The Real Christmas Story

Last Sunday evening Hubby and I attended an amazing presentation by the Broodmoor Baptist Church choir and orchestra here in our city of the work,

"SAVIOUR" .

This is the whole story of our Christ from "In The Beginning" to the final number that ends with this line:

"With honor for the risen Lord we praise our coming King.  We consecrate our lives to You with thanks for all these things."

This is the story of Christmas!

From "In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," to the end where we are assured that He will come again and we, His followers will be taken into Heaven to spend eternity with Him ---

This is the story of Christmas!

It is the in-between story that tells us the most about Christmas though isn't it?

 The words "Bondage, bondage, cruel oppression and bondage" describe us as a people and why we needed a Christmas long ago and still do today.

"God was there with patient care.  He taught them all His ways and loved them as His very own...a pillar of cloud led the children by day and a fire in the night as the Lord showed the way...manna from heaven, water from stone.  Miracle power of the Lord was shown.

God in His glory Whose wonders abound is leading His children to higher ground.

The Promised Land."

Holiness and majesty God revealed for man to see!

 But we have very short memories and even shorter patience with the present.

We soon forgot those miracles and fell back into our great need for a Saviour.  One who would pay our price for the forgetfulness and inability to remain pure and holy as He intended before the plucked apple.

We needed a Saviour!

"And the people said, 'We need a Saviour, who'll come in glory and in power.  Lord, hear our cry, 'cause You know we need Him now.' " 

But, that Saviour didn't come as they expected or as we expect, did He?

Rather than coming as a king upon a great white horse and a crown of great jewels to de-throne the evilness that keeps us in bondage, He came wearing a crown of thorns.  He came demanding obedience and faithfulness and surrender.

He came as a little baby so near to the heart of God and became the "Rose of Sharon", a lovely bloom taken in its prime.

My heart broke as I heard the words and saw the images of a suffering King; a Rose with wilted petals that spoke of an unimaginable act of suffering and death.

I thought, "God, why did He have to suffer so?  Why couldn't he just die?  Why did He have to be beaten beyond recognition?  Why did He have to endure such great pain?  Couldn't your plan have been less cruel for your Only Begotten Son?

"He was despised and rejected by man.  A man who was acquainted with grief.  And as one from whom men hide their faces, we regarded as one who was stricken by God.  He was a man of sorrows."

My Saviour was born to die!

"He was pierced for our transgressions.  He was bruised for our iniquities.  By His stripes we are healed.  He bore our griefs, He was afflicted.  He was despised, we turned our backs on Him.  A man of sorrows."

We needed a Saviour!

 "It was God's plan to bruise Him that His soul be made an offering for sin.  By the fruit of His suffering He was satisfied.  This righteous Servant made many righteous.

O, precious man of sorrows."

Why that ugly, horrible cross?  Why the broken bones, the pierced flesh?  The agony?

It was a cross of love!

"This must be a cross of love, for God to bruise His only son Jesus, what a sacrifice to reach us - it had to be a cross of love.

I'll never comprehend how an act so great gave love expression."

I needed a Saviour!

 "Light of the world with hope fills the sky for gone is the power of the darkness.  The tomb that held the Son of God breaks with a cry from heaven.

'He who was dead is risen!  Up from the grave ascended!  The reign of death is ended!' "

"In that day of suffering and sorrow Son of heaven died.  God eternal slain for the sins of men."

"We can share in His resurrection because we have been liberated and so shall we live and so shall we reign in glory and power, now and forever."

So shall we live because

WE HAVE A SAVIOUR
and
 This is the Real Christmas Story!