Tag: Angels

The Reason we Give Gifts at Christmas is to symbolise the Gifts that The Wise Men 'Gave to Jesus'. 
Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. 

Before Jesus was Born, there was No such thing as Christmas, because Christmas is the Celebration of the Birth of Jesus.

It was a Long Time after Jesus was Born before people started to Give Gifts to 'Each Other'. 

For Hundreds of years 'the Giving of Gifts' was actually on 'The 12th Night of Christmas' (Epiphany), the day that symbolises when The Wise Men visited Jesus and 'Gave Jesus' the Gifts to Him.

It's only been within the past few hundred years that Gifts have been Given on Christmas Day.

It's a Wonderful thing to Give a Gift to see the Joy on a Loved ones face.
And it's a Lovely thing to receive a Gift from someone who has been thoughtful enough to give it to you.

But the Truth is, we Don't actually Need to give 'Each Other' Gifts, because Christmas is Not about us. 
Christmas is Not about me, you or anybody else.
~ Christmas is about Jesus.

There's nothing actually wrong with Giving Gifts, it's a Nice thing to do, but if you spend More Time, Thought and Effort on Gifts than you do on spending Quality Time with Jesus, then you're Missing Out on Experiencing The True Joy of Christmas.

In the same way, if you 'Expect' Gifts from other people or if you're 'moody and complain' if you don't get the Gifts you wanted, then you'll Miss Out on the Joy of what Christmas is really about ~ Celebrating the Birth of Jesus.

The Best Gift You can ever Give is the Gift of 'Giving Your Heart to Jesus'.

The Wonderful thing about that 'Gift' is that it's 'Many Gifts in One'. 
~ It will Show Jesus that you Appreciate Him and Everything He does.
~ It will 'Set You Free' to Truly Enjoy Life.
~ It will Transform Your Life in Beautiful Ways and You will be a Blessing to other people (the Best Gift You can Give to others).
~ And most Importantly, Jesus will be Blessed with Receiving something that is Very Precious to Him ~ 'You'.

~ Positive Bible Verse ~

Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, with all your Soul, and with all your Mind.
(Matthew 22:37)

The Wise Men made the 'Wisest Choice' of their Lives to Seek Jesus, and Not stop until they Found Him.

They probably travelled over 1,000 miles through Vast Deserts and Mountains. The Journey might have took them over a year, but they remained 'Focused on Jesus' the Entire Journey.

The Shepherds also Searched for Jesus and didn't stop until they Found Him in The Stable in a Manger.

They made the 'Wise Choice' to Believe The Angel and to go to Look for Him. That one Choice Helped them Stay 'Focused on Jesus'.

These small groups of Shepherds and Wise Men were the first people to 'Seek Jesus', and they would have then Lived the Rest of their Lives Full of God's Peace, Love and Joy, simply because of making that 'Wise Choice'.

Over 2,000 years later, people are Still making the same 'Wise Choice' to Seek Jesus.

There are now Billions of Christians (Followers of Jesus) around the world, and continuing to Grow.
As you read this there will be people all over the world making that same 'Wise Choice' to 'Follow Jesus' right Now. 

The word Christian literally means 'To Follow Jesus'.

The 'ian' part of Christian means 'Follower', and 'Christ' is Jesus, so Christian means 'Jesus Follower'.

The first people who were Christians were the 12 Disciples.

They knew that to Follow Christ (Jesus) means to: 
~ Learn His Way to Live Life, 
~ To Seek His Guidance, 
~ Be Willing to Accept Jesus as their Lord,
~ To Do what Jesus Guided them to Do,
~ And Not Do or to Stop Doing the things that Jesus said was wrong.

Jesus was also known as Rabbi which means 'Teacher'. Jesus makes Life Very Simple and Easy to Understand. He teaches us what's Right and what's wrong. There's No confusion with Jesus' Way to Live Life. 

The Only reason people get confused in Life is when the devil 'Tricks' people with his lies and deception into doing something wrong, and makes it 'Seem' as though it's ok.

