A Christmas Gift for All Eternity

December 19, 2016

A Christmas Gift for All Eternity

“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her,

“for you have found favor with God!

Luke 1:30

The beginning of Luke’s Christmas story (Luke 1:26-38) is in many ways the very heart of the Christian movement. The angel Gabriel announces to Mary that even though she is a virgin, she will become pregnant, and her child will be God’s Messiah, the Savior of the world. Many, many people stumble over these words. Luke recorded something too far-fetched for modern minds to accept, too far removed from established scientific fact, and many, many people dismiss the story as having any meaningful, relevant application to life.

Perhaps this is the reason why in the New Testament, outside of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the miraculous nature of Jesus’ birth is not mentioned. The Apostle Paul chose to go in another direction to announce that Jesus is God’s Messiah, the Savior of the world: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

It would seem the Bible has put us between a rock and a hard place. Does faith that the Bible is relevant to our life come from believing in the virgin birth of Jesus, or in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? Actually, I have never met a person who said they first came to faith in God by believing the Christmas Story, but I have met thousands who say they first came to faith in God by believing the Resurrection Story. Through our faith in the resurrection of Jesus, we can receive the Christmas Story as a gift from God, affirming to us that the Resurrected Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Now that’s a Christmas gift that will last a lifetime, and for all eternity.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.