[SeptemberMorn]

Luke 2:4-19

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

[(JD)]

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<font color="purple">[b]The Truth of the Nativity
John MacArthur<center>
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The story of the first Christmas is so beloved that singers and storytellers across the centuries have embellished and elaborated and mythologized the story in celebration. However, most people now don't know which details are biblical and which are fabricated. People usually imagine the manger scene with snow, singing angels, many worshipers, and a little drummer boy. None of that is found in the biblical account.
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Christmas has become the product of an odd mixture of pagan ideas, superstition, fanciful legends, and plain ignorance. Add to that the commercialization of Christmas by marketers and the politicization of Christmas in the culture wars, and you're left with one big mess. Let's try to sort it out. The place to begin is in God's Word, the Bible. Here we find not only the source of the original account of Christmas, but also God's commentary on it.

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We can't know Jesus if we don't understand He is real. The story of His birth is no allegory. We dare not romanticize it or settle for a fanciful legend that renders the whole story meaningless. Mary and Joseph were real people. Their dilemma on finding no room at the inn surely was as frightening for them as it would be for you or me. The manger in which Mary laid Jesus must have reeked of animal smells. So did the shepherds, in all probability. That first Christmas was anything but picturesque.

<font color="black">But that makes it all the more wondrous. That baby in the manger is God! Immanuel!
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That's the heart and soul of the Christmas message. There weren't many worshipers around the original manger-only a handful of shepherds. But one day every knee will bow before Him, and every tongue will confess He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11). Those who doubt Him, those who are His enemies, those who merely ignore Him-all will one day bow, too, even if it be in judgment.

<font color="purple">How much better to honor Him now with the worship He deserves! That's what Christmas ought to inspire.
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Unvarnished Truth

Luke 2:7 sets the scene: [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.?

That verse is explicitly concerned with a lonely birth. There were no midwives, no assistance to Mary at all. The Bible doesn't even mention that Joseph was present. Perhaps he was, but if he was typical of first-time fathers, he would have been of little help to Mary. She was basically on her own.

Mary brought forth the child; she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths; and she laid Him in a manger. Where usually a midwife would clean the baby and wrap Him, there was no one. Mary did it herself. And where usually there would have been a cradle or basket for the baby, there was none. Mary had to put Him in an animal's feeding trough.

When Christ entered the world, He came to a place that had some of the smelliest, filthiest, and most uncomfortable conditions. But that is part of the wonder of divine grace, isn't it? When the Son of God came down from heaven, He came all the way down. He did not hang on to His equality with God; rather, He set it aside for a time and completely humbled Himself (Philippians 2:5-8).
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Unlikely Testimony

Luke 2:8-20 describes the experience of the shepherds when Jesus was born. Think about that for a moment. Out of the whole of Jerusalem society, God picked a band of shepherds to hear the news of Jesus' birth. That's intriguing because shepherds were among the lowest and most despised social groups.

The very nature of shepherds' work kept them from entering into the mainstream of Israel's society. They couldn't maintain the ceremonial washings and observe all the religious festivals and feasts, yet these shepherds, just a few miles from Jerusalem, were undoubtedly caring for sheep that someday would be used as sacrifices in the temple. How fitting it is that they were the first to know of the Lamb of God!

More significant, they came to see Him the night he was born.<font color="black"> No one else did.<font color="purple"> Though the shepherds went back and told everyone what they had seen and heard, and though all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds (v. 18), not one other person came to see firsthand.

Scripture doesn't describe how the shepherds' search for the baby Jesus actually unfolded, but it's not unreasonable to assume that they entered Bethlehem and asked questions: Does anybody know about a baby being born here in town tonight??

The shepherds might have knocked on several doors and seen other newborn babies before they found the special Child lying in the feeding trough. At that moment, those humble men knew for certain that the angels' announcement was a word from God. After their encounter with Joseph and Mary and Jesus, the shepherds couldn't help but tell others about what the angels had told them. They became, in effect, the first New Testament evangelists.

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The shepherd's story is a good illustration of the Christian life. You first hear the revelation of the gospel and believe it (Romans 10:9-10). Then you pursue and embrace Christ. And having become a witness to your glorious conversion, you begin to tell others about it (Luke 2:17).
May God grant you the life-changing spiritual experiences and the ongoing attitude of enthusiasm and responsiveness that causes you to tell others that you, too, have seen Christ the Lord.</font></font>
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Adapted from God's Gift of Christmas, © 2006 by John MacArthur.Printed with permission.

[PasDeDeux]

Thank you Sept and Sky

[mylife4him]

Please, come with me to the manger.

Mangers are rectangular boxes cut out of limestone or cut from the natural stone of the cave used as a stall. Their size is about three feet long, 18 inches wide, and two feet deep.

Those waiting for the Messiah should have prepared a place, a nice cradle into which Mary could have laid the body of God incarnated.

Of course, the manger was not actually intended for Jesus, but for the animals. At birth He was rejected. Later He identified Himself with the poor and the needy.

He exchanged the throne of heaven for the manger, and the companionship of adoring angels for the beasts of the stall. Apparently nobody cooperated with God to have a place ready for the Child. Yet the reference to the manger suggests the opposite.

