Sunday, December 23, 2007

Expect the Unexpected.

In a couple days it will be Christmas, and when I think about the real meaning of this day, I become awestruck.

In the days of Christ's birth, the Israelites were under Roman oppression. They kept watching and hoping for the Messiah, but what they expected in the Messiah was not what they got.

They expected Him to come save them from oppression in a blaze of glory. They expected Him to be a mighty warrior who would lead them into victorious battle against their oppressors.

What they got, what we got was a little baby. A baby born in a lowly manner, to a young girl, and laid in a manger. He wasn't born in a palace surrounded by riches and servants.

Jesus did come to save us from oppression, but not the kind of oppression that the Israelites suffered, it wasn't our physical bodies that He came to save, it was our very souls. He came to save us from the oppression of sin.

Sin which separates us from God.

He came to save us from eternal death.

He came to free us from oppression of the soul, so we can enjoy true freedom under the banner of God's love.

From His lowly birth to His gruesome death, He accomplished His goal, and it wasn't in the manner that we as humans would have expected from God.

He didn't send a soldier, He sent a Shepherd,
He didn't send a rich man, He sent a poor man,
He didn't send a powerful man, He sent a merciful man,
He didn't come to destroy, but to heal,
He didn't come to condemn, but to redeem,
He was born so that He would die,
He died, so that we may live.




A Strange Way To Save The World


Two thousand years ago, there was no room in the inn for Him, but there is room in our hearts if we just let Him in.