God is hilarious. No I truly mean it. I have found His nature to be so out of the box, that I am astounded each time He shows up with a unique turn of events, something that defies logic or a scratch the head, how can that even be, moment. God is not stuck on doing things “normally”, not at all!
The Bible is filled with these unique and mind bending events.
Noah’s Ark – the people of the land had never seen rain, so imagine what they thought when Noah starts to build a boat. The animals came to the Ark, no rounding them up - now that’s a go figure.
Jericho – the walls fall down after the army marches around the city 7 days in a row, blowing trumpets.
Moses – leads the whole Israelite nation out of Egypt after he goes to talk to Pharaoh – Moses stutters
Moses – leads the whole Israelite nation through the middle of the Red Sea – the Sea parts and they walk through on dry land, how does that happen?
Jonah got swallowed by a whale; and survived.
The nation of Israel gets saved by a prostitute.
A shepherd “boy” kills a giant warrior with a sling shot.
Balaam has a talking donkey.
Daniel survives the lion’s den; without a scratch.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego survive a fiery furnace and the king and attendants see 4 people in the fire but only 3 are put in and come out.
I cannot make this stuff up – it is in the Bible and all of these are out of the box scenarios.
I personally think that humor in heaven is to watch us humans experience these mind blowing experiences and God grins over our reactions.
And now we are about to celebrate the birth of a baby, His name is Jesus. Not an ordinary story here either, but really after reading the Old Testament and seeing all of these other stories, why would we even think that God would do anything “normal” here. I think the above stories were just God setting us up for the “big” one.
Mary the virgin teenage girl gives birth to Jesus. The Bible says Mary became pregnant by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. She did not become pregnant by a physical act, it was spiritual. Jesus was born to a virgin. How is that for an out of the box scenario?
The Birth of Jesus
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” NIV Matthew 1:18-25
Absolutely mind blowing. Folks have argued about the “virgin birth” since it happened: could it be? Couldn’t be? Of course it could be, did you read the first part of the blog? God delights to WOW people.
What if I told you that what was true of Mary can be true for all of us? I almost saw you give your head a shake.
We too can have the direct act of God, God wants to come and dwell inside us.
Jesus said when He was taken up to heaven that He would not leave us alone, He would send us the Holy Spirit.
“… And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17
The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us at our invitation, God will not force us, He is waiting for us to invite Him to be a part of our lives. The day you make the invitation, this would be our second birth or spiritual birth otherwise known as “born again.”
If you want to have this amazing relationship with God, it is simple, but only because it cost God so much (the life of Jesus), pray the following prayer: “God, I want to have a special relationship with you, I want you to be in my life. I acknowledge that Jesus Christ paid for my sins when He died on the cross in my place and I am ever grateful. I recognize that I cannot ever be good enough to get to heaven by my own works, and that Jesus paid my way. I am totally blown away that you loved me and died for me even when I am not perfect. You love me just as I am. I invite you to come into my life. Please send your Holy Spirit to come and live inside of me, to share life with me, that I might never be separated from you again. I ask You to guide and teach me as we grow together. Thank you. Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer, welcome to the “family”. You are now a member of the family of God often known as a “Christian” – a follower of Jesus Christ. Mind Blowing isn’t it? It has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with relationship: yours and Gods.
The cross, salvation, redemption could not have happened if Jesus had not come to earth as a baby and this is why we celebrate Christmas. Please do not separate Christ from Christmas, you would just have “mas” and that means nothing.
It’s all about Jesus being born so that we could be born again, more out of the box thinking.
Come on, celebrate, step it up and like Jimmy Stewart in “It’s A Wonderful Life” run through the streets shouting “Merry Christmas Bedford Falls” well, you could substitute your town’s name, or a person’s name or just have some fun with it! Be out of the box – God sure is.
Merry Christmas Everyone!