Pre-Christmas

Luke 1:18 (KJV) And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

(Proverbs 22 also read)

When I was young we used to have a Christmas pageant every year.  There was always great anticipation of who would get to be Joseph and who would get to be Mary.  The little kids were always sheep, or lambs.  There was a time when I was glad to take the position of the prophet Isaiah reading from the scroll forecasting the coming of John the Baptist and, through his preaching, the Messiah.

I’m not sure that Christmas pageants are as common as they used to be.  I think many churches skip over them and do other things.  One of the things that’s gone, that we have lost, in this change is the prophecy dealing with Zachariah and his wife in the birth of John the Baptist.  What is the miracle that we missed by skipping over?  The miracle of Elizabeth giving birth.  While Mary gives us the miracle of the virgin birth, Elizabeth gives us the miracle of someone who is past childbearing age bringing forth a baby.  We read about it with Sarah.  Now we have the same thing happening with Elizabeth.

The Christmas story can remind us of the possible miracles that can take place when God steps in.  God’s intervention is one of the things that we constantly pray for.  We just went through an election where we were praying fervently for God’s intervention.  We think He did so.  We continue praying that God’s hand will be upon the direction of the United States of America.  I personally pray as much for the church as a whole as I do for the country because I know that there will be no real permanent changes unless we have revival.  And revival involves the church becoming the church again.

So?  Will the church stand up?  There’s no way of knowing.  We know God would like it to stand up, but we don’t know if it will.  We don’t know how pastors and layman will respond to the spirit of God during this Christmas season.  If all they do is make sure that they check their list and bought gifts for everybody on it we will fail.  If they look to God as intervening in history, we may see dramatic changes.

Merry Christmas and hopefully many happy New Year’s to come.