Our American readers will be familiar with the phrase 'do the math' which means sit down and do the sums and it will all make sense. But what happens when you can't do the math or maths as we say over here? That's the thing about the incarnation you can't do the math, when you write it down on paper it doesn't all work out nice and neatly.
Jesus Christ; 100% God, 100% Man, how does that work? Well I hope that as we have been pondering over the mystery of the incarnation, we can see it's impossible to figure it all out. The incarnation is the great mystery of our faith!
To be honest, what we believe is pretty crazy stuff, and so we shouldn't be surprised if at Christmas time people around us think we are completely bonkers. In fact it would probably be worrying if they didn't, because then maybe we too would have missed the point about the incomprehensible mystery of God becoming Man – which is the true miracle of Christmas.
I think this leads us nicely into the work of Holy Spirit, perhaps the forgotten person of the Trinity at Christmas time. But it soon becomes clear that without Holy Spirit there is no possibility of us getting the Christmas message at all. Of course this means there can no be place for any sense of pride, when we square up to the Incarnation and the mind blowing reality of what is happening at this moment in Bethlehem. As John the Baptist declared, the Messiah would bring the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there would be an outpouring of the Spirit unlike anything seen before. It's so true, without Holy Spirit we would have no chance, we wouldn't believe any of this without Him!!
Bible
'At this point Festus interrupted Paul's defense. "You are out of your mind, Paul!" he shouted. "Your great learning is driving you insane.' Acts 26:24
'We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory However, as it is written: "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived"— the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit' 1 Corinthians 2:6-10.
Prayer
Lord Jesus the mystery of Christmas is too much for us to fully comprehend. We thank you that you have opened our eyes by your Holy Spirit to see into the wonders of your coming. We pray that Holy Spirit would give us a fresh revelation this Christmas. We pray that He would work in our hearts, that He would make these things more real to us. We pray that this Christmas would be a time of great wonder and amazement and incredible thankfulness that we have been let in on the mystery of all mysteries! Amen
I'm signing out for the Christmas break, thanks for reading and to Kruger for allowing me this slot. I hope you all have a wonderfully rich and enjoyable Christmas, and that it's a time of great celebration for you and your family!
Steve
for
Kruger
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