light to our world to let all mankind know that everyone needs the Messiah to have peace between them and God. John paved the way for Jesus. God had answered the Jew’s prayers and a prophet was sent to again give them God’s message.
The earliest prophecies of Jesus (hundreds of prophecies in total) were over 2,000 years before His birth. Some prophecies so precise they depicted His birth, lineage, place of birth, what He would do, who would betray Him, how much His betrayer would be paid, where Jesus would die, how He would be killed and thankfully, why He would come and what He would accomplish.
Jesus lived a humble life. God didn’t bring His Son to live in a palace, but among the humble. He never sinned. He loved people with simple and honest souls. He also loved those with sin upon sin heaped up in their lives. He so desired to lead them back to the loving relationship He had shared with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He came to provide a peace between God and fallen mankind. He taught about Godly love and wisdom, He released the imprisoned from their individual prisons, Jesus healed them and provided for them. He was, and is, the embodiment of God’s love toward mankind. That peace He brought to mankind is offered through Jesus’ sacrifice and brings mankind to eternal peace and salvation. As He died on the cross for the sins of all mankind, know that His sacrifice was also a personal one for you.
In your bible read about the miracle of how Jesus came into this world, the book of Luke, chapters 1-3. If you don’t have a bible, google Luke 1-3. It’s all there, it’s all miraculous. it was all predicted too far ahead of it actually happening to be a lucky guess. Jesus, on purpose, came, died, and was resurrected that we may be part of God’s family today and live in eternal security with God forever. Surely God has loved us and reaches out to all. He is The Answer.
Jesus indeed, and beyond measure, is the reason for the season.
IHS 12/23/12
by Bob withSometimes, seeing it, I weep
Other times I wail and cry
Seeing horror and atrocities
Committed by mankind
I am wounded deep in my soul
A howl begins deep in my spirit
Beginning from Eternity,
Rushing through my spirit
Like hurricane winds through a house
With open doors
Oh my but the pain is overwhelming
From Eternity to my spirit
Racing through my heart
Screaming in pain and anguish
It bursts forth from me
Powerless am I to hold it back
Stronger it grows as I realize
What I saw is what I see rarely
Great pain is on me as I realize
My loving God sees this everyday
Untold many times
Throughout the world
He sees what we do
To each other
Oh His pain
Knowing this
Tortures me as the thought
Rushes through me and
Scrapes the walls of my spirit
As it rips at me
I hurt deeply that my God
Sees such things
And still loves
Intensifying the pain
Is that He has seen me
Be the monster.
Soon the rushing pain is gone
What remains is eternal
Grace and love from God
As He sees the horrors
He gives His peace and joy
My soul is at rest
In Him, I find my rest
Praise God Always and Forever
IHS 12-4-12
by Bob withPsalm 126:5-6 – 5 Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. 6 Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.
In times of sorrow and grief, when our hearts overflow with deep hurt, we must keep striving to draw near to God and to please Him. We are not forgotten. Jesus knows those who are His and He has unending compassion for us as His eyes never leave us. He sees every tear that flows from our eyes. Though we suffer without knowing why, we cling to what we do know. We know that God is good infinitely good. We know that God does not change. Therefore we know that always He loves us and always His eyes are upon us. So, during times of grief, we cling to Him and we don’t stop striving to please Him, but instead we dig in deeper to hold tighter. We have sorrow today, but as we cling to our great God, He shall give us a joy that cannot be taken from us. This offer begins in this world and builds to perfection as we live forever with our God. Praise God who has Himself assured us.
Psalm 147:11 – the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Revelation 7:17 – For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
IHS 12/2/12
by Bob with