Category: Spiritual

December 25^th is Christmas! All around the world someone somewhere will celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God. Isaiah prophesied that the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel literally means God with us. This prophecy came to pass in several New Testament passages of Scripture. Two of them are Luke 1:34-35 and John 1:14. “³⁴Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man? ³⁵And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” John said, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God with us was promised, and it was fulfilled about seven centuries later at the birth of Jesus. God has done what He promised; it is now up to us to accept it.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God’s great and dearly prized love for His fallen creatures was the reason for His plan of salvation. “His only begotten Son” was the Savior He promised to send to save us from our sins. God Almighty is merciful, and all are invite to freely accept or reject His Son. All who believe, trust in, and rely on His Son Jesus Christ are promised to never perish but have everlasting life.

Have you made the personal decision to freely accept by faith God’s glorious gift of salvation? Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, and it may be yours also. Consider how awesome it would be for Christmas to become your spiritual birthday! Then you will understand its true meaning. He is knocking on the door of your heart right now. Will you welcome Him in and sup with Him?

Isaiah 11:1-2, NKJV

In chapter 6:9-13 God sent Isaiah to proclaim His divine message of judgment against Judah. They were persistently rebellious and hard hearted. God told Isaiah to tell them that they will hear but won’t listen. They refused to repent; therefore, God’s patience ran out. He used the Assyrians to invade Judah and the Babylonians to carry many into captivity to bring judgment against them (the Southern Kingdom). Still God was merciful and saved a small faithful remnant of Judah. God’s plan never fails. He made a royal covenant with David, the son of Jesse, and it would be fulfilled. In God’s appointed time the Messiah would arise from David’s house. Not only is God merciful, but He is just. After using the Assyrians as His instrument to punish His ungrateful people, He would punish the Assyrians and Babylonians. “³³ Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will lop off the bough with terror; those of high stature will be hewn down, and the haughty will be humbled. ³⁴ He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One” (Isaiah 10:33-34, NKJV). Because of Assyria’s haughty attitude and cruel treatment of Judah, God would bring them down like a great cedar tree.

Isaiah 11:1 begins with the prophet declaring that a Rod, or Shoot, will come forth from the stem, or stock, of Jesse, and a Branch will grow out of his roots and be fruitful. That small faithful remnant of followers is symbolic of new life springing forth from “a massive terebinth tree or an oak whose stump remains when it is chopped down. The holy seed [the elect remnant] is its stump [the substance of Israel]” (Isaiah 6:13b, AMP). Isaiah continued: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (v.2).

The Messiah will bear fruit and the Spirit will empower him. Matthew Henry’s Commentary says that being empowered by the Holy Spirit he will know how to administer the affair of his spiritual kingdom and to the welfare of men. We too must be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the Lord’s work.

Hebrews 7:22-28

The law or old covenant (testament) was never intended to redeem mankind. It was to awaken man’s conscious to sin and “bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” After faith came, we were liberated from the law (Galatians 3:24-25).  How blessed we are to be living under the new covenant of which Jesus has been appointed by God as the superior priest! This covenant is better than the old because “Jesus has become the certain guarantee of a better covenant that will never be replaced or annulled” (v.22, AMP).  Unlike all the many priests before Jesus, he will never die, and his priesthood will never change. It is promised that as our everlasting high priest and intercessor he is able to completely save all those who come to God through Him.  Only Jesus is fit for such a High Priest for us. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and is exalted higher than the heavens (vv. 23-26).

Jesus does not need daily to offer up sacrifices as those priests before him. He did it once for all when He willingly offered up Himself as a sacrifice. Those priests offered animal sacrifices, first for their own sins, and then for the people’s. On the other hand, Jesus was sinless; therefore, he only is God’s perfect one-time sacrifice for the people’s sins (v.27). So through Christ Jesus we are commanded to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name (13:15). To offer the sacrifice of praise of our lips is pleasing to God. Under the law, men appointed as high priests are weak, sinful, and dying. However, the word of the word of oath came after the law, and permanently appointed the Son high priest (v.28).

The imperfection of the old covenant couldn’t redeem mankind so Jesus had to die. He was the perfect sacrifice and willingly paid the ultimate price of death for our redemption. If you have not already, will you accept God’s free gift of salvation today? How perfect it is!

Colossians 3:12-14, NKJV

The family is the oldest institution ordained by God. On the sixth day of creation, God concluded His magnificent work by making man in His own image – “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26a). “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). Then God blessed them, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply…” (Genesis 1:28a). We are blessed to have been made in God’s image, and our families are to reflect that. He gave us a mind, a will, emotions, and the freedom to manifest a spiritual life through the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). When families stay together, it usually demonstrates their obedience to God’s purpose and good pleasure for their lives and not their own selfish purposes. The family belongs to God; therefore, families that stay together love one another. We may try to live independent of Him, and therein is the problem. Living outside of God is selfish and causes division from which families may never recover. There’s no perfect family because each member has his or her own personality. However, families that “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33a) do learn to maintain unity.

We are commanded as “His elect, holy and beloved,” to reflect the character of the new man. “Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering, or patience” (v.12). We must do all we can to live a life that reflects godliness.  Having patience with each other helps us to endure some things when we don’t want to. Families sometimes have strong disagreements with one another, but we are to bear graciously with one another, and willingly forgive one another just as Christ forgave us (v.13). We don’t give up on family. “Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love; it is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others]” (Colossians 3:12-14, AMP, paraphrased).

Remember, our relationship with Him is a holy union through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. John 13:34-35 commands that we love one another. Give God glory for families that stay together love one another.

Families are very important to God because we are the crown of His creation. He chose us for His purpose and good pleasure; therefore, we can’t go whoring after other gods, especially those who have accepted Him as their savior. We are His family and are to have no other gods before Him; He is jealous and wants our undivided loyalty. Our relationship with Him is a holy union through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. The prophet Hosea told the Israelites God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6a). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7a). Families that stay together love one another because they fear God.

Children of God must dare to be different from the world and not forget the Lord. Families that stay together love one another because they remember that the Lord has been so good to them. Love is powerful; it is why the only true and living God sustains us. In Deuteronomy 6:4-5 He commanded us to love Him with our whole being. If families could love Him whom they had never seen, they could love one another.

At the last Passover Jesus gave his disciples a renewed commandment – “that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). This is his expectation for his family even with all of its diversity. In Leviticus 19:18 God commanded Israel, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Love is a resolute factor in showing who we are and whose we are. Jesus said that you are to love one another as I have loved you. Families should have the mind of unselfishness that was in Christ. He humbled himself, took on the likeness of man, and obeyed God, giving his life on the cross (Philippians 2:5-8, paraphrased). Families that stay together love one another because they are unselfish and show others that they are Christ’s disciples. So come on families. Let the fear of God manifest in our lives. Remember His kindness. Give Him thanks for being unselfish.