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Paul says we Christians are running a race. Here's what I'm looking at on my run toward Christ.

Monday, December 22, 2014

5 Christmas Miracles

Christmas is almost here!  This phrase sounds tired and worn but it's often true, in the hustle and bustle of the season we often forget the true meaning of Christmas.  I have to fight hard to get more enjoyment from Jesus at Christmas than I do from all of the other "stuff" of the holiday.  To stay focused on Christ at Christmas I find it best to be like the shepherds in the familiar story, to be in awe and wonder.

Below are five miracles of Christmas to help us be in awe and wonder this year.

1) The Infinite in the Infant
Think about this: God is infinite.  He has no beginning nor end.  He always was and never wasn't and will never stop existing.  He is infinite in all qualities including size and power, yet Jesus was born a baby.  This is what many Jews in the First Century found so unbelievable about the Jesus story and I don't blame them.  This idea of Christianity is mindblowingly incomprehensible.  It is a mystery to the nth degree.  Christians, while we must believe that our Infinite God became a human infant we can't find this fact understandable.  We are to be in awe of this because it is a miracle.  For more on this idea check out a previous blog post I wrote on the subject.

2) Jesus Was Obedient to Human Parents
"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death... even death on a cross." Philippians 2:6-8

Jesus was obedient to God the Father even to death on a cross, but Jesus was also obedient to His earthly parents, parents He made and held together by the power of His word!  Jesus humbled Himself to be obedient to imperfect human parents.  If Jesus can do it so should we.  Imagine the Lord of all the Universe taking orders and instruction from a carpenter and a teenage mother.  That is obedience and humility at a miraculous level.

3) The Perfect God Faced Temptation
"For God cannot be tempted by evil..." James 1:13

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are... yet was without sin." Hebrews 4:15

My wife was recently in awe by a comment my dad made in a sermon.  Dad said Jesus chose not to sin.  She had never even thought about that and it left her in awe thinking about the daily battle with sin that Jesus fought and won.  I don't know exactly how this works but because Jesus is fully God He cannot sin, yet He chose to become fully human and allow Himself to be tempted to sin.  Remember His time in the desert with Satan?  Jesus was tempted.  It says it in black and white yet He daily chose not to sin.  The Perfect God chose to face the struggle of temptation and I'm sure He got everything the Devil could throw at Him and yet He chose at every moment of His life not to sin.  This is awe inspiring because I have trouble not sinning for an hour!

4) God Came to be With Us
This is so incredible.  Let's remember one of God's interactions with Moses.

"Then Moses said, 'Now show me Your glory."
And the LORD said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My Name, the LORD, in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  'But,' He said, 'you cannot see my face, for no one may see Me and live." Exodus 33:18-20

As the story continues Moses hides in the cleft of the rock as God passes by and he sees the back of God.  No one sees God and lives.  Throughout the Old Testament people do not see God for fear of dying in the light of His glory.

But Jesus can say: "...Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father..."  John 14:9

And Paul says: "He is the image of the invisible God..." Colossians 1:15

Jesus was God with us and when Jesus ascended He gave us the Holy Spirit who is God with us.  This is a miracle considering that we had absolutely no way to see God or be in His direct presence until the miracle of Jesus.  Emanuel, God with us, is amazing to consider.

5) Salvation Has Come to the World!
"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 the Lord."  Luke 2:10-12

Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection brought salvation to the world.  There is no Easter without the miracle of Christmas.  God elected to perform the most precious, valuable miracle in my life through Jesus and He chose to begin that miracle in a young girl's womb.  Awe and wonder indeed!  And here's more good news... that miracle is available for you to accept in your life today!

Be in awe and wonder of these five miracles of Christmas, but don't stop there.  Comment with other miracles of Christmas if you'd like and by all means celebrate the miracle of Christmas today.

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