Hi Everyone,

I know most of us are probably busy with Christmas preparations, but I just want you to stop for a moment and focus on what it’s really all about.

I want to take you back to Bethlehem on that night that Jesus, the Son of God, was born.

Read Matthew 18-26 and Luke 2:1-7.

Here was Mary, a teenager between 14-16 yrs old, betrothed to Joseph who was making preps for their wedding, she was heavily pregnant, about to give birth to a baby, not just any baby but the Son of God! The long-awaited Messiah the prophets had spoken about!

She was still a virgin but had been ridiculed by all who saw her and probably disowned by her parents. In that culture, it was very dishonouring to the whole family. Yet young Mary knew she was innocent and this was a miracle from God.

As she lay there in a  dirty barn surrounded by animals, laying on a bail of hay in labour, cold, frightened, no midwives, doctors or nurses around, only Joseph, she must have wondered, ‘why is this happening? Why did God choose me?’

Now, what about Joseph? His pretty fiancé is having a baby and it’s not his child, it’s the Son of God! To start with he was probably quite angry and felt betrayed until God confirmed it in a dream, then he realized she was telling the truth, yet it had also caused him a lot of ridicule throughout the town. He must have thought ‘shouldn’t He have been born in a palace? Why a barn? Why a manager for a crib?'

Perhaps because that’s where lambs were born and many of them were used as sacrificial lambs and Jesus was born to be the sacrificial Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for our sins and redeem us back to God! (Galatians 3:13 and 1 Peter 1:18)

Yes, He was born specially to die for us, to set us free from the curse that came upon mankind in Genesis 3. So that we could be restored back to God! His hand of salvation is still reaching out today to all who will accept Him as Lord.

So will you accept Him as Lord of your life?

Will you bow down and worship Him?

Many just think of Him and sing songs about Him over the Christmas Season and then put him away again for another year!

Don’t let that be you! He is worthy to be worshipped all year round and not weekly but every day! Make Him part of your daily life and renew your relationship with Him, because soon He’s coming back to take all His people back home to be with Him forever!

So let me remind you who this baby lying in the manger is….. He is.....  

He was born of a woman, suffered as a man, sacrificed as a lamb, died like a criminal, rose from the dead as God!  

God Bless you all and have a great Christmas!

Love Giovanna!