Faith in the Virgin Birth – We remember at Christmas  the birth of Jesus. These things happened a long time ago, so we have faith, believing what has been written in the Bible about the birth of Jesus. Matthew 1: 18-25. Luke 1: 34, 35. 2: 1-7.   

God can do the impossible, through prayer God heals the body without touching the flesh and I believe in the virgin birth, Mary conceived without her flesh being touched by a man.

F – stands for ‘Family’   (someone brought out letter F)

A week before Christmas two little boys were staying with their Grandma, at bedtime they were saying their prayers. The youngest boy in a loud voice began to pray: “Dear God, please can I have a new bike and a Nintendo game?” The other boy said to him why are you shouting, God isn’t deaf? He replied, “No, but Grandma is!”

By faith we believe that Mary and Joseph left their family at Nazareth and went to register at Bethlehem for the Census. It was approximately 80 miles from Nazareth. It must have been hard for Mary, so near to the time of giving birth to contemplate going on a long journey riding on a donkey.

Some of you are going home to spend Christmas with your family and friends, for others staying at home with family having a wonderful meal with all the trimmings.

Good King Wenceslas went into a Pizza Hut for a pizza and ordered a deep pan, crisp and even pizza.

A – acceptance.

When Joseph and Mary reached Bethlehem, they found no one would accept this heavily pregnant lady, Mary probably had gone into labour by this time. Maybe they were short-staffed or perhaps the regular staff had gone to register elsewhere.

On our life’s journey there are times when we don’t feel accepted for who we are. But God in His love accepts us and wants to give us his gift of his family.

An Innkeeper offered Joseph a stable for Mary to have her baby, she gave birth to Jesus in that stable, they were surrounded by braying donkey’s, asses, and probably camels and horses.

What’s every parents favourite carol? – silent night.

OPENING THE GIFT.  Inside the box: Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus in a manger, also a scroll ‘Free Pardon’ and an Invitation to the‘Wedding Supper’ of Jesus and His Bride, the Church.

We can accept the gift of Jesus into our heart and receive a free pardon for our sin against God.

God’s Son being born as one of us was in order to redeem us from sin and for us to become a child belonging to the family of God.

The meaning of the cross.

Before Jesus was born, a person came with their lamb offering to the temple and stood at the entrance into the court where the altar and the Laver where situated.  A priest came to them and they presented their offering, it could have been : a lamb, goat, or a bird, they laid their hand on its’ head and prayed their sin onto it, then it was killed,  and the priest caught the blood in a bowl and its blood was sprinkled onto the altar for forgiveness of sin. This was repeated to deal with sin. Leviticus 1: 1-5.         This is what the cross is about; Jesus takes our sin upon himself, he is our sin bearer. God sent Jesus to be the lamb