When Christ Was Born

When Christ was born time was dark and difficult. God had been silent for 400 years, with no prophet speaking during this time. As Isaiah wrote, 800 years before the birth of Christ, times had already been bad, and the people continued to struggle. Isaiah wrote of the coming chaos of invasion of multiple nations, of the inward fighting of Manasseh and Ephraim and their attack on Judah (9:21), and the outright hypocrisy and evil of their young men and widows (9:17). In many ways this time reminds me of the closing verse of the book of Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The time of Judges, the time of Isaiah, the birth of Christ, and now today, there is a lack of leadership, and everyone has decided that self-interest and self-satisfaction are what is most important. These ideas leave us devouring one another and leaving a broken world to another generation.

In the above context of the life of Jesus, the Son of God, came to be our Savior. He was and is a bright light in the midst of our darkness. His light is so bright that many will retreat in the corners and recesses of life desiring their selfish desires and motives more than the goodness of God. Christmas is by design meant to be a contrast to the selfishness of our world. We as God’s people are meant to stand out in how we live. By design, we are to be humble servants that love God and love people. Unfortunately, we are often times known more for what we are against than what we are for. What if we took on the heart of God and loved people where they were? What if we demonstrate grace? What if we served the poor and broken of our community? What if in the midst of our service, we demonstrated and talked about the grace and forgiveness found in Jesus? What if our lives became a demonstration of God’s ability to restore the broken? I wonder, if we became the people of God in these ways, if others might take note? If conversations would begin about what is different in our lives? If opportunities to share who Jesus is would be born out of our humble love and service of others?

Pastor Scott