Within less than a week, we will be celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He came to this earth as a helpless infant. He lived among us and suffered with us. He also celebrated along with us and experienced the same joys and sorrows that all of us do.
Isn’t it amazing that the Son of God, who was also God himself, would choose to be just like us for a lifetime that was cut short because of the evilness of mankind?
He could have come, as he will in due time, as a conquering God. But he didn’t.
If he had, mankind would have been doomed to eternal separation from God. You see, not one of us was good enough, holy enough, whatever enough to look upon the face of God and live.
Our sin made us unacceptable to a righteous and holy God. He could not have sin in his presence, so man would never again, as Adam and Eve had, have God the Father, living among us.
So Jesus, who was the sacrificial Lamb of God, came to rescue us from sin. He took our sins and exchanged them for his sinlessness. Again, what kind of God would be willing to live and die for his own creation?
There is only one and his name is Jesus.
One day, as a born-again Christian, I will see Jesus face to face. As with all others who will be there, I will thank him and call him my Lord and Savior.
I didn’t do anything extraordinary to be one of the group who will be in heaven one day. All I did was accept that Jesus lived and died, as God and man at the same time, to bring his salvation to the Earth. I asked him to exchange my sins for his pardon and I asked him to guide me for the rest of my life.
The pardon is available for everyone. That means you, too. Jesus is there and waiting so patiently for you, with love and forgiveness. The choice is yours. You can choose to live eternally or to die eternally. No one else can make this choice for you.
Luke 2:1-20
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.