~~ A CHRISTMAS PRAYER ~~

LORD we approach Your holy throne of grace provided through our LORD Jesus Christ: and we desire to express our heart felt gratitude and humble thanks for the Supreme Christmas Gift that You gave to us, in the Person of Your Son, our LORD and Savior: Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel! 

We were all lost in this world of sin, desperate and alone, stumbling in the darkness of Man's own making; with no chance of hope or healing from any quarter in all the wide world.

There was no soundness in our flesh, no wholesomeness in our hearts.

Our minds and our spirits were tainted and blotted out any understanding of You: the Holy, Transcendent, Almighty GOD and Creator of the Universe and of all things visible and invisible.

All we like sheep have gone astray and there is none that seeks for You, there is none that understands You, there is none that stands approved by Your Holy Eyes of Fire that sees all, and weighs the hearts of all souls in the balances of Your Truth and Justice, and finds them all wanting and truly poverty stricken.

Yet the Word was given to Your Holy prophets and they foretold of the Blessed Hope that would arrive in the Person of Your Son, the Messiah of Israel!

And in the fullness of time, He was born under the Law, born unto a woman, a virgin daughter of David, Mary of Bethlehem, the betrothed of Joseph, who received "the desire of women", that is, to have conceived within by the power of the Holy Spirit, He who would be Messiah.

From that humble abode of a lowly manger, the KING of Kings was received by a small band of shepherds who beheld the Babe in swaddling clothes; surrounded by hay and animals in their stalls, and His mother and legal father, Joseph, but whose Father was truly the LORD God!

Yet over that stone crib lay the shadow of the Cross and that Holy Babe began His tender, mild life the same way that it ended: in the arms of His loving mother, whose heart was pierced by the sword that was prophesied by Simeon at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Here is the KING of Israel, standing at the banks of Jordan, His clothes wet from that river and behold, there came the Holy Spirit as a dove, and the voice of the Father from heaven, declaring that in Him, He is well pleased!

Here is the KING of Kings declaring the officiation of the Kingdom that He proclaimed and would usher in, in the fullness of times, at the nod of His heavenly Father.

Here is the KING, the Messiah, whose hands are the hands of the Healer! He who healed the blind men and deaf, the lame and the leper; Here is the One Who raised the dead to life!

He who stood in the face of the blind leaders of Israel's religious body and spoke fearlessly of their hypocrisy and of the Father's Truth; He Himself the Son, being the very embodiment of the TRUTH! 

The LORD Jesus surrendered Himself on that fateful Day, having presented Himself as the King of Israel, the true Messiah on the day appointed by the prophecy of Daniel: a Day overlooked by those who He came to set free, but for their obstinate hearts remained blind and unhealed.

And our LORD Jesus wept over Jerusalem...

Six heinous trials: unjust and deceitful and satanically inspired, condemned Him that knew no sin! Voices that once hailed Him as the Son of David, then cried out, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!"

Beaten, bloodied, mocked and derided maliciously; He took it meekly and in silence, as a Lamb before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

For if He had, He could have with but a single Word, banished His enemies to oblivion or sought for twelve legions of angels to do the task for Him.

Scourged, pummeled and crowned with the curse of thorns, He stood as Pilate declared to all, "Behold the Man!" And there the Man Who is God, was the Innocent victim before a human judge.

Yet Pilate would one day stand before his Judge, the God-Man at the pure white Throne of Judgment...

Condemned to die the death of the Cross, His hands and feet pierced, His heart melted as wax, His strength dried up, His tongue cleaving to the roof of His parched mouth, thirsting for more than mere water: rather -

for the comfort of His beloved Abba Father, Who even as His beloved Son then bore the sins of the entire world, the entirety of humanity . . . turned His face away and forsook Him. . .

. . . Six long hours He endured the Cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him: the salvation of precious souls who He would redeem from their sinfulness and would have been doomed eternally in the torments of flame! 

And willingly, ever willingly, He laid down His Life for us; for no one took that Life from Him, but rather He gave it up of His own accord.

For the sake of His Love for us, "for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life."

Alone in the tomb, in the utter silence and stillness of death, all of His precious blood having been spilled, His Spirit descended into sheol and declared to the saints of old that long awaited the coming One, of Whom the prophets declared and showed for the coming Kingdom:

And in joy He brought them out from that place of waiting and ushered them into eternal bliss!
And Himself, presenting before the Father, the propitiatory sacrifice of His blood, at the altar there in heaven, awash in its crimson splashing; the proclamation of innocent purity for souls - now saints, past, present and future - who would receive the Messiah.

He is Risen! He is risen indeed!
For no corruption could hold Him!
Death could not touch Him!
The grave could not withstand Him!
Satan and his hordes couldn't detain Him!

He ascended in glorified body, into heaven and the angels declared that, One day He would return in the same fashion!

And so we watch and pray as You commanded, LORD!
For these two thousand years since the doing of this Divine Deed, the Word has been declared, the Gospel preached, souls have been redeemed and born into Your Kingdom!

And as we await Your arrival to inaugurate Your Kingdom as foretold in Your Holy Word, we want to declare with one voice and one heart our thanks, our worship, our love and our desire to follow You in all the ways that You have prepared for us, Your church.

This Christmas we acknowledge the tremendous, insurmountable, eternity-spanning love and grace wrapped up in that tiny Baby that You once were; ordained to bring us salvation and everlasting life!!

We acknowledge that this celebration we participate in, which is done joyously, with our eyes to the skies, looking for and hasting Your Coming, to deliver Your people, called out from among the nations, the church, Your bride.

We pray that when that Day arrives, You will lead Your people Israel through the final days, the Seventieth Week of Daniel, safely onward, redeeming Your remnant who shall cry for Your return; whom You will hear and answer, and arrive to judge the world, and it's leaders who rebel even now against Your Rule and Reign, but will nonetheless be dispatched promptly upon Your Second Advent!

And then O LORD, Your glorious Reign shall commence, and Your final enemies will be vanquished. "The seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdom of our LORD and of His Christ; and He shall reign FOREVER and EVER!"
"And then on that day, the knowledge of the LORD shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the seas."GLORY TO YOU LORD!

And EVEN SO, COME QUICKLY LORD JESUS!

Who is JESUS? He is our KING! KING of Kings, (click on this link)

and LORD of Lords! HALLELUJAH!! (and DEFINITELY click on THIS link!)

HANDEL's MESSIAH - OUR WORSHIP ASCENDING INTO THE HEAVENS!

 

May the LORD JESUS CHRIST, our GLORIOUS and OMNIPOTENT LORD and SAVIOR make this year, a most special year in which we draw ever closer to His Holy Heart, so passionate and fervent in His Love for us, His beloved, and may we come to know Him in a deeper and grander way, than ever we have known before! May we partake deeply of the "unsearchable riches in Christ Jesus" AMEN! GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE!

agape, grace and peace,
your brother in Christ,

James Fire