Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Ready or not...Merry CHRISTmas

Christmas Eve. Ahhh..Deep sigh of peace, excitement. It is here. Ready or not. Time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. My Lord and Savior. I love Christmas and I love celebrating his birth. This year, as one of my early Christmas presents, I was given something precious to my heart. I have wanted one for years and about a week ago someone dear to me insisted I open my Christmas present “early”. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why I needed it early, unless of course, it was Maggie Moos ice cream and would melt. Much to my delight here is what I found in the beautiful package:



A menorah. Awesome, huh? I am not Jewish, as a matter of fact I am as Gentile as you can get. However, as a Christian I have always been very interested and fascinated in Jewish Culture and History. After all, I believe Jesus is the Messiah. The Anointed One who fulfilled the prophecies and is the promised son of David. Though I love the New Testament and read the Bible as a complete book, I have a tendency to favor the Old Testament (please no hate emails..thanks!). I love to study Jewish history and I have a great love for Jewish people as well as Israel. I guess if I had a bucket list (which I don’t) two things listed would be to get a degree in the study of the Old Testament and to learn Hebrew (of course Greek too). But for now, I am happy to study the OT as best as I can. Oh the joy to read the prophecies of the OT and see how Jesus fulfilled them.

One thing I recently did this past week was to re-study Hanukkah. The origins of this celebration and I even read some history from the book of the Macabees from the Apocrypha. Then I concluded with reading the passage where Jesus himself was at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). In a nutshell, if Jesus celebrated it and it was part of his life then I want to know more!! Jesus Messiah!!

I thank the Lord for sending His Son to a lowly manger in order to die for our sins. Merry Christmas!

Isaiah 9:2-7 (Amplified Bible)
2The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light; those who dwelt in the land of intense darkness and the shadow of death, upon them has the Light shined.(A)
3You [O Lord] have multiplied the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before You like the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil [of battle].
4For the yoke of [Israel's] burden, and the staff or rod for [goading] their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, You have broken as in the day of [Gideon with] Midian.
5For every [tramping] warrior's war boots and all his armor in the battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace.
7Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

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