The more people that Fall for the devils 'Tricks', the more people do wrong things, and then other people 'Think' that it's normal.

Yet Jesus keeps it Very Simple, and when You 'Follow Jesus' He Helps You to Understand and see through the 'Trickery' of the devil so that You don't Fall for it.

If You don't Believe the Truth of Jesus,
You risk Falling for Anyone's lies.

That's why it's so Important to remain 'Focused' on Jesus' Way to Live Your Life. He Cares Very Deeply about You and He wants You to Live a Happy and Free Life.

The Best way to do that is to Do what The Wise Men and The Shepherds did and make the 'Wisest Choice' of Your Life to 'Seek Jesus'.  

The Good thing is You don't need to travel over 1,000 miles through Deserts & Mountains and You don't need to search for a Babe in a Manger.

You Simply need to be Willing to 'Follow Jesus'.

~ Positive Bible Verses ~

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you Free".
(John 8:32)

~ ~  ~ 

Let each person turn away from evil and do good;
Let each person Seek peace and pursue it.
(1 Peter 3:11)

~ ~ ~ 

Show me Your Ways, Lord,
Teach me Your paths.
Guide me in Your Truth, 
And Teach me,
(Psalm 25:4-5)

When Mary & Joseph first got Engaged to be Married, they probably would of had idea's and plans about how to Live their Lives Together.
They might have thought about where they would Live, what they would do in their Life and how they would spend their time.

Then Suddenly The Angel of The Lord appeared to them and revealed God's Plan for their Lives.

They could have Chosen to ignore God's Plan, but instead they made the 'Wisest Choice' of their Lives, to 'Welcome Jesus Into Their Lives'.

From that One Decision, their Lives were Transformed into a Better and more Wonderful Way of Living than they could ever have thought of themselves.

Even though the Plans they had already made might have been Very Good plans, God's Way is Always Better.

Jesus came to Give Life 'More Abundantly'. (John 10:10).  

Later in Jesus' Life He met many people who had 'Made Their Own Plans' about how to Live their Lives.

Matthew the Tax Collector had made plans to Earn Lots of money by stealing from people on their tax payments.

Simon Peter had made plans to Live his Life Fishing.

Mary Magdalene made plans to Live as a prostitute to make money.

There were many of Jesus' Disciples that had previously made plans to Live an average Life, maybe get Married and find a good job.

Some of these plans were ok, but some of the Plans the Disciples made were obviously bad.

When they met Jesus though, He Gave them all a New Plan and God's Way to Live their Lives, which was More Exciting and Enjoyable than any of their own plans. 
They All made the 'Wisest Choice' of their Lives to Adapt to God's Plan and to 'Follow Jesus'.

~ ~ ~ 

As you 'Make Your Plans' for how to spend Christmas time, I Encourage You to be 'Open Minded' to when 'God' Gives You a 'Better Plan'.

Many people lose sight of 'The Real Meaning of Christmas' and they Miss Out on Something Very Special.

Christmas is about Celebrating the Birth of God's Only Son.

We Celebrate this on 25th December, yet 'worldly/society ways' have become Impatient and they have Christmas parties in November and early December, shops start selling Christmas things in Summer time, and people eat their mince pies and Christmas Treats throughout December.

By the time it comes to Christmas Day many people are either too stressed from Frantic planning and shopping or they get bored with Christmas because they started too early and didn't actually Celebrate Jesus' Birth.

So they Miss Out on the 'Wonderful Gift' of being able to take part in Celebrating 'With God' for His Son's Birthday, and they Miss the True Joy and Happiness that it Gives.

If You chose 'worldly/society ways' to Celebrate Christmas and leave Jesus out, then it's likely that your Life as a whole will also be stressed, bored and Missing Out on Something Special.

Jesus is Christmas ~ Jesus is Life.

Mary & Joseph and the Disciples of Jesus All made One Choice to Adapt & Adjust to God's Way and it made their Lives Better and more Enjoyable.

