Hosanna Restoration Church

Forgive me while a clarify something. This is not the holiday season; it is the celebration of the birth of Christ. It began with giving thanks for all the blessings we have received. We called that holiday Thanksgiving and it was established to give thanks to God. The next celebration, which is to celebrate the birth of Christ, is Christmas. Christmas without Christ leaves only a mess in my estimation. I should know. I messed up a lot of them!

That said, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we celebrating the greatest witness of God’s great love for the world. We cannot think of the birth of Christ without remembering His death and resurrection. Yes truly, God so loved the world.

However, even those who do not believe in His witness cannot say that God failed to give us of evidence that He is the living God. Paul was telling the people about this in order to keep them from sacrificing to him. He and Barnabus had been preaching when they saw a man who had faith to be healed. TheY yelled at him to get up, and he did. This convinced the people that they must gods. Paul explained that they were human beings, just like them, and that they had come to tell them about the true God.

He then pointed out that rain and good crops were gifts from God and witnesses of his greatness. It really does not matter if people care to give Him credit for it or not, the evidence is still there. All good and perfect gifts come from God. It is funny how we can live for so long and not really notice God, but then one day the light comes on and it all makes sense.

The food that we eat and the miracle of being able to digest it is yet another witness of the living God. And what can we say about joyful hearts? Oh how we love to feel joy. Our search for joy often leads to wrong actions in wrong places. I believe that even in those places and perhaps especially there, God is calling us to know true joy, and pleasure that will last. The bible tells us there is pleasure in sin for a season. But it will never satisfy like Jesus.

Jesus said that He came that our joy might be full. He came so that we might be made complete in Him. Jesus is the greatest witness and with Him in us we become witnesses. Someone is looking for proof and you are the proof they are looking for. You are the proof that God created the heavens and the earth and that He dwells in us even now by the power of the Holy Spirit.

May the world find us all carrying this proof in a vessels filled with gratitude for all that God has done for us and may Christ use us to bare witness of the great miracle of salvation. That is why Christ came into this world.