Happy Christmas!

A Jewish girl I know of - not a practising Jew, it's true, but a girl who was well aware of her Jewishness - was challenged by the testimony of a Christian. So she bought herself a Bible.

In it, she found the following verse:

For unto us a child is born,
  Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon his shoulder.
  And his name will be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

She had seen the verse before, on Christmas cards. She had assumed it was from the New Testament. She was shocked to find it was from the Old Testament, spoken by the prophet Isaiah some 700 years before Jesus was born - one of the many verses in the Old Testament which speak of Jesus.

For unto us a child is born, Unto us a Son is given. Not unto us a Son is born, unto us a child is given. Jesus is eternally the Son of God. How marvellous that God should present His greatest Gift in the person of a little child!

And the government will be upon his shoulder. He's coming back to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. Every eye will see Him. Every knee will bow, and every tongue confess Him Lord.

Wonderful. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Counsellor. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Mighty God. He was there at Creation. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not made any thing that was made.

Everlasting Father. Jesus said I and my Father are one. Prince of Peace. When He comes, He will rule with a rod of iron, and people will not learn war any more.

In the meantime, you can recognise Him for who He is, and ask Him into your heart. He will come in, and you will know Him personally in a way that's hard to imagine if you haven't done it. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.  John 1:12.

May you have a happy, blessed, Christ-filled Christmas.