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Christmas, The Story Continues
by Duane Huffstutler Luke 1:26-38 26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. (KJV) Here it is Christmas Day again another chance to hear the Christmas story. I realize that there are some that may have never heard the Christmas story. Even so the Christmas story would start with the Arch-Angel Gabriel going to the Virgin Mary and telling her that she would be the mother of Jesus the Messiah. And it would then end after the Shepherds and the Wise men came and left. But is that really the end of the story? Is that all that there is to tell about the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? I don't think that the story ends in Bethlehem after the wise men leave, so I want to tell you the rest of the story. The Story actually started before Adam and Eve. It started before Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven for his attempt to take over Heaven. It started even before the angels were created. In fact it started with a conversation between God and Jesus around the beginning of eternity when God was going to create a being that would worship him because they wanted to not because they were created to. So God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost decided that they would created a being and give him a free will so that he could chose to serve them not be forced into serving them. During the conversation they discussed that there would be those that would go against the will of God and commit sin. So God said instead of destroying them if you will do what is required I will give them to you if you want them and will only ask for them. So Jesus asked it is related in Psalms 2:7-9 7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. (KJV) So in the creation of the world God also created a hill that would become known as Golgotha for the sacrifice of His son for the redemption of the sins of mankind. God created a perfect place for this mankind to live. Everything would be perfect, all he would have to do is to listen to what God had to say and obey him. Then Lucifer decided that he would take over heaven and convinced 1/3rd of the angels to go with him in his conquest over God. At that point Lucifer was cast out of heaven like lightning from the sky and he was cast down to earth. At this point mankind then had a choice to serve God and live in his righteousness or to serve Lucifer or Satan and his deceitfulness and sin. So in the time that Lucifer was on the earth he literally destroyed the earth and God through the Holy Ghost remade the earth and all of the surrounding sky called heavens. Then God created mankind and gave him rule over the earth and everything in it. God only had one rule that Adam and Eve had to follow, this rule was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the center of the garden. When they decided to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil they gave to Lucifer the authority that God had given to them and God showed them how to make the blood sacrifice for the covering of sin and then cast them out of the garden so they could not eat from the tree of Life and remain in their sinful state for all eternity. As time went on man continued to sin and God continued to look for one that he could trust with his blessings and love. He found it in Job, Noah, Abraham and the list goes on. It was these people that kept God from destroying the entire world and giving up on mankind. Then one day God sent the Arch Angel Gabriel, God's Personal Messenger, to Mary to tell her that with her permission the Holy Ghost would come upon her and impregnate her with the Messiah. After much thought Mary agreed to the arrangement knowing that she could have been killed for being pregnant prior to the official marriage to Joseph. All Joseph would have had to do was to take her before the counsel and present her as being pregnant and he would have gotten his divorce and she could have been killed for being an adulteress and nothing would have ever been said about it. But instead the Angel came to Joseph and told him what was going on and asked him to take her and keep it all holy. So he did and he never even went into her until the Christ child was born. Then Mary and Joseph had several more children. After Mary gave birth to Jesus in the damp old cave on the backside of Bethlehem The angel announced to the Shepherds just what had happened and they came to see what all the commotion was all about. When they found the Christ-child they bowed to worship him and then went on their way. Then when the wise men who were basically astronomers from Persia, (the other side of Iraq) came some 1 years later Mary and Joseph were still in Bethlehem only they were in a home by that time not still in the stable. These wise men were from the Gentile side of the camp and not Jews. They brought Gold as a worthy present for the King, and it was also to get Mary and Joseph from Bethlehem to Egypt out of Herod's hand to protect the child from being killed. Yes, God could have kept him alive right there in Bethlehem but the prophecy told that the messiah would come out of Egypt. The frankincense was a gift for the anointing of Christ the High Priest. Christ was baptized as the High Priest by John the Baptist prior to going into the wilderness. The Myrrh was presented as a spice for the burial of Christ, which took place 3 years after he started his ministry. So you see there is more to the Christmas story than the birth of Christ. Christ took everything that was thrown at him without a word unless it was from the religious leaders, which he always put in their place. From the time he was taken prisoner, judged before the High priest and Pilate, beaten and crucified then rose again presenting himself unto his people for 40 days and went back to heaven to become our intercessor until now the Christmas story still has not ended. The Christmas story was just the beginning of the redemption story which will not end until we rule and reign with Christ for all eternity. The time from when Christ left the earth until he returns for us in the rapture is a time when we must live by faith that Jesus Christ lived and died for our sins and rose again in Victory over death, hell and the grave. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ and the Grace of God that we will make it through until Christ returns. But this is not the end of the Story Are you ready for his return? Will you be taken in the rapture or are you waiting for the second load? Where will you be during the Tribulation? The Tribulation is not going to be a good place to be. The way I read The Revelation if you had a chance before the rapture and turned it down there is a very good chance you will not make it until Christ sets up his kingdom on the earth. Yes, there will be some saved during the Tribulation but if you had a chance and turned it down it won't be you. Make sure you are ready now because later could be too late. Where will you spend eternity? Duane L. Huffstutler, Written 2011, Faithwriters.com Duane L. Huffstutler is the Sunday School Director at Oak Grove Pentecostal Ministries in Bonifay Florida. All scripture is from the King James Version (1611) Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |