GET TOGETHER- The Perfect Christmas
Mt 2:1 ¶ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'” Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.” When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” 14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
There have been stories written, movies, and plays produced for many years that feature characters looking for the perfect Christmas. I won’t take the time to name them all, but J.J. and I watched one the other night and it seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong with the main character in the movie’s search for a perfect Christmas. Before I go any further we are praying for you and for ourselves that we will have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and most important celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at that first Christmas. We know that perfection came down from Heaven to earth that night in Bethlehem when the Incarnate God came to earth, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And yet we can look and see that although the greatest event that had taken place in human history was taking place in Bethlehem it was not the perfect Christmas. Let us look at a few things that were going on that certainly would attempt to hinder this from being what we would call a perfect Christmas.
We see a wicked political leader concerned and worried that another King is coming to take His place. When we were in our sinful estate we liked being our own King and Queens. There are political leaders today that are power hungry and that deny that there is an eternal King that sits on the throne of Heaven. We need to pray for them to receive the mercy that we have received. We see some religious leaders that later on down the line some of which would align themselves with wicked political leaders to conspire to crucify the child that was born in Bethlehem.
We see a family rather than going home from the hospital with a pretty blue ribbon exclaiming “it’s a boy” running to another country to survive. And then we have a Mother that after giving birth to the Christ child has a lot of heavy things to ponder on the trip down to Egypt : Lu 2:19 “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Certainly, she would think back on this first Christmas at another very significant day in salvation history: Joh 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. She would see her son the Babe that was born in a manger nailed to an ugly wooden Roman cross that was reserved for the lowest of the low.
And because of what took place on that day we will one day celebrate the perfect Christmas. The Book of Revelation gives us some insight to the perfect Christmas Re 15:3 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!
Again, as I said earlier we are expecting to have an enjoyable Christmas. We will enjoy our family being together. We will pray for those who won’t have their family members with them. We will worship the Lord with a Christmas Eve Celebration of Holy Communion. We will remember those Christians that are being persecuted in other parts of the world. We will celebrate the Lord’s birth here this Sunday on Christmas morning. And we will be praying about the plans that He has for us to advance the Kingdom in 2017.
But most of all we are looking forward to that perfect Christmas when we will reunite with our loved ones and be with the Lord forever and ever! I think that I will finish this and you tube up Handel’s Hallelujah chorus. You might want to do that yourself. Get practiced up. You don’t have to wait until you get there. I am so looking forward to singing that song one day in the presence of Jesus as we celebrate The Perfect Christmas with all of the saints that have gone before us! Would you shout Hallelujah to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus we thank You for every Christmas that we have experienced here on this earth. We thank you for the ones when we have had a love one go be with You during this time of the year. We thank You for the challenges that we have faced during various Christmas Seasons . We thank you that You always come through. We thank You most of all that You walk with us daily and that we will live and reign with You forever and ever! Hallelujah!
Amen
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!
We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and people that love us. God bless you all. We love you all with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Your Friends and kinfolks
Preston and J.J.