When You make the 'Wisest Choice' of Your Life to 'Welcome Jesus', then Your Life will be Transformed into a Better and more Wonderful Way than You could ever imagine.

~ Positive Bible Verse ~

All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s Way was right.
(Luke 7:29)

Grace is the 'Unmerited and Undeserved Favor & Love of God'.

Jesus came to earth and died on The Cross to 'Save' us All from our wrong Ways of Living.

He Sacrificed His own Life and Freedom 'In Place of Us' so that we can Enjoy True Life and Freedom.

The Truth is Non of us Deserve that kind of 'Love'. Yet God Loves us with a Limitless type of Love that is Beyond our Understanding. That's Grace.

Surely the Best thing that 'We Can All Do' is to 'Show' God & Jesus that we are Truly Grateful.
We can Do that by making the 'Right Choices' in our Lives to Live the 'Right Way' ~ God's Way.

Non of us Deserve the Wonderful Love that Jesus 'Showed Us'. But Jesus 'Does' Deserve the Love that we can 'Show Him'.

Show Jesus that you're Grateful to Him and that you Love Him by the Choices that You Make in Your Everyday Life.

God 'Gave' us the Wonderful 'Gift of Grace'. Don't waste that Gift. Accept it by Accepting Jesus as 'Your Savior' and Welcome Him with a Loving Heart.

~ Positive Bible Verses ~

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus)
    the sins of us all.
(Isaiah 53:6)

~ ~ ~ 

"We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved Grace of the Lord Jesus.”
(Acts 15:11)

~ ~ ~ 

Even greater is God’s wonderful Grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through Jesus Christ.
(Romans 5:15)

~ ~ ~ 

    He gives us Grace and glory.
The Lord will withhold no good thing
    from those who do what is right.
(Psalm 84:11)

The Son of God, The Creator of The Universe, was Born in a Stable. That's Humbleness.

Jesus had the Power, Authority and Ability to be able to be Born 'Anywhere'.

He could have Chose the most Luxury Palace in the world, yet He Chose a Humble Stable.

Jesus set a Positive Example of how we should Live our Lives, even at His Birth.

Jesus came to earth to Save us from our wrong ways of living.

To be able to Help us All, He needed to be Available to Everyone.
From the poorest and most overlooked people to the most privileged and the people in the highest positions, Jesus is for Everyone.

If He was Born in a Palace then The Shepherds might not have Felt Welcome to Go to Visit Him when The Angel gave them the Good Tidings of Great Joy, that 'The Savior' has been Born.

To be Born in a Humble Stable meant that Anybody could Feel Comfortable to 'Meet Jesus'.

One of the Beautiful things about Jesus being Born in The Stable meant that even the Animals where Welcome.
The Sheep, Lambs, Cows, Goats, Birds and The Donkey would All have been able to Experience the Wonderful Birth of God's Son.

The Stable is a Beautiful Example of God's Love & Care for 'All of His Creation'.

No matter Who You Are, rich or poor, privileged or overlooked, Jesus is Available for You, and He Loves You.

Jesus Humbled Himself to 'Be With You'.

That's Real Love. 

~ Positive Bible Verses ~

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
(James 4:10)

~ ~ ~ 

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who is in awe of Him and does what is right".
(Acts 10:34-35)

God said, "Let there be Light", and there was Light.
   (Genesis  1:3)

God made the Stars. He set them in the heavens to divide the 'Light' from darkness. (Genesis 14-19).

The Star at The Nativity was a Very Special Star, it was for the Birth of  God's Only Son, 'The Light of The World'.

There have been many theories about what the Star was.
Some people say it was a commit, some think it was three separate Stars that all lined up and appeared as one Star, and many other theories. 

My Wife & I often talk about it with a sense of Awe & Wonder.

Then when I was reading the Bible during Christmas 2021, I read Matthew 2:1+2 with a New Understanding.

