Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."¹

Christmas is such an amazing story, as Harry Reasoner, well-know television commentator shared on 60 Minutes, that "it leaves you only three ways of accepting it:

"One is cynically—as a time to make money or endorse the making of it.

"Another is graciously—the appropriate attitude for non-Christians who wish their fellow citizens all the joys to which their beliefs entitle them.

"The third is reverently. If this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord of the universe in the form of a helpless babe, it is a very important day. It's a startling idea of course. My guess is that the whole story—that a virgin was selected by God to bear his Son as a way of showing his love and concern for man—in spite of all the lip service given to it, is not an idea that has been popular with theologians.

"It's a somewhat illogical idea, and theologians like logic almost as much as they like God. It's so revolutionary a thought that it probably could only come from a God that is beyond logic and beyond theology.

"It has a magnificent appeal. Almost nobody has seen God, and almost nobody has any real idea of what he is like. The truth is that among men the idea of seeing God suddenly and standing in a very bright light is not necessarily a completely comforting and appealing idea. But everyone has seen babies and most people like them. If God wanted to be loved as well as feared, he moved correctly. If he wanted to know his people as well as rule them, he moved correctly, for a baby growing up learns all about people. And if God wanted to be intimately a part of man he moved correctly here, too, for the experience of birth and family-hood is our most intimate and precious experience.

"So it comes beyond logic. It is either all falsehood or it is the truest thing in the world. It is the story of the great innocence of God, the baby. God in the person of man has such a dramatic shock toward the heart, that if it is not true, for Christians nothing is true."²

But how can we know if the Christmas story is true or not? The person of Christ is not in doubt. He was as much a fact of history as were Julius Caesar and William Shakespeare. But was his birth on that first Christmas that of the Son of God who came to earth as a babe born in Bethlehem?

That, of course, is a question each person needs to answer for him/herself. However, for those who sincerely want an answer there is great evidence to verify that Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God.

To be concluded...

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, once again I thank you for the remarkable story of Christmas and how you gave your Son, Jesus, to come to earth as a babe so he could identify with all mankind, and then give his life on the cross to pay the penalty for all my sins so I could be freely forgiven and receive your gift of eternal life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV).
2. Harry Reasoner's Christmas Address, cited on:   http://www.examiner.com/article/harry-reasoner-s-christmas-address.

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