(CFRA broadcast date: December 25^th, 2011 - #658)

___________________________________________________________________

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/5503/good_news_658_dec25.mp3 
______________________________________________________________

Broadcast Notes:

********************************************************************

 ‘God Moved Into Our Neighbourhood’            

John 1:14

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. … and the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us."

A grandfather was visiting his grandson one Christmas when he walked into the family room and saw the toddler standing up in his playpen, crying.

His face was red and tear-stained.

When little Jeffy saw his grand-dad, his face lit up and his hands reached out for help as he pleaded,                                         

“Out, papa, out!”

What grandfather could resist this plea?

 And so he walked over to the playpen and reached down to lift his little buddy out of captivity.

Just then, “Law and Order” stepped into the room with a dishtowel in her hand and spoke sternly,

“Jeffy, you know better.

You’re being punished.

Leave him right there, Dad.”

And she marched back out of the room.

The grandfather didn’t know what to do.

Jeffy’s tears and outstretched hands tugged at his heart, but he didn’t want to interfere with a mother’s discipline either.

He couldn’t stand being in the same room and not being able to do anything but he couldn’t leave without feeling like a traitor.

Papa then had an idea.

Since he couldn’t take Jeffy out of the playpen,  he decided to climb in with him.

That’s a pretty good picture of what Jesus did for us…

He climbed in with us.

The Word became flesh and tabernacled with us.

 ******************************************************************

Do you remember the movie “O God!”

starring George Burns and John Denver?

In one scene, George Burns makes an appearance to the supermarket manager, dressed as an old man, wearing tennis shoes and a fishing hat.

When asked why he looks the way he does, Burns answers,

“I picked a look you could understand.”

That’s a pretty good description of the birth at Bethlehem

.  

God picked a look we could understand  

by having His Son born as a human being.

·         While Jesus probably didn’t wear a fishing cap,

      He hung around a group of men that did

·         He smelled of fish.

·         His hands were calloused from years of handling rough lumber.

·         His skin was tanned from the Middle Eastern sun.

He was human in every way we are and yet was without sin.

Here’s this years Christmas Challenge!

·         Celebrate the holiday

·         Consecrate this holy day

·         Center of the meaning.

Every Lord’s Day should be kept as:

·         Holy

·         Happy

·         Healthy

Here’s this years Christmas Challenge!

·         Celebrate the holiday                           Happy

·         Consecrate this holy day                   Holy

·         Center on His birth

                       His love

                       His forgiveness                    Healthy

     

The first part of verse 14 says that the “Word became flesh…”

The Message reads like this:

‘The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood’

This is the single, most unique quality of Christianity that makes it different from any other religion:

                                                                    

For 33 years God moved into our neighborhood.

The Message says:

‘The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes,

the one-of-a-kind glory.

like Father, like Son,

Generous inside and out,

True from start to finish.’

Some of you have been hit with some pretty bad stuff this

year and you’re still reeling.

The question is this: 

Have you invited Him to move into your heart and life?

1   God’s Perfect Timing

Gal.4: 4

 “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law,”

Not only was the birth of Jesus on God’s timetable, but also He lived out His whole life on God’s schedule.

Daniel 9: 25 tells us

that there would be 483 years between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, which took place in 445 B.C., and the advent of

“Messiah the Prince.”

In A.D. 32 Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem

exactly 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

1   God’s Perfect Timing

2   God’s Perfect  Plan

He Looks beyond our Fault

and sees our greatest need.

Our Greatest Need

·         If our greatest need had been information,

      God would have sent us an educator.

·         If our greatest need had been technology,

      God would have sent us a scientist.

·         If our greatest need had been money,

      God would have sent us an economist.

·         If our greatest need had been pleasure,

      God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness,

so God sent us a Savior.

(Author Unknown)

1   God’s Perfect Timing

2   God’s Perfect Plan

3   God’s Perfect Name

Names are Important!

Zacharias     =   God has remembered

Elizabeth       =   God has promised

John              =   God is Gracious!

Jesus             =   Savior     Luke 1:31

Immanuel      =   God with us

What Child is this?

The Creator

The Ruler

The Great High Priest

The Savior

The Resurrection and Life

The Righteous Judge

The Everlasting Father

Christ the King!

Immanuel      =   God with us  

                           Matthew 1:3

Many religious people see Jesus as a

·         great teacher, and a political performer, but nothing more.

     

·         Hindus have come to revere Jesus as a self-realized saint  who reached the highest level of "God-consciousness."

·         Buddhists see Him as a perfectly enlightened being, full of compassion who helps other people. 

                                                                                          

·         Islam sees Him as a prophet.

Here’s the Christmas Challenge

The Challenge is to ‘Impart’ not ‘Impress’

In 1994, two Christian missionaries answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics in a large orphanage.

About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage.

It was nearing Christmas and they decided to tell them the story of Christmas. It would be the first time these children had heard the story of the birth of Christ. They told them about Mary and Joseph

arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.

Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.

When the story was finished, they gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger.

Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins that they had brought with them since no colored paper was available in the city.

Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw.

Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket.

A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt which the missionaries had also brought with them.

It was all going smoothly until one of the missionaries

sat down at a table to help a 6 year old boy named Misha.

He had finished his manger. When the missionary looked at the little boy’s manger, she was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger.

Quickly, she called for the translator to ask Misha why there were two babies in the manger.
Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, Misha began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending. He said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma

and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay.

Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did.

But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift.

I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift" And Jesus told me,

"If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him-for always."

Mishna means  ‘You Matter to me’

 ___________________________________________________

To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/5503/good_news_658_dec25.mp3