The forever emancipation for mankind entered history that very night......For a child has been born - for us! The gift of a son - for us!
He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He'll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom.
He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going with fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always.
The zeal of GOD-of-the Angel-Armies will do all this. Isaiah 9:6-7 The Message.
The first emancipation came with the birth of Jesus Christ to Joseph and Mary. God came near and began a chain of redemptive and restorative work in a broken world.
He came to put things right, set us straight, pull us together, see us through, give us strength, bring us hope, build us up, make us whole. Most of all, He came to love.
There would not be Christmas if there had been no Christ. There would be no reason to hope if not for the love of God. The world would be lost to its darkness.
Imagine a Christmas without shopping, feasting and partying; but one spent in expectation of the Christ, the significance surrounding his birth and coming.
"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. John 3:13 The Message.
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him,
anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was.
He came to help, to put the world right again. John 3:16-18 The Message.
"The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heaven born is in a league of his own.
He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven. No one wants to deal with these facts. But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth. John 3:31-33 The Message.
Just ask the woman at the well, she knew firsthand what an encounter with Jesus was like.
So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."......Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:5-7, 9-10 NKJV.
What is this "living water" that Jesus was referring to?
Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:13-14 NKJV. Source of life, source for life.
Breaking down barriers
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:19-24 NKJV.
This is just an account of an encounter with Jesus amongst many others. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. John 21:25 NKJV. This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. (The gospel according to) John 21:24 NKJV.
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