GOD WITH US CHRISTMAS STORY

THE GOD WITH US CHRISTMAS STORY

God spoke to a man called Abraham two thousand years before Jesus was born a word of promise that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed, and the Hebrew nation that came from Abraham and that prophetic word of promise became the light that directed the path of the Hebrews.  That nation of Israel became the witness of God to the world through the covenant of the Law of Moses who established the temple worship and the temple priesthood. But for four hundred years before Jesus was born the light of the prophetic word to Israel and the supernatural witness of God through Israel to the world had ceased, resulting in a time of silence and darkness. 
But God was about to give both his light and his Word of the promise of blessing to the world in the most perfect way. Jesus who was and is the Word (logos) of God would become flesh and dwell with us and would become the light of truth and the supernatural witness of God to this world through his Son Jesus.

Father would send a divine seed of life from heaven, and He had chosen a young woman called Mary to receive that seed, which was to contain the full genetic potency of God’s love and goodness and truth, and he sent the angel Gabrielle to announce this amazing news to her. Mary was told by the angel that she had been chosen amongst all women on the earth to give birth to a child who was to be 'God with Us’ (Emmanuel), and that she was to call him Jesus. The Holy Spirit would shine his life over her and divine life from heaven would come alive in her womb, even though she was a virgin. 

The Angel also visited Joseph in a dream and told him that Mary, to whom Joseph was betrothed, had been chosen by God to give birth to a son, and that this was to be a divine work of The Holy Spirit who would cause a holy life to ignite within her being, fulfilling a prophecy in the Scriptures with which Joseph was familiar ‘A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and his name will mean ‘God with us’ (Isaiah 7:14). 
The angel also told Joseph to go ahead with the marriage, and when Joseph awoke from his sleep he did as the Angel had commanded him.

In the meantime it came into the heart of Caesar Augustus to do a census and register every person in the known world. Everyone had to go to their place of birth to be registered, so Joseph had to take Mary back to Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. 
Micah 5:2. "O Bethlehem, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!" God will allow the time to pass until she who is to give birth has her son. And he shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord… and he will be greatly honoured throughout the world. He will be our Peace.
Joseph and Mary went to the right place at the right time for the birth of Jesus, fulfilling that seven hundred year old prophesy of his birthplace.

Joseph walked beside the donkey that carried his wife. He was getting weary and the journey was tiresome for Mary and he knew he had to get her to the place of his family’s household and stay in a guest-room, which was the custom. He had to get Mary out of the cold, as the time was getting close for her to give birth. They finally arrived at the family home where they were warmly welcomed and invited inside, but the house was overcrowded, and all the guestrooms were occupied. 
The word for guestroom in the Bible is kataluma, and this is the word for ‘Inn’, as in Luke 2:7 which states that ‘There was no room at the Inn’. But we are not talking about two travellers trying to book into a local tavern that had already filled its quota in a busy season (there is no ‘innkeeper’ in the Bible), and they did not have to go and look for a stable in some field up the road. What the story is saying is that Joseph and his wife would have to stay in the customary stable of the family home downstairs, that warm place where the animals slept and fed. 
Joseph settled Mary as quickly and gently as he could.  A mother travailed and a baby cried its cry of shock as it entered the world. The smile upon Father’s face in heaven was echoed by Joseph in the earth and became a laugh of joy, as he took on the privileged role of being the child’s earthly father. 
On earth it was the familiar scene of new birth. In the universe it was the most awesome supernatural birth in history. It was also ordained that this birth would become the most celebrated event for all time, celebrated annually by millions upon billions down through the ages, many of whom had no idea why or what they were really celebrating.
Nearby, where shepherds were looking after their sheep upon the hills a huge shining star having reached its zenith was lighting up the entire night sky. The shepherds looked up in wonder at this light and suddenly the lights of shining angels dazzled them and they became terrified and ran and huddled together. 
The Angel appeared above them, sent to tell them of the birth of Jesus. He told them not to be afraid, and that he had great and marvellous news for them, for all the world to hear. He told them that they would find a child, the newborn king of the universe, God the Saviour, wrapped in simple clothing in a nearby stable. Suddenly the angel was joined by a multitude of other angels as the brilliant night sky resounded with their voices singing, and they listened enraptured at the magnificent words. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward Mankind (Anthropos)!" 
When the singing had stopped, and the angels had left, the shepherds found the place where this extraordinary event was taking place in the earth, and these simple shepherds became the messengers to the world of the birth of this child, this king of kings, and all who heard them were astounded and amazed.

Father had always planned for his son to bring forth a new Spiritual species of Mankind into the earth. Humanity has been known as ‘Homo Sapiens’ (Mankind + wisdom). But we could as it were, call this new species that had just come into being ‘homo Divinicus’ (Mankind + God) – God with us.
Now was the time for Jesus to become the pain of what human life had become, and to walk the path of its sorrow and its lost hope.  Jesus would lift Mankind as his brothers and sisters, into a place of shared friendship with The Three in One God. 
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (apollymi – lose life, be penalised, mar, destroy, or waste life), but have everlasting life (take hold of his life within their inner being). For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn (penalise) the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16).
The condemnation (penalty) is living with the consequences of our wrong and harmful ways. Inner unbelief leads to outer wrongdoing.
John said ‘the light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were wrong and harmful’ (vs 19).
A wrong and harmful heart hides from the light of exposure to sin, just as Adam did when he first disobeyed God and hid from him. But God knew that the only way for the light of God and the love of God to be known by humanity was for them to know his forgiveness as he had given to Adam and Eve. 
And the good news is that this light of God’s truth and love and forgiveness has now entered the world through Jesus. 
The Bible says that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging their sins against them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation’. So our message to people of the good news about God in Jesus is that God’s true light of love and forgiveness is waiting for them to receive and believe and to live in. 

John said that Jesus ‘was the true Light that gives light to every man coming into the world. (John 1:9). This light would be contested by darkness - always, but Jesus overcame that darkness on the cross for all Mankind. And today the Holy Spirit takes on that contest of fighting against darkness in the minds of every person in the world. John wrote about Jesus telling his disciples that after he had gone to be with his father that he would send Holy Spirit to all mankind ‘And when the Helper (paracletos) has come, He will convict the world (kosmos) of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:7).’  The Holy Spirit became the partner alongside and within Jesus sharing in every moment of his human life, and he desires to bring the experience of the joining of his Divine Spirit life with our human spirit life and this experience is ours to receive and believe in through our faith and his grace.

God with us means more than just alongside us - it means he is within and through our being, and our faith lets us speak to him as a person, person to person. That means that the holy Spirit is taking what Jesus (the Logos – the Word) is bringing to each one of us as the whisper into our spirit of the wisdom and understanding of the mind and heart of God that we need in our walk with him. That becomes the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. 
Christmas waits to be truly celebrated in this way. Without Christmas there is no way we could ever have known God and become one with him.