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Tuesday, December 24, 2019

A Christmas Story


A Christmas Story
Suzanne Desmarais

              
  “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
“Who being made in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself to be of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” (Phil 2:6-9)

                But, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
            He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and as for His generation, who considered? He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked- but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
            But it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:3-12)

                “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
               “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” (Acts 2:24)
           “He was delivered over to our death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)
                “Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things ...” (Ephesians 1:20-22)
               “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, Who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 8:1; 7:25)

                O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”( Psalm 95:6)

                “Saying with a loud voice:
                         ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’
And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard them saying;
                        ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!’” (Revelations 5:12-13)

Merry Christmas!