Christmas-A Story of Surrender, Obedience and Blessings

Christmas, is to me a story of surrender, obedience and blessing.

Surrender: When the angel of the Lord came to Mary and declared to her, what was to happen to her. She responded 38"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38). It was a difficult thing Mary was asked to do considering the atmosphere of those times. She couldn't have a child without a husband, else if found out, she could be stoned to death. However forgetting all the shame and ridicule she might go through, she rejoiced over what God was giving her. She even sang a song of praise upon hearing the good news the angel of God had brought to her. Didn't she know what would happen if people heard about it??? Yet she surrendered "May it be to me as you have said". Would we be willing to give up our honour or respect so that our Lord can work in our lives too?

Obedience:Soon Joseph would have seen signs in Mary being a mother, without him even being together with her. (Matthew 1:18) He wondered how could this be?? "Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18-20 )
This righteous man Joseph, believing the word of the angel did what the angel asked him to. 24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (Matthew 1:24). He acted in obedience. The only way Mary could be saved from ridicule or being stoned to death, was her being with Joseph. It was important for Joseph to accept Mary just as she was, with the baby. Joseph obeyed God. Is there a limit to obedience, but when there is limitless obedience to God, the blessings are limitless too.

Blessing:Mary and Joseph were blessed with the task of parenting the most Holy most wonderful child of all, the Son of God, who would now be known as their baby. God identifying so personally, so genetically with his own creation. Can you imagine that!!! These two humans acted in faith and in courage in accepting God's will for their lives. Did they know they would be known and remembered every year at Christmas, I dont think so. Did they know people on the entire globe would know them? I dont think so. But they are known. They're obedience to God brought about the ultimate blessing to all humanity. The blessing of being reconciled with God. The blessing of knowing Jesus as their personal Saviour.

Conclusion: The blessing of baby Jesus being born to Mary and Joseph changed their lives forever, impacting the whole of the world along with their lives because of their surrender and obedience through faith, and that same blessing of our faith in our sacrificed Lord Jesus being born in our hearts has changed so many millions of lives, until this day and still does.

The invitation to partake of this joy of Christmas, the joy of surrender and obedience leading to immense blessings that overflow from one life to another, is still open. A life surrendered in obedience to know the Living Lord Jesus, still capable of impacting lives, like Mary and Joseph's lives did. A life that shines forth for the glory of God. A life that cares for not their personal profit, but for others. A life that not only changes itself through obedience and surrender to Jesus Christ, but also impacts and transforms families, neighbourhood and cities, towns and countries and the worlds is still available. Not a selfish life, but a selfless one. It has now been fulfilled, Mary did give birth to a child, they did name Him Jesus and He still saves people from their sins.

"21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:19-21)

Relentless Surrender

David's sin of 'stealing' Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah, brought him consequences, just as God had said. In 2 Samuel 12:11 we read "11 "This is what the LORD says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.' " " Now thats a pretty strong statement from God regarding, and now we even see some of the consequences. The events that take place in David's life from this point(when he sinned) on are events that bring him disgrace, dishonour and shame. Firstly his firstborn through Bathsheba dies then , Amnon (David's son) misbehaves with his sister (Tamar) (though they may not be from the same mother, atleast they were brothers and sisters from the same father), due to this incident a number of killings take place(Absalom (Tamar's brother kills Amnon),and Absalom flees. David longs for his son Absalom. Well in a course of time, Absalom does return to David, only to start plotting to take the kingdom away from him, even though David welcomes him home with a kiss and love. How much more can David take, I wonder. For once his life was going well as a king, yet now he has serious family problems, and David flees from Absalom "14 Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, "Come! We must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword." (2 Samuel 15:14). Even at this point, David does not fight his situation, he tells the priest Zadok "25 Then the king said to Zadok, "Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the LORD's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. 26 But if he says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him." (2 Samuel 15:25)

Lessons I learnt

1. Sin brings death, but God has taken that away, the after effects still remain- Now what does that mean? Didn't Jesus die for our sins and take it away, so I may not have any problems, you may ask. Yes thats true, but thats not a guarantee for us to sin more. Its like, you want to get some place and got into the wrong train, and you've gone a whole way in the opposite direction than, to where you were supposed to go. No money, no time, no one to help, no place to stay...because your place of stay was booked at your original destination. Thats when Jesus can help you out to get onto 'the' way and get you back onto the right path to get you to your original destination. Well it might take a while for you to get back but then, you will surely get back if you follow His directions. In the process, the amount of distance you travel to get back on track as the consequences you might face due to the wrong path taken earlier. Thats what happened with David (2 Samuel 12:13) "13 Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, [a] the son born to you will die." When we ask for forgiveness, our sins are definitely taken away, we're free from it, yet if we've done something that will drastically, change our present and our future, it may take a while before we get everything back in order. (For eg killing for money,taking drugs..etc which have long lasting effects..unlike telling lies, or badmouthing a person). However God's grace and mercy is with us, to help us overcome the after effects of sin.
2. Relentless surrender-thats how David made it through all that trouble- David's response teach me that, he knew that the only way out for him through all the trouble that had come upon him due to his sin, was through his only Saviour, Lord God Almighty and so he was open to whatever God would decide for him. "25 Then the king said to Zadok, "Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the LORD's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. 26 But if he says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him." He had learnt over time, no man could help, he knew his position as a child of God, hence he could take a stand like this one. If there was anyone who could help David, David knew that it was God Himself.
3. Confidence in God's decisionthrough remembering God's goodness-David's surrender of self, could not have come out of nowhere. When he was young, he spent lots of time shepherding the sheep and making melody to the Lord, he had developed his relationship with the Lord and He was confident that God would be the ONLY one in favour of him. God would be the only one to rescue him. Not only this, but also that He remembers what God had done for him in the past. Remember the psalm he wrote "1BLESS (AFFECTIONATELY, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name!
   2Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits-- 3Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases," (Psalms 103:1-3)

