The Love Of God-A Christmas Message

The Love of God

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

This month and Season fair

Has something of the aire

Of heaven’s glowing warm eternal light;

For now we celebrate

With songs and contemplate

A loving Gift given that Holy Night--

Our longing hope—Day forever--

Rose glorious Dawn in a simple manger

(ya. i wrote that. I can't help but love Christmas time)

God

Who is God?

Not long ago there was a debate on our Bible college campus concerning creation and evolution.

As far as I'm concerned, whether God created the entire universe in six days by divine fiat, or incorporated all of the required elements required for the formation of the vast universe, including the development of life on earth, and the formation of the first single cell creature with all of the information necessary to develop inevitably into complex life, including those with the capacity to contemplate God and, through His grace, commune with Him-

Who cares? Either way His creation is miraculous, amazing, wondrous, and an incontrovertible testimony to His power and immeasurable wisdom and intelligence.

Francis Collins, Current head of the National Institutes of Health and Former head of the Human Genome Project

said

“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion–letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.” the Language of God

Francis Collins peers at the infinitesimal and sees God. What about the almost infinite? 100,000,000,000 galaxies; 10,000,000-1,000,000,000,000 stars each

About 14 billion light years in diameter

Incomprehensible immensity, and, with typical understatement, the Bible describes the creation of this universe "He also made the stars". Genesis 1:16b

Whether He made all things in a literal six days ex-nihilo, instantaneously or

Used pictorial language to explain to a pre-literate generation three-thousand years ago how He created things through time and evolution

He is unimaginably big and intelligent, powerful and wise. So this is the God that loves us, Something like a man loving an ant. More like something the size of our galaxy loving an ant.

speaking of love

. . . So loved . . .

. . . Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. Matthew 2:11

Gold we can understand. But why incense & myrrh?

Both are used to anoint a dead body.

Surely the gifts at His birth point us to His death

"Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:33-35

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Ro 5:6-8

. . . The world . . .

The Roman Empire was one of the most brutal and violent regimes in history-for recent analogues we have to look to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Empire under Stalin. But this empire ruled the Western world for hundreds of years.

The Jewish Religious leadership was hypocritical, politically motivated, and power hungry (this may sound too familiar-with many religions demonstrating similar apparent multiplicity).

Herod, the local governor, or in Indian terms, we might think of him as the Chief Minister of the region of which Israel was a part, was, to state it kindly, a psychopathic, genocidal, sociopathic despot.

Though common people in the age of Rome probably wanted the same things common people want today-peace, a simple living, prosperity for the next generation-the rulers of the age can only remind us of the worst we see in the world today. This was the world into the Son of God was born.

There is no accident there was no room in the Inn. This was a reflection of the condition of the World. There really was no room anywhere in this world for the Son of God to be born. The world had become to dark to provide a proper place for the Light of Glory to rest His infant head.