Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! :)
The past few weeks, I have been meditating a lot on Old Testament promises of Christ and this past Sunday, I had the joy of fellowshiping at Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio and hearing Alistair Begg preach. He taught on Christ and the Old Testament, and explained how "the Old Testament is a story in search of an ending"
Here it is, the Christ, we celebrate His coming...and I'm so thankful that we can look back at the Old Testament and understand it with greater clarity than it's human authors by seeing it through the lens of Christ. "We can't understand Jesus without the Old Testament, and we can't understand the Old Testament without Jesus."~Alistair Begg He then took a short look back through the Old Testament to a few of the pictures of Christ-in the Exodus, the Kings and the words of the minor prophets. It was a sweet message and he brought it all in center around the gospel. :) Here is the passage he was preaching on-Zechariah's prayer in Luke. And I pray that Zechariah's prayer would be mine and yours and that we would wonder at the beauty of God's promises all fulfilled and embodied in the person and work of Christ!

"And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him
all our days. " Luke 1:67-75

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Recently, my dear friend EA gave me such a sweet Christmas gift which has been encouraging me so much the past week. It's a book of Advent readings called Come Thou Long Expected Jesus-edited by Nancy Guthrie with readings from people like Calvin, Edwards, Luther, MacArthur, Piper, Keller, Spurgeon, Edwards, JI Packer, and RC Sproul...

It's been wonderfully encouraging-I think the first reading might be my current favourite-it's by George Whitefield-so convicting and challenging to set our minds on Christ! Here's a little bit of it.

"And as, my brethren, the time for keeping this festival is approaching, let us consider our duty in the true observation thereof, of the right way for the glory of God, and the good of immortal souls, to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; an event which ought to be had in eternal remembrance.

What can we do to employ our time to a more noble purpose than reading of what our dear Redeemer has done and suffered; to read that the King of kings and the Lord of lords came from his throne and took upon him the form of the meanest of his servants; and what great things he underwent. This, this is a history worth reading, this is worth employing our time about..." -the whole thing is so wonderful-I encourage all of you to read it all... (this is the whole of the sermon-only part is in the book)

But tonight, I was struck by this beautiful prayer from the Valley Of Vision placed before the start of the book. A wonderful prayer for our hearts at Christmas and always

"O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,

and enlarge my mind;

Let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing,

believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my

eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with

them upon my Reddemer's face, and in him

account myself delivered from sin;

let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my

heart,

embrace him with undying faith,

exulting that he is mine and i am his.

In him thou has given me so much that heaven can

give no more."

God is so incredible...this year, Christmas truths have just been bowling over my heart-knocking me down and making me laugh and cry at the amazing mercy of God in Christ-it is really shocking when we think about it-that the God of the Universe, the King of Kings would take on flesh and come live a perfect, holy life we couldn't and die the death we deserved...that He would come to save sinful people from the wrath they deserved and that God would come in such a lowly, humble way-in a stable with animals all around...no dignitaries, no great kings, no gold throne or crown...but in lowliness he came and those who first saw him were shepherds and wise men from the East...incredible! God's infinite, inscrutable wisdom! His ways are not ours!