Conclusion: For us who have slipped in life, David's life demonstrates hope and strength in our Living God. We may not be able to go back into the past and change the wrong decisions we might have made, but we sure can stay connected to our Living and Loving Heavenly Father in the present to avoid making mistakes in the future and therefore like David, become the kind of people God planned for us to be. The key, as seen from David's life is, not to dwell in sin, but to get up, seek forgiveness and let God help us out of it. The lesson is to build the confidence in God's plan, like David had, so God may bring out the best in us. That confidence which comes through a continual connection with the Almighty.This confidence will take us through. Therefore let us hold fast to the confession of our faith, for He who called us is Faithful.

Surrendered Life-Renders Blessings

Today I start another life journey....this time with Ruth.This book of the Bible has been by far the most impacting book in my life. Last night I lay down thinking about her life...etc..and now I write them down.
Ruth's Background:Ruth is a Moabite. Moabites are people from Moab. Moab was a generation that came out of Lot through disobedience and evil. Lot's daughters got him drunk and they each lay down with him to have children. "36So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. 37When the older daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Moab.[b] He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Moabites. 38When the younger daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Ben-ammi.[c] He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Ammonites." Genesis 19:36-38. Here's what happened some time after all this "Deuteronomy 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. " So we see Ruth from a background, which came out of evil, she probably had not known the God of the Israelites who was jealous for His people. Now Elimelech with his wife Naomi sojourns (goes to another country for a short while) to Moab. They had sons Mahlon and Chilion who were married to Ruth and Orpah respectively.

Naomi's husband is dead, Ruth's husband is dead so also is Orpah's husband. There are no more members in their family. Naomi had nothing to give to her daughters and she asks them to leave her and go back to their own country as she plans to return to Bethlehem. Orpah returns but Ruth clings on to Naomi-"16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17).

I wondered, why would Ruth not want to go back and remain in Moab. She sounds so desperate to go with Naomi, that the only way she wishes to part her mother-in-law is through death. Now this woman was desperate to get out of all the situation she was in. She wanted out of everything, Moab was about. She wanted out...desperately.

What was it that interested her to come out? "6 When she(Naomi) heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there." (Ruth 1:6). Naomi wanted to return because she heard of the way God had come down to help His people. Ruth might have wondered wow I never knew of a God who helped His people like that, since her forefathers (the Moabites) wouldn't have seen God work in the way He worked for the Israelites. Ruth wanted what they(Israelites) had.

Did she make the right choice? Would God accept her? Would the people accept her? What would happen? She's a Moabite after all and there is a whole horrid past that she's running from. Moab didn't have anything to offer to her, only all the evil there is, only fleshly lusts, only being harassed by evil men and women. She knew that Moab was only a cycle of evil, with no way out. In Naomi she found something that gave her some hope, something that could change her life. Something that could make meaning out of her senseless and meaning less life in Moab......

Yes she did-I am soooooooooo glad to say that she did find meaning when she went into Bethlehem(house of bread) in Judah(house of praise) of Ephratha(fruitful), to hand her life to God, to submit to a God she had not known, only heard. Do you know what happens with such kind of surrendered life? A life, which cares not of what will happen to it, if it surrenders itself to a Living God.A life which does not know what will happen tomorrow. A life willing to face criticism from people who have tried to believe (in their own strength) and failed. A life ready to face any challenge that comes on, just for following a Living God. A life even given over to the point of death being the sole thing to part it from God. Ruth wanted such a life.

What did she get out of all this she was willing to die for?
Her name in the geneology of Jesus Christ Himself" 5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of King David. ........16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ."(Matthew 1). She got be Jesus our Lord's, great great great great...grand mom. What a wonderful blessing!!!
Also, as I know now, she had such a beautiful life after that decision, that it was worth being recorded in the list of books, the Bible, a life lesson book named Ruth.

Lesson: No matter what background, or past we're carrying. No matter how daunting or taunting or haunting our past life has been, when that life, is surrendered to the point of totality in the hands of a Living God, God can impact a whole world with that kind of life. Not only in that person's lifetime but in lifetimes to come. Generations that would never see that person will be impacted. Such lives, impact way beyond their lifetime. Now the question is for us who live now. There are many people trying to prove God as all that He is not. In this time, can we dare to stand up like Ruth did and trust God no matter what and let our lives in God's hand be a tool?