ADVENT: Dec. 15

Read Matthew 1:18-25  Key Verse: "Behold, a virgin will conceive a child.  She will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, which 'God with us.'" (Matt. 1:23)


"How can this be?"

I think it was Billy Graham who said that he was in India watching some road construction.  He noticed an ant hill that was about to be destroyed by the bulldozer.  He thought about the imminent doom of those ants and said to himself, "if I could just become an ant I could warn them and help them."  Like those ants, we are a people facing destruction.   Because of our rebellion, we are doomed to an eternal hell.  God knows our fate and wants us to enjoy eternal life with Him, so He sent His Son to "seek and to save those who are lost."   He came to be with us and save us.


Mary wondered how it could happen.   Joseph, no doubt, felt the same.   The angel spoke to him in a dream and said, in effect, that it was possible because of God's activity.  This child would be called Immanuel which means "God with us."   The LORD has always been involved in His creation.  The writer to the Hebrews says that Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways through the prophets, but now He has spoken to us through His Son who is an exact duplicate of God.(Heb. 1:1-3)  The LORD has always been involved, but His most decisive move was when He came in Jesus Christ.   The angel told Joseph that Mary's pregnancy was of the Holy Spirit.  It was a God-thing.
Today God is with us through that same Holy Spirit, who is Himself God.   I hope you have settled things with God and have a personal and eternal relationship with Him.   You may have the sweet by and by settled, but what about the nasty now and now!   Everything may be going OK now, but what lies around the corner.?  Is there a bulldozer headed your way that maybe you don't see?   Trust God's activity in your life through His Holy Spirit.  He is the same God that spoke to Mary and Joseph.  He is the same God who spoke to a lost world in His Son, Jesus.  He is the same God who will come to you in your time of need.


"We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell;  O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel."