Be still
Last week, friends asked if we could get together before Christmas. We checked our calendars, and there was no date between now and Christmas that we both had open.
We set a date for Tuesday after Christmas. The holiday season, busy, busy, busy.
People tell me it’s good to be busy, that way you’re not bored.
Whenever I hear that, my mind immediately goes to two verses. Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” and Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
It is what people call the holiday season, but more specifically, it is the Christmas season.
Everywhere you turn, there are extra things added to our already busy schedules. School programs, extra church activities, and workplaces host parties for people who never socialize at any other time of year; charities and communities host toy giveaways, parades, and special events. There isn’t time to be still; wait.
To some people, Christmas is Jesus’ birthday; to others, it is a day that represents hope, peace, and all that is good in the world; to others, it is the day Santa brings gifts. I’m sure there are other views of the day, but regardless of what you think of Christmas, be still and contemplate some of the deeper things about Jesus’ birth.
God dispatches an angel to talk to someone. Listen to how the Bible describes this event. Luke 1:26-27, “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”
When God repeats Himself, He is emphasizing something. Twice in verse twenty-seven, God uses the word “virgin” to describe Mary. Mary, being a virgin, fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Jesus being born of a virgin is one of the pillars of Christianity. If Christ is not born of a virgin, then He is not God; if He is not God, then He cannot be the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for our sins. Without a sinless blood sacrifice for our sins, we are all doomed to an eternity in hell. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
His very name, Immanuel, as prophesied by Isaiah, means “God with us.” Matthew 1:23, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
Sit back, be still, wait upon God, think of the significance of the birth of Jesus.
His mom was a virgin. Something that no other human being can claim. Never before Mary, or after her, or from now to eternity, will a virgin conceive a child.
He is “God with us.” God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the sustainer of all life, walked on this planet as one of us.
And the reason He came was to save us from our sins. Matthew 1:21, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Don’t get swept away by the side things, the giving of presents, all the added things on the schedule, or that the odds of Him being born on December 25 are slim, or that the date was a pagan holiday in years past. Concentrate on the significance of the facts that He was born of a virgin, God was with us, and He came to save us from our sins.
If He has to save us from our sin, then having the good outweigh the bad in our lives can’t save us. If His blood sacrifice is the only sacrifice the Father will accept for our sins, then our good acts and religious deeds won’t pay the price for our sins. If Jesus is the only way to the Father, then we cannot get to Him on our own.
Without the virgin birth of Christ, there is no means of salvation. This time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is far more than a busy holiday season. Take some time to consider the Biblical meaning of the time. As the Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Preacher Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County Indiana. Website: www.preachers-point.com; Email: [email protected]; Mail: 25 W 1200 N; Kingman IN 47952. Facebook: https://www. facebook.com/Timothy-Preacher-Johnson-101171088326638. All Scripture KJV.
