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| A Father's Heritage to Share by CM Dudash |
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| Searching for the King by CM Dudash |
God moved in the lives of humble seekers of Him to bring this about. In today's reading we meet the not so humble ones. After centuries of prophecies of a coming Messiah, news of a new king being born is TROUBLING to Herod and all of Jerusalem. God's greatest gift to mankind is a perceived threat to their power structure. Herod inquired of the chief priests and scribes as to where the Christ was to be born. They knew exactly where because of the prophecy that He would be born in Bethlehem. Yet, when all the signs the Jews sought were fulfilled, they missed their Messiah, God's gift to them, because they were more invested in this life on earth, than God's eternal Kingdom. An important insight for us in a culture of self, acquisition and status.
The Wise Men left and followed the star till it came and stood over where the young child was. They came into the house, saw the child with His mother Mary and fell down and worshiped Him for whom a star was born. When they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold for the KING OF KINGS, frankincense for the Priest of Priests and myrrh for the sacrifice. Then God warned them in a dream not to return to Herod and they left another way
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Oh let us seek Him and worship Him in joyous adoration!
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Order prints of A Father's Heritage to Share.
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5 comments:
Hi Sheri. Love your comments! Thanks so much for the time and love you have been putting into this blog. How wonderful it's been to soak up the real meaning of the season by celebrating Jesus the entire month!
I was just listening to the Crabb Family sing "I'd Rather Have Jesus Than Anything". Are we not blessed among women to comprehend the treasure...the gift we have been given.
Not having to settle for the fleeting pleasures of this world apart from Christ, but granted the privilege and honor of knowing HIM. I have to pinch myself everyday when I think about it :o)
Hi Annie,I love the story of the Coming of our Lord and have been inspired by you, Marjie, Elisheva and MCB. We are blessed and have such great treasure in recognizing the glory of God in the face of Jesus... in recognizing who He is and what He has done for us, in taking on human form... enduring torture and painful death, that we could find forgiveness and reconciliation, peace, with God. Glory to God.
Thank you Sheri!
The story of the Three Wise Men... I've read somewhere... oh so many years ago that there was more likely to have been 300 of them rather than 3... whatever the case is... this story is just so intriguing! There are so many theories on the Wise Men, who they were, where they came from. We don't even know their names. Tradition calls them Gaspar, Belthazzar and Melchior (is that right?) but I doubt those were there names. The mystery surrounding these men has created a few traditions concerning them.
These men were likely important people who had a position in this world, pagans and Gentiles. What's most important to know rather than facts concerning them is that they were God seekers, Truth seekers. They desired Truth so much that God saw their hearts and He brought them miraculously to the Truth, Jesus Himself!
Whoever seeks shall find. True God-seekers find Him eventually because He leads them to Himself.
Thank You Elisheva, this is beautiful!
Over the years, I have often marveled that when God does something, He impossibly weaves many people and events together into one wondrous tapestry.
Mary and Joseph surely knew the scriptures that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. What if they had taken the initiative to relocate to Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecies? Skeptics would have had fuel for a belief that the whole messiah thing was contrived. But for Caesar to order a census and command each family to go to their ancestor's town -- at the exact time Mary was due to give birth -- what a miraculous fulfillment of God's prophetic words from centuries before!
The Magi represented the Gentiles whom the Savior had come to reconcile to God along with the Jews. The precious gifts they presented to Jesus of gold (a gift worthy of a King), frankincense (burned in worship of God) and myrrh (used for burial) symbolized gifts for who Jesus was -- our king, our God, and soon-to- be crucified Savior.
The Magi's expensive gifts were doubtless used by Joseph and Mary to provide for their family's needs during their exile in Egypt where they fled to protect Jesus from the deadly wrath of King Herod.
God's purposes and methods are truly wondrous!
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