God’s Gift is waiting for you. Do you plan to give your best gift ever to someone you love this Christmas? How would you feel then if Christmas Day came and he/she would not accept your gift and never even opened it? Would you be surprised to know that God would know how you feel? One Christmas after another comes and goes and God’s gift to mankind remains unopened by so many.
After Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, God revealed His amazing love and mercy by promising to give His most precious gift to all mankind. Through His chosen spokesmen on earth, God told the people what signs to watch for, so they would recognize His gift when He arrived. Those who believed God waited and watched for God’s Promised Savior.
Read how Isaiah describes God’s gift 700 years before the gift arrived:
For to Us
A Child is Born
To us a Son is Given
And the Government will be on His Shoulders
And He will be Called
Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace
Isaiah 9:6
What do you learn about God’s Gift from this description? This was no ordinary gift! At exactly the right time in history, God’s gift was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. God’s gift would have a name:
JESUS
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. They will call him Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:21, 23
An Angel Announces the Birth of Jesus
“I bring you Good News of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the Town of David
A Savior has been born to you
He is Christ the Lord”
Luke 2:10-11
The long wait was over. Jesus, a king, was born not in a palace, but a lowly stable. Wise men came from the east to worship not a baby, but the king of the Jews who has always existed. Jesus willingly laid His glory aside to be clothed in the flesh of a baby to fulfill God’s plan of salvation for both Jew and Gentile.
Jesus grew in the wisdom and knowledge of God, His Father, who confirmed Jesus at His baptism. Later, Jesus revealed His divinity to a few of His disciples who also heard God speak.
God the Father said,
“This is My Son, whom I Love
Listen to Him!”
Mark 9:7
Jesus was thirty years old when He began His public ministry. Those who wondered if Jesus was God’s promised gift did listen to Him. They hung on His every word, and many believed in Him. Jesus healed people, forgave people and He even raised people from the dead! Jesus was no ordinary man, so people were amazed, and they marveled at God’s gift! Those who saw Jesus living on earth at that time saw and heard God in the flesh! What a miraculous gift of Himself God gave to the world!
Have you Listened to Jesus?
Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:6-7, 9
Jesus told a woman who had not yet received Him,
“If you knew the Gift of God
And Who it is that asks you for a drink
You would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water”
John 4:10
Jesus told people why He came:
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:31-31
Don’t we wish this were the end of the story? While many received God’s gift and welcomed Jesus, the majority rejected His gift and even hated Jesus for no reason. One horrible, evil day the people Jesus came to save finally crushed God’s beautiful gift. With the struggle of life still within Him, and with a heart of love so impossible to understand,
Jesus asked the Father to
“Forgive Them”
In Response
They divided up His clothes by casting lots
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Him
There were two criminals, sinners like us, who were also crucified that day. They give us a picture of the two responses to God’s gift even today: belief and unbelief. One of the criminals hurled insults at Jesus and mocked Him. The other criminal rebuked him saying, “Don’t you fear God?” This criminal believed and asked Jesus to remember him when He returned to His kingdom in heaven. Jesus answered him:
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” And then Jesus said, before breathing his last, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke 23:43, 46
Jesus
Allowed Himself
To be Killed
By those He Had Created and Known
Pause and reflect on these words and then read the Bible verses below.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-3, 14
God Raised Jesus from the Dead!
When Jesus died, many were sad and lost hope because they knew there would never be another gift like this again and then……God’s Gift……was miraculously restored.
But God raised Jesus from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. Acts 2:24
Jesus first appeared to His disciples and they worshiped Him! Jesus told them that He was going back to His Father in Heaven and He promised to send His disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit who would dwell within them and remind them of all that Jesus had told them while living on earth. Today, we have the words of Jesus and all that God wants us to know in the Bible, the Word of God. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives and reigns in the hearts of all who believe in Him and they have His peace and the goodwill to men that God promised.
Jesus is Coming Again
May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones. 1 Thessalonians 3:13
Like those who waited long ago for Jesus first coming, believers in every generation now watch for His return. God has given us signs to look for that are recorded in the Bible. Will you be ready?
Jesus said, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:13
Have you received Jesus, God’s perfect gift?
Jesus said, “I tell you that there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:7
Make this the most memorable Christmas you have ever known. Tell God you want to receive His gift, Jesus Christ, as your personal Savior from sin and come home to the warmth of a relationship with Him that will never end!
For the Wages of Sin is Death
But the Gift of God is Eternal Life
In Christ Jesus our Lord
Romans 6:23
This Christmas, thank God for His indescribable gift! Jesus
Amazing love, how can it be?
That you, my King would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor you
In all I do, I honor You
I will appreciate your comment
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Bible studies
Inductive Bible Study
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Bible study for “God’s Gift”
Week 1: Psalm 51:1-10; Isaiah 9:6-7; 53:4-6; Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 1:18-25; 2:1-2; 3:16-17; 9:1-8; 16:13-17; 24:3-44; 25:13; 26:64; 28:5-6
Week 2: Mark 1:14-15; 9:2-7; Luke 2:8-12, 25-40; 3:23; 4:16-21; 5:31; 15:7; 17:24-30; 21:7-31; 23:32-46; John 1:1-3, 14; 3:16-18; 4:10-14, 23-26; 6:35-40
Week 3: John 7:37-39; 10:11, 22-33; 11:25-27, 38-44; 14:6-7, 9; 17:26-30; 20:24-31; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-20; Acts 1:1-5, 9-11; 2:22-24, 36-39; 4:12
Week 4: Romans 3:21-23, 25; 4:7-8; 5:1, 6-8; 6:23; 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:3-7, 12-19; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 3:13; 4:16-18; 5:1-11, 23-24; Revelation 1:7, 17-18; 17:14; 22:12
This is a very good word picture of Christs love for mankind. Thank you for letting the Spirit use His Word through you.
Yes, Bart, it is definately God’s message and the Spirit speaking through the words He gives me. Thank you for being willing to read and to hear.
Suzanne….what a clear and beautiful explanation of the greatest Gift of all. I loved this, especially this time of year when material gifts are exchanged and the world thinks that that is all that Christmas is about. You made is so clear that God’s gift of Jesus Christ is the Gift that the human heart needs more than any other. Thank you for turning my thoughts to the Gift who gave His life for me so that I might know Him now and forevermore.
It is amazing isn’t it to think that we are each so precious to
God that He would give His life to pay the penalty of sin and then call us His friend and His beloved children!