For anyone seeking truth and unfailing love in the midst of an ever-changing world ...
For anyone seeking truth and unfailing love in the midst of an ever-changing world ...
God loved you and me so much that HE GIVES…
God doesn’t give in a human “regifted,” cheap sense.
Nor a BOGO, “So I bought myself one and you too” afterthought.
Nor does God give xoxo on monogrammed stationary after a difficult time, but leaves when the event is over, and the pain and loneliness really sets in…
And never does God give and get mad and take His gift back.
God gives Himself. All of Himself. Continually. Unconditionally.
“For God so loved the world that He gave…”
Translated from the Greek language here, God so loved the “cosmos” – us, the inhabitants of the world – that He “GAVE, GIVES, IS GIVING.”
God so loves us that He keeps on giving what?
HIMSELF.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJ)
God created the world and He loves His creation. He gave humans a choice to see Him in nature and love Him back.
But many people saw Him as angry, distant, not real and not approachable.
So, as recorded in many cultures around the world, two thousand years ago, God gave Himself in the form of a human baby, Jesus.
A baby was born in a rural setting near shepherd’s fields to a fourteen-year-old, virgin girl named Mary.
As Jesus, the child, the boy, the man, God experienced everything human – including joy, family, friends, betrayal, loss and an excruciatingly painful death.
As recorded in history, evil men of power attempted to kill the baby but did not succeed until approximately 33 years later. But that too was part of God giving…
“For God so loved the world that He gave…”
As Jesus was dying, God chose to place every despicable human thought, action and sickness upon Him. Understand that this would include child-molestation, murder, mental illness, cancer, hate, greed and every evil known to man.
And Jesus died.
God gave Himself over to a human death and all human deprivation so that we could live. Jesus took all of our bad junk: past, present and future so that we could be perfect in Him and have an eternal relationship with God – starting whenever we choose to receive the gift.
I want to make a note here… It is devastating to think that someone we loved dearly never choose the gift of Jesus/eternal life.
I rarely talk about this. But as a result of my lungs filling with 7 liters of fluid, post a horrific 14-hour-spinal surgery, I flatlined twice.
I am not claiming that I went to heaven, but I have no other way to describe it. One of the things I know is that there were choices being made. I fully recognized Truth and could literally feel the presence of Jesus more than I ever had on earth.
Please trust God with your loved one simply by knowing this: God created him/her, understands everything about her and loves her with an everlasting love that you and I cannot begin to comprehend.
Jesus conquered His death, but more importantly, Jesus conquered our deaths.
As prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth,
“But he was wounded (pierced through) for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
Case in point, Jesus fulfilled 300 Old Testament prophesies. Please do look that up. What are the chances?
Mathematically:
1 person fulfilling 8 prophecies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000
1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies is 1 chance in 10 to the 157th power
1 person fulfilling 300+ prophecies? Only Jesus.
After three days Jesus rose from the dead – prophesized in Isaiah 53: 8,9,10.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJ)
God/Jesus gives us freedom from our past and forgiveness of our sins. But He also continually gives us peace, truth, guidance, help, provision and so much more.
God gives us grace (Ephesians 4:7), righteousness (Romans 5:17), joy (John 15:11), The Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), unity with God (John 17:22-23), God’s Word (John 17:8), and eternal life (Romans 6:23).
But perhaps the greatest gift for us through many trials and tribulations is knowing that God give us Himself. He is with us. He never leaves us.
Jesus/God calls Himself “‘Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:23).
Celebrate Christmas remembering that God gives and that is why we give to one another.
Celebrate Christmas, Jesus’ birth, knowing that He is with you. Always.
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded top put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His nameJesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:18-23 NKJ; Isaiah 7:14)
kathleen whitten
"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15).