The manger! The person who made it never imagined the glorious future of this particular manger. When building it, he was simply performing an assigned task. Had he only known, quite possibly he would have added some special features to make it more elegant and comfortable. He took that which God had created—the stone—and from it crafted a manger. God and this individual worked together to prepare the manger for the Son of God. This man performed this task without realizing that God was using him in a very special project. Awesome thought!

Yes, a place was ready for the Son of God. He was born, and Mary “wrapped him in cloths and placed him in the manger” (verse 7, NIV)

Mary followed the common practice of using strips of cloth, similar to bandages, to wrap them around the Child in order to keep His limbs straight. Then, in the absence of a crib, she placed Him in the manger. (Personaly, I would never put a baby of mine in a manger, so I am sure Mary was guided by Holy help)

Jesus would go through that experience once more. In the future He would again be wrapped in cloths and placed inside a rock: “Then he took it [Jesus’ body] down [from the cross], wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock” (Luke 23:53, NIV). Born in loneliness, separated from the world of humans, He died rejected by them, still in loneliness. The rock in the form of a manger and the rock in the form of a tomb seem to mirror each other across the ministry of the Child.The manger anticipates the tomb.

The shepherds were faithfully performing their responsibilities when a choir of angels interrupts them.

“The Messiah,” they say, “has been born today, tonight, in the city of David!”

Bethlehem was a small village. It wouldn’t take long for the shepherds to go through it. But how would they be able to identify the Child, the Messiah?

“This is the sign,” the angels say. “You will find him wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (see Luke 2:12).

The manger was indeed a sign, not only in the sense that it confirmed what the angels said, but also in that it pointed to the mission of the Child.

The shepherds knew about mangers. They spent their lives around mangers. Perhaps they themselves even made them or saw others making them. They trained animals to go to the manger to find their food. In fact, the manger was the table from which the animals fed themselves. Hay was placed in it for them to eat.

No doubt the shepherds knew every place in town where there was a manger. But this particular manger was unique because the Messiah was lying in it. It was filled with the life-giving, life-sustaining presence of the Son of God. In the manger God was offering to His creation and to the human race the only means by which their lives could be sustained, namely, the body of His beloved Son. There was no hay in this manger! God placed Himself there as a gift of life. Yes, the manger was a sign—a sign of the life-giving power of God through the Messiah.

The truth is that shepherds never had to look for mangers. The animals were the ones who raised their heads when they were hungry and looked around for the manger. Isaiah wrote, “The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger” (Isa. 1:3). But in this story the ones who hunger are not the animals, but the shepherds. During the long nights they probably talked among themselves about the coming of the Messiah, and their hearts burned inside them with the urge to see Him. There was a deep spiritual hunger in their very beings.

They left the hills and went in search of the manger—the mysterious manger no one knew about. The shepherds became like the ox or the sheep, looking for the manger, in search of heavenly food. And they found it!

In the eyes of the educated, the shepherds belonged to the lower social class; The Child in the manger was offered first to the despised and rejected of society. The Messiah particularly identified Himself with those at the bottom. He became one of them. He was counted among them. In this life-giving manger the shepherds would always find the food of life.

The shepherds found the manger and discovered the Child, the Messiah. They glorified God and praised Him for the wonders He had done for them, for what they had heard and for what they had seen—the Child in the manger.

At this point , something glorious happened to the manger. It became a center of worship and adoration. It became an altar. On it was a sacrificial victim. Jesus was born, like most sacrificial victims, in a stall.

We usually overlook the fact that animals were used as types of the Messiah. That night in Bethlehem the Lamb was born among lambs. Before He was recognized as the Son of man, He was the Lamb born in a stall and placed in a manger.

Yes, lambs were born in stalls—but they were never placed inside mangers! They learned early to go to the manger to eat from it.

In the presence of the Child lying in the manger the response is adoration. In worship and adoration we recognize what the Lord placed for us in the manger. He was placed there for all of us and for the rest of creation. He was the greatest gift that the Father could have provided for the world—the heavenly food. The shepherds knew the manger had a message of salvation for all; they were able to understand the mystery of the manger, and they worshiped at this altar.

From the manger this Lamb will go to the cross as God’s sacrifice on behalf of the human race. Indeed, the manger comes before the cross as the altar where the Son of God offered Himself, His body and His blood, for the preservation of life on this planet. No longer simply the table from which the animals eat, the manger is God’s table from which all creation may eat and live. It is the altar around which we as Christians can come together to worship, to feed our souls with the divine manna.

But we must remember that the Child did not remain in the manger. His Father placed Him on the throne of the universe. He moved from the manger to the throne of God! He was born to be king, and He became king. Next time we see Him—and believe me, we shall see Him—He will not be wrapped in swaddling clothes, but in the most glorious kingly outfit that we could ever imagine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR JESUS!

[(JD)]

Lovely.

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Yes, lambs were born in stalls—but they were never placed inside mangers! They learned early to go to the manger to eat from it

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EUREKA! What an ephiphany I've had here! Thank you.

Christ is the bread of life.

[SeptemberMorn]

Thank you so much for this beautiful, soulful perspective!! I'm in tears! Tears of wonder and gratitude!

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of Everlasting Life through your Son, Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life!