Maineville Lighthouse Church

 

I was thinking…Pastor Steve

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“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the

LORD been revealed?  He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and

like a root out of dry ground.  He had no beauty or majesty to attract

us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." 

Isaiah 53: 1, 2  (NIV)

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      Can you imagine nothing particularly significant about Jesus?  The Son of God, One in the Trinity...and nothing stands out about Him?  Unreal.  But there are a lot of things that are unreal.  Like how He healed people and no one made the connection that He was God!  Oh, sure, there were some fishermen who kinda got it, but even they were confused, to say the least.

 

      So, why do we come down on people today who reject Jesus?  They are doing what many people have done over the centuries.  I know, I know, we have the Truth, the Word of God, that helps reveal Him to us.  And don’t forget about the Holy Spirit.  He also helps open our eyes, ears, and hearts to Jesus.  I guess when you’ve been a Christian for awhile, you can forget what it was like before you accepted Christ (B.C.).

 

      Not only is His birth a marker in time and a placeholder to all recorded history, but He has a considerable impact on our history as well.  If it wasn’t for Jesus, well, we wouldn’t be here.  We wouldn’t be in church, in a fellowship of Believers, worshiping God, singing praises to the Lord, praying to the Father, or reading this newsletter.  Jesus has changed our lives, and I believe for the better.

 

      Even if we are persecuted, like they were in the latter part of the 1st Century or in the Middle East and China today, we have the promise of a resurrected life, a life that will be even better than this one.  That’s really hard to imagine.  I think it was Dick Cheney who said, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”  Amen.  We’ve got some glimpses of what it will be like.  Jesus has told us a little bit, and His Apostle, John, was told a bit more, but much of it was imagery and symbolism.  However, from the way it reads, it sounds like it will be wonderful for those of us who have submitted to His Lordship.

 

      What do you want for Christmas?  For more of our families to come to Jesus, for the nations to find peace in following Jesus, for His healing hand to be upon those who suffer cancer, starvation, homelessness, and for His Spirit to rest with those who struggle with loneliness and despair.

 

      When we celebrate the birth of Christ, we are celebrating the hope for the world and the promise of love from the God who created everything, including us.  We are cheering for the light that shines in the darkness and the Word who is from time immortal.  He is invisible and non-descript to those who don’t know Him.  Nonetheless, for those who do know Him, He is bigger than life itself and the stars in Heaven.  He is Immanuel, God with us.  He is the One Isaiah wrote about in verse 5 in the chapter above: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

 

      Remember that as you sing about this baby, Jesus, this year.  No one noticed, yet He became the focal point of all time and even a big part of our history.  God bless and have a Merry Christmas.