SOAP 09/19/2011; Luke 2:10-11

Today's reading: Ezekiel 47,48; Luke 2

S)" ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'"

Luke 2:10-11 (NASB)

O) IT'S CHRISTMAS!!! See? This is the best of all Christmas movies!!!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system, there is an actual scripture to evaluate, here. First of all, the angel tells them not to be afraid. Was that just because it was bright in the night? Or, was he lion-faced? But, beyond that, the angel tells them that there is a Gospel, Good News. I find that a little ironic, as both words (angel, gospel) have roots in the same word (Gk: euangelion). It's almost redundant in that sense. It's like saying the messanger has a message... anyway, that Good News is that our Savior has arrived. That does, indeed, bring great joy and it is, thankfully, for all people. What an amazing experience it must have been, to be among the very first to know this amazing information. I love to share cool things - good music, great television shows, excellent movies - and I can only imagine how great it must have been to be that first person to know, and get to tell everyone, that Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, has arrived.

A) It's hard to share the Gospel in America, with some one who has never heard of Jesus. The difficulty, is that there are a lot of preconceived notions about what this Gospel really is. There is a lot of misinformation circulating. God the Father is full of love (not just Jesus), as we see in John 3:16 and Romans 5:8. Also, "believing in Jesus" is not really the end of it, we also have to obey Jesus, as we see in John 8:31 and 2John 1:9. Also, getting into Heaven isn't the end of the Good News; it's just the beginning of it! God blesses the here and now, as we see in Psalm 27:13 and John 10:10. Really, it goes on and on, but the bottom line is that I want to set the record straight with people. Sometimes, I feel like more people would accept Christ, if only they were shown the truth of the Gospel. I recently heard this excellent, simple breakdown:
          "love God..love one another. sin harms. thats why its wrong.
           be kind. forgive as your Father forgave."

P) Father, thank You for Christmas. It really is the best day ever, that first day. Without Jesus, I literally had no hope; I had zero chance to make it into Heaven, since I wasn't born through Israel. But, You redeemed me, God. You sent Jesus because You wanted to adopt me. I can never thank You enough; I can never repay You. Having said that, LORD, I want my response to Your love to be living my life to honor You. Help me be ever-bold in my presentation of the Gospel. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.