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This is the time of year we set aside to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is with great pleasure that this week’s blog presents the account of the birth of Jesus from Luke 1:26–38; 2:1–20. (You can also click on the link to visit biblegateway.com, where you can select “Listen to this passage” and hear Luke 1 and 2 read aloud.)
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[c] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
“I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
The Birth of Jesus
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Merry Christmas, from the VOCAB, LLC family to yours!
We love our family. Of course, there are times when we disagree with one another, or become disappointed in our loved ones. But when the family bond is strong, the love never ends. My brothers and sisters in Christ—do we ever stop to think about the significance of being "brothers" and "sisters" in Christ? We are family!
Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a large number of family members that I had never met before. As a result, my perception of my family tree suddenly grew exponentially! Not only was I overjoyed to find these long lost relatives—I realized that in an instant, my heart was full of love and appreciation for each and every one of them.
At one point, I had to stop and ask myself: Was the love simply built on the premise of sharing the same last name? Was I genetically predisposed to love these people? Or was it simply the joy that comes with being part of a family?
This really got me to thinking…what if that notion of family was applied to other areas in my life? Take for example, my church family. Do I tell them I love them enough? Do they understand that I appreciate each of them for the talents, strengths, and fellowship that they bring to our place of worship?
And then it extended even farther. What about my work family? Or my community family? Aren’t we all connected in a special way, as well? If I thought of my neighbor as truly my sister or my brother, would I be a little friendlier and more thoughtful toward them? What if my neighbor thought likewise of me?
I really started getting excited about this thing, and then I realized—DUH!—that’s what God has been trying to tell us all along! Matthew 25:34–40 tells of the day that Jesus returns and gathers those who belong to Him. As He calls them, He mentions that they were faithful in showing their love to Him. How? By loving others! God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, so that WE may be part of the inheritance of His kingdom.
I’m so honored to be part of the family of God and I want to show it with a loving spirit toward all of God’s children!
“You have to do more with less!”
“We’re short-staffed, but we need you to produce twice as much!”
An interesting ramification of our current economic recession is the demand that’s being placed on the average worker. Many of those who were fortunate enough to avoid the axe of massive job cuts, are wondering if they were fortunate at all—now with longer hours, no increase in pay, and less satisfaction in the workplace.
“Due to the economic recession…” is a phrase that seems to be uttered quite regularly these days. In the workplace, it’s often used as justification for stripping away even the basic niceties that workers have become used to. And it’s leveraged as a threat against those who feel that they can do better elsewhere: “Due to the economic recession…no one else is hiring!”
But there is hope. While dealing with my own struggles in the workplace, I was led to Exodus 5. In this passage of scripture, Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh to petition for the release of the Israelites. Outraged by the request, Pharaoh sets forth an impossible ordinance: the Israelite slave workers were to continue making their allotment of bricks every day, but they were to do so by gathering their own straw for the bricks. (Basically forcing them to do twice as much with fewer resources.) Upon falling short, the workers were beaten mercilessly.
What I found most interesting about this scenario were the words of Pharaoh in verse 9, “Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” Those “lies” that Pharaoh referred to were the petitions of Moses and Aaron on behalf of the Lord to, “Let My people go!” Pharaoh believed that with an oppressive burden of work on their shoulders, the Israelites would turn away from the Word of God.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, during these “hard economic times” have we become so burdened in the workplace that we have turned away from the Word of God? Are we becoming frustrated, depressed, and agitated or are we still leaning on His promises that we are the head and not the tail? Do we still believe that we are more than conquerors? Are we trusting in Him with all our heart and leaning not to our own understanding?
In the NIV version of the Bible, toward the end of Exodus 5, there is a header that precedes verse 22. That header reads, “God promises deliverance.” And as chapter 5 transitions into Exodus 6, the Lord promises to remove His people from their oppressive yoke.
Let’s not be like the Israelites who became discouraged and disgruntled in their oppression. Let’s rejoice and give God praise in advance for His deliverance!