The Wise Men were asking where Jesus had been Born, and they said "we have seen 'His Star' ".

I suddenly realised that as God had made All the Stars in Creation, then He could certainly make a New Special Star for the Birth of His Son.

It makes a Lot of sense that for such as Special event, God would Create a Unique Star.
The 'Star' might have been Created for that One Special Moment, the Birth of Jesus.

The Bible makes it clear that The Star 'Guided' The Wise Men to Jesus.

The Wise Men knew how Important the Birth of Christ was, and they Understood & Believed in the Mighty & Limitless 'Power & Creativity' of God.

They Believed in God's Loving Guidance, and they Received the Wonderful Blessing of Meeting Jesus.   

God 'Guides' us All in many Ways in our Lives. 
You Simply need to 'Believe' in God's Amazing Creativity and You will Discover 'Your Guiding Star'.

God has Placed a 'Star in Your Heart' to Lead You & Guide You in Your Life. 

~ Follow The Star in Your Heart.

Jesus is 'The Light of the world' ~ He is Your Guiding Star.

~ Positive Bible Verse ~

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever Follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
(John 8:12)

Throughout The Nativity, The Angel of The Lord spoke to different people and Blessed them All with 'Good Tidings'.

The Good Tidings were in different forms depending on who it was for and what it was about. 

The Angel gave Good Tidings of:
~ Answers to Prayers.
~ Truth & Understanding.
~ Warnings of danger and the way to avoid it.
~ Wonderful Blessings that words can't describe.
~ And of course Great Joy.

The first person The Angel visited in The Nativity was Zacharias, and Gave him the Good News that his Prayer was Answered and that Elizabeth (his Wife) will become pregnant with a Son (named John) who would help to get people Ready & Prepared for The Lord.

Months later the Angel visited Mary and gave her a Wonderful Blessing that words can't describe, that God had Favor on her and that she would conceive in her womb the Indescribable Wonderful Miracle of God and Give Birth to God's Only Son.

When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant (yet they had Not been Intimate), he was Struggling to Understand it. Then The Angel put his mind at Ease and Blessed him with the Good Tidings of Truth & Understanding by Confirming to him that Mary is pregnant with God's Son and that he Doesn't need to be afraid.

 When Jesus was Born The Angel appeared to The Shepherds and said "I bring you Good Tidings of Great Joy which will be to All people". 
The Angel Blessed them with The Good News that the Son of God, 'The Savior' has been Born.
To Celebrate the most Wonderful event in History, a Multitude of Angels appeared saying "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth Peace to those on whom his favor rests".

Jesus is 'The Reason' to Celebrate Christmas.

The Angels in Heaven Celebrated with The Shepherds on earth. WOW, what a Blessing.

Later on after 'The Wise Men' had visited Jesus, they were Divinely Warned Not to return to Herod, and they were able to Safely depart back to the Country they had come from. 

After that, The Angel Warned Joseph to Quickly take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt to Escape the cruelty of Herod killing All children under 2 years old. They were Blessed with Safely Escaping unharmed.

Later on when Herod had died, The Angel appeared to Joseph to Give him the Good News that they could all Safely return to Israel, and they were able to go back to Nazareth where Jesus Grew and became Strong in The Spirit, Filled with Wisdom and the Grace of God. 

'Good Tidings' come in many forms. All of them are to Lead & Guide people in God's Wonderful & Amazing Plan for our Lives and for the Good of All of God's Creation.

God Communicates to us Everyday in many different Ways, and He Loves to Bless us with 'Good Tidings'.

The people in The Nativity who The Angel Gave 'Good Tidings' to, All Believed with an Open Mind and a Trusting Heart, and they Received their Blessings.

Simply Open Your Heart, Mind and Soul to Jesus, and You will be Given 'Good Tidings' and Receive Your Blessings. 

~ Positive Bible Verse ~

Jesus stood up and read from Scripture (Isaiah 61:1+2)

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news ('Good Tidings') to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

(Luke 4:18+19)