12-25-2015

Good Morning All!!   Merry Christmas!!         

        John 1:14; “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

     Have you ever met someone famous, someone that you were in awe of?  How did you do?  Were you tongue tied, did you stumble and stammer, did you hide or run away?  These are often the responses, especially if the meeting is unexpected.  All of a sudden there they are and now what do you do?  We get that way around famous or even people who we view as powerful.  That might just be the president of the company that you work for or maybe a Lt. Colonel when you are a buck private.  In any event, we tend to tremble and stammer our way through.  These people often seem unapproachable to us, as if they live on a different plane or socio-status level.  We feel unworthy and ill at ease when they are around.

    The Bible has some of the same stories.  In almost every case of an angel visiting a human, they start ever visit with the phrase,” Fear not!” I supposed that helped but an angel showing up would tend to frighten anyone and cause them to fall to the floor in terror.  Seeing God is even more fearsome.  No one who sees God will live.  Even when Moses was on Mount Sinai, God shielded Moses’ eyes when God passed by so Moses only saw God’s backside as he passed.  You couldn’t even be in God’s presence.  When the Ark of the Covenant was being moved, it started to fall; a man caught it and died right there on the spot for touching the Ark.  The Altar of God was hidden by a thick cloth curtain that was only entered by the high priest once a year.

    Yet God changed all that.  God wanted to return man back to the walks in the cool of the morning like God and Adam had before the fall into sin.  In order for this to happen, we have to be sinless. So God sent Jesus, in the nature and being of a man, to take our place and pay our debt so we could walk with God in the cool of the morning and have that sacred conversation like Adam did.  Jesus became flesh and lived among us.  We saw his face, his hair, and his dirty feet from walking; all this we saw and it was God whom we saw.  God became approachable and still is today.  Because he loves us, he made it so we could approach him.  In Jesus, we are holy and righteous and can stand before him in his presence.  We are his children.  

    That is why Jesus came in flesh, in human form, so that we can be holy and now call upon God as our father.  We can come to him anytime of any day with our fears and our joys, our sorrows and our laughter, our burdens and our delights.  God is our Father who loves us and calls his own.  He restores us with his sacrifice which is complete for us.  Jesus came in humility to pay our debt.  When he returns it will be in majesty to rule over all.

 Father, we come to you Abba, seeking your mercy which already overwhelms us.  Keep us safe in your protective arms as we behold your glory through the grace we receive.  Guard us this day so that we may go forth in your name.  Be with those who are suffering or hurting.  Give them your comfort.  Bring peace to all.  In the Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret