24/12/2021
CHRISTMAS is a time of blessing and FALLOUT!
Many of you reading this will have had some bad experiences at Christmas time. You hear the song playing in the shops “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”… Yeah Ok...Not for everyone it’s not. Some of us lost a loved one who we would give anything to have at the Christmas table. Some have worries about meeting up with people who don’t act or talk like they should. Some love a big mob getting together and other’s, not so much. We are under pressure to buy and cook and clean and visit and sometimes there’s just not enough PEACE ON EARTH and GOODWILL toward men, like the angel said there would be.
Why not? Well sin’s damage still exists today. Wrong values and priorities often arrive with the ‘festive season’. Most want to eat drink and be merrily eating and drinking some more. Is that something you can relate too? How did it ever come to this; from the manger in Bethlehem where the KING of KINGS was born outside of the safety of even a house to enter this world? Christmas today—where Jesus is not front and centre of anyone’s thoughts (as He should be all year long.)
If Christ is ‘misplaced’ at Christmas the wise men were looking for the wrong child, the shepherd’s had a hallucination, the myriad of angels were making up a song without any meaning and worst of all—you and I are still in our sins. Isaiah shot an arrow of prophecy accurately to a time and place over 600 yrs. into the future that landed like the Star of Bethlehem pointing to the place where we would find the PRINCE of PEACE, the Saviour of the world. What an amazing thing for him to see and to say.
His people were doing it tough. They were in exile, persecuted, displaced from their home country, and worst of all drifting from God. He promised dark days ahead. Trouble for the people of the Lord who has long since stopped listening to Him. In the middle of all of that he saw the most amazing revelation which we celebrate this time of the year. Is. 9:2 -The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Enter Jesus our Saviour, our rescuer, our friend.
Is. 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. What a blessing! What a gift! Life forevermore!
I wish you all a truly blessed Christmas with Him. What is it without Him anyway? Ps. Tony Riches
