✝ Daily Encouragement (12/6/23) "How Jesus Got Ready For Christmas"
Published: Wed, 12/06/23
A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation. The online Bible teaching ministry of Stephen & Brooksyne Weber.
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![]() Home Archives About Us ![]() ![]() Wednesday, December 6, 2023
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The steam engine of the Harrisburg-Lincoln-Lancaster Railroad pulls an excursion train through the Star Barn property near Elizabethtown, PA
Click to enlarge "How Jesus Got
Ready For Christmas"
Message summary:
This Christmas season let us, with thankfulness and joy, recall the wonderful love that God demonstrated for fallen humanity as He prepared a "body" attired in flesh and blood when He sent His only begotten Son to this earth. And our response to God's incomparable love and provision is to present our body as a
living and holy sacrifice. Such a response is acceptable to God and our spiritual service of worship.
Listen to our message on your audio player.
"Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me'" (Hebrews 10:5). "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1).
"Are you ready for Christmas?" That's a conversation starter we will hear often these last weeks leading up to Christmas. For many of us getting ready means sending Christmas cards, decorating, baking, shopping, special musical, drama events, parties, banquets then there's more shopping and a host of other events, family, school, church, work and otherwise!
The
next two Friday evenings we have company Christmas banquets, interestingly both only about a mile from our rural home at the Cameron Estates, which will be extremely convenient.
Getting ready for Christmas can be busy and wearying! It takes intentional focus to keep remembering the real reason, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4,5). Have you ever thought much about how Jesus got ready for Christmas? His preparations of course were quite different than ours. The Bible speaks of the "Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Isaiah prophetically looked ahead and says of Christ, "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7). When John prepared the way for Christ's ministry he declared, "Behold the Lamb of God!" (John 1:36). The miraculous incarnation of Christ is astounding. At Christmas we usually focus on the human dimension of "The Greatest Story Ever Told". We read the accounts in Matthew and Luke of Mary and Joseph, the angels, the shepherds and the wise men. But it seems our daily text gives a view from Christ's perspective, "a body You prepared for Me". That "body" in one sense began in the way we all begin with a normal gestational period and birth. The marvelous distinction in the preparation of the incarnate body of Christ is the mystery and miracle of His conception. "But a body" contrasts the sacrifices of the bodies of animals with the ultimate, perfect sacrificial body, the Lamb of God, the incarnation of Jesus the eternal Son, which Charles Wesley wrote was "Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man" in a lesser sung hymn, "LET EARTH AND HEAVEN COMBINE".
This
"body" ends the need for any and all animal bodies for sacrifices. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
So let us consider the most important way we can prepare for Christmas and, for that matter, it is also the way we should live the remainder of our lives on this side of eternity. We ought to present our body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship (see Romans 12:1). This Christmas season let us, with thankfulness and joy, recall the wonderful love that God demonstrated for fallen humanity as He prepared a "body" attired in flesh and blood when He sent His only begotten Son to this earth. And our proper response to God's incomparable love and provision is to present our body as a living and holy sacrifice. Such a response is acceptable to God and is our spiritual service of worship.
Be encouraged
today,
(
Hebrews
3:13)
Stephen & Brooksyne
Weber
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"Come Thou Long Expected
Jesus" Watch on YouTube
Meredith Andrews
We always appreciate feedback from our
readers.
Jim Gambini, who was our pastor when we first
moved to Lancaster County in 2001, is a musician and commented on Monday's message about the old-fashioned hymn sing we attended Sunday afternoon.
I have attended a number of church conferences and Christian seminars in my years living in PA. I couldn't tell you how exactly how many, and it certainly was not "all the time," but I remember hearing, from more than one speaker, that they loved coming to PA because it was there that the singing, especially with hymns sung, was at its richest harmonically. (Jim now live in Georgia)
Steve, an engineer and reader from Iowa, wrote
concerning yesterday's message on plumbing where we alluded to outhouses and Colossians 3:23.
For two decades of my career at John Deere, I
kept a copy of Colossians 3:23 on my cubicle wall. It brought me through many challenging times.
I enjoyed your plumbing analogies. A coworker, Paul, and I made a business trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan about a decade ago. We toured the University of Michigan campus, and while walking through the environmental sciences building, asked a student what was most notable therein. She enthusiastically said we should see the restrooms with composting toilets. Paul, who grew up on a farm in southern Iowa, ventured into the men's room, and upon exiting gave his appraisal. “That’s just like the outhouse I grew up with!” I can imagine the tens of thousands of dollars that were spent to put the window dressing on this ecological wonder. Saturday I took Ester to the Star Barn property near Elizabethtown, PA where she had been requested to take photos at a "Brittany's Hope" event. Its a remarkable property. The owner, businessman David Abel, has a knack for taking a decaying treasure, like the Star Barn, and restoring it. ![]()
Ester took this photo of the Star Barn on Saturday. For many years we passed this barn along 283on the way to
Harrisburg in it's decaying state. Here's an article on Wikipedia about the barn that has a photo where it originally stood prior to its historic restoration.
Click to enlarge ![]()
The Harrisburg-Lincoln-Lancaster Railroad makes excursions through the property.
Click to enlarge ![]()
A long, winding road leads back to the barn
including a ride through the Herr's Mill Covered Bridge. For many years we passed this bridge (not open to traffic at the time since it was in a decrepit condition) in eastern Lancaster County not far from the Old Windmill Farm. It was moved to the Star Barn property and restored to its current
state.
Click to enlarge
A Christmas season drive through the bridge is
stunning when it's dark.
Click to enlarge
David is a very committed Christian and shares
his story here (video)
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Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. © 1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the King James Version.
Personal Mission Statement: "I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I have been redeemed and make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
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Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
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Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
717-823-0592
Daily Encouragement Net
https://www.dailyencouragement.net
Mail service provider is aweber.com
495 Kraybill Church Rd
Mount Joy PA 17552
USA
Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options