The Coming Days....

Next week, here in America, we will enter into what is known as "the holiday season."
Thanksgiving which is quickly followed by Christmas and then New Years.
The television is already filled with commercials for Christmas.
Images of perfect families gathered around the perfect tree, everyone smiling and laughing.
Snow outside, dog by the fireplace. Men dressed in khaki pants and flannel shirts....
The women dressed in festive sweaters.
The children all neat in the attire.
This is the worlds view of how holidays are to be celebrated.
Of course in this perfect picture is the cry to "BUY OUR PRODUCT!"
You gotta love Madison Avenue and the ad's they produce.

IF we look to Scripture to get a grasp of the holiday's, we find a very different story.
We enter this time and there has been great silence. God has not spoken for 400 years. From the time Malachi was written until we read Matthew, God has been silent as he spoke he would do in Amos 8:11.
Once we enter Matthew, there is suddenly all this "divine" activity. Angels appearing bringing messages from God. World events being moved by the hand of God to bring about the fulfillment of prophecy. God was moving and nothing was going to stop Him.

An old woman who was beyond child bearing and a young virgin who had never been with a man became the focal points for God's invasion. One would give birth to a herald...a voice crying in the wilderness, the other would give birth to God's Son, Jesus. These two women would become the central focus of life during the time of Jesus. As quickly as the two women came on the scene, they would exit and their sons would take up the prophetic mantle.

Why am I writing this? Because God has not disappeared from our stage. His plans are still being carried out today in our time and space. When we read Scripture we tend to view it with the idea that it is ancient history. While the events took place thousands of years ago, the  ramifications of those events have rippled down through time and are affecting us today. Let me put it this way, we are currently living and participating in God's plan that we see and read about in the book of Revelation. It  is unfolding around us daily and we are part of this entire plan God has brought about. A plan that involves our salvation and redemption A plan that wants to include us in helping with His Kingdom. We are to tell our story about what Jesus has done for us. He has saved me! He has changed me! He has given me a life! That is the message of the holidays. Jesus has done for me what I could not do for myself.

Having had a spiritual awakening, I seek to take the message to others.
Simple huh?
May God be with you!
mb