While most churches preach about the Babe or the little Jesus born to Mary and Joseph at Christmas, I cannot help but think beyond the manger.
Ok, some will also mention that he is the Saviour who came to bring Salvation, glad tidings and good will to men, and that is correct.
But Christmas doesn't stop there and goes even beyond.
Yes, Jesus is the Saviour of the world and each one of us needs to receiving Him personally in our heart in order to be saved.
Saved from what, some might say.
Saved from sin, for all we have gone astray and come short of the glory of God.
(Romans 3:23).
We must be born again (born from above, or born spiritually) (John 3:3) -- one individual at a time.
However, the Christmas thought doesn't stop there.
It goes beyond in every aspect of the reason for the divine birth.
My husband and I do country gospel music.
There is a song that we sing which talks about the Eastern Gate.
It says "I will meet you in the morning, just outside the Eastern Gate".
Now, that can refer to when we pass on from this life to the other.
But it also refers to another "meeting" that will take place at the Eastern Gate, when this Jesus who's birth we celebrate at Christmas will return to earth in power.
He came to earth the first time as a humble babe in a manger to grow up to deliver His message of Redemption, and to fulfill the ultimate sacrifice to pay the price for our sins through His passionate death on the cross.
But three days later, He triumphed over death and was resurrected by His power to return to heaven until the appointed time for Him to come back on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Meanwhile, He sent His Holy Spirit to guide us and continue His ministry.
While He was in the flesh during his time on this planet, He was only a child for only 12 years (Luke 2:49), a human for only 33 years (John 19:30), on the cross for only 3 hours, in the grave for only 3 days.
But, hallelujah, He rose from the dead who is the living God, the everlasting to everlasting, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega! "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means God with us).
(Matthew 1:22-23/Isaiah 7:14).
This Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, will return one day in power and might as the Messiah, who's name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, and who's shoulder the government of the world shall be upon (Isaiah 9:6).
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
" (Revelation 19:11-16) And He will enter the millennial Temple from the east, through the Eastern Gate! In Ezekiel 43, God gives the prophet a vision of the glory of this entrance and says to him: "And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.
(Ezekiel 43:7) "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
" (Zechariah 14:4) This will not be the first time Jesus entered the Eastern Gate.
In His last week on earth, just days before His crucifixion, he came meek and lowly riding on a donkey from the Mount of Olives, down into the Kidron Valley and up to the Eastern Gate where He entered the Temple Mount.
As he entered, multitudes who had seen the miracles, and the recent resurrection of Lazarus, waved palm branches and chanted, "Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
" (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:10; Luke 19:38: John 12:13).
However, right now, the Eastern Gate is closed shut.
The old city has 9 gates but only the Eastern Gate is sealed and it is the only one that leads directly onto the temple Mount.
It has been sealed since 1517 when Jerusalem was conquered by the Turks.
This had been prophesied in Ezekiel 44:1-2: "Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.
Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.
" There have been attempts at opening it up, but God supernaturally kept it from man's destruction of His plan.
During Israel's Six Day War, a news account reported by David Reagan of the "Rapture Ready Ministry", stated that one of the Jewish commando groups involved in the assault on the city suggested catching the Jordanian defenders by blowing open the sealed entrance.
But the leader of the group who was an Orthodox Jew vehemently protested the suggestion, quoting that the Eastern Gate could only be opened when the Messiah will come.
Another amazing historical fact took place, 400 years after the Turks had taken and held possession over the land, when in 1917, they were preparing to have the Eastern Gate opened.
But on that very day, General Edmund Allenby from the British army, surrounded Jerusalem and demanded surrender from the Turks.
In a miraculous turn of events, the Turks surrendered without firing a shot.
Again in 1967, Jordan's King Hussein had made plans to open up the Eastern Gate.
But on this day the 6-Day War ended and Israel regained possession of the eastern portion of Jerusalem which includes the Eastern Gate.
God is in control.
There will be a day when we will witness another entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem when Jesus will ride up to the Eastern Gate on His white horse, followed by millions of the Redeemed through the Kidron Valley.
The Eastern Gate also called the Golden Gate will somehow be opened and He will enter the City of David triumphantly, having won victory over the anti-Christ and His armies, where the remnants of the human race will shout "Hosanna to the Son of David" and crown him King of kings and Lord of lords forever.
Psalm 24:1-10 declares: "1)The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2)For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
3)Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4)He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5)He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6)This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.
Selah.
7)Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8)Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
9)Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10)Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.
Selah.
" That's who's birth we celebrate at Christmas.
We remember that God took on human flesh and blood to come unto His own.
His own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, that is to them that believe on His name.
(John 1:11-12).
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that (put your name here) believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
" (John 3:16).
That's the gift of Christmas: Personal Redemption delivered personally by God Himself.
(All scriptures quoted from the Old King James version)/dmh