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Faith For The Family
Honestly with Christmas only a few days away, is there really anything to talk about on a Christian web site other then the birth of Christ in a manger some 2000 years ago. The answer is no, of course not. However, we at Team Swap have never been good at doing what other expect so what follows is not another discussion about the manger but a challenge to change your view of Jesus day in and day out 365 1/4 days a year.
The birth of Christ is the single most critical event in the history of man. How the Western world, and most of the rest of the world, measure years is based on the birth of this child in ancient Israel. That is not the result of some mere accident or fluke. I can just imagine the angels proclaiming that day - The savior of the world is born, rejoice for there is now hope for all eternity as the redeemer is alive.
The problem is that many people only see the baby Jesus in the manger. They see Him a babe in a barn yard shed, and forget that He was fully God even then. He did not grow up and become God, He WAS. He did not develop into God on earth, He came to earth AS God and lived out His life never learning new things or gaining any powers along the way. He was perfect, flawless and powerful from the beginning. He came in the form of a child, but He had been God since the beginning of time.
On the other extreme many only see Christ on the cross. They see His suffering and they may even appreciate His sacrifice for their sins. With this view alone though, they are prone to see Christ as a crushed shell of a human containing God within it’s broken shell. They see a broken and powerless Jesus alone on a wooden cross. They appreciate the brokeness, and they may even love the forgiveness, but they miss the power of God as they see Christ as powerless due to His human condition at the time. God was NOT contained within a broken body, He was NOT powerless to stop the pain, the death of His earthly body did NOT destroy His Godly power or presence.
This Christmas instead of seeing Jesus as a baby, or as God confined to a broken human shell, see Him as what he was - God. Jesus is God. He is alive, He is active, He is fully capable, able and willing to help you RIGHT NOW!! He may be away in bodily form, but He never leaves us in spirit or in His presence. Christ is not controlled by the time and situations of man. He is not contained within the limits of human intellect and abilities.
To see Christ only as a mere babe, or as a dying adult on a Roman cross, is to deny the reality of who and what Christ was. He came to live a human life, He came to die, He came to sacrifice His life and to pay the price for our individual sins. He also came to establish a personal relationship between God and man. That personal relationship is where the Holy Spirit / Ghost comes in, and that a topic fo another day, but it is sufficient to say that Christ’s life on earth (being fully human and fully God at the same time) allows us to directly approach God, via prayer and intercession, and allows God to directly interact and guide us. That can not and was not done by a normal human life.
Christmas should not be a celebration of the birth of Christ alone, or a excuse to give gifts, or a reason to take a few days off. It should be a celebration of God coming to earth in a human form. Christ, even in the manger, was fully able, capable and powerful. His birth did not give Him life, He had already been alive from eternity past. His birth did not give Him breath, He breathed life into the universe when it was formed. His birth allowed God’s prefect plan of salvation of the earth to begin, and that is certainly worth celebrating.
All of us here at Team Swap / Swap Blog wish you and yours a MERRY CHRISTMAS. We hope that this year you look to the manger and see God, not just a baby. In that manger, we hope you see the power of God, the presence of God, the wisdom of God, and the future of God. That manger was filled with God in the form of a baby that came to sacrifice and save. REJOICE FOR TODAY CHRIST IS ALIVE AND WITH YOU. He is not dead, He is not confined, He is not limited, He is not powerless, He is not alone, and He is not forgetful. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. He will forgive ALL your sins. He will pour Himself into you. He will give you power to live out His purpose in your life and in your world. REJOICE, REJOICE CHRIST IS ALIVE!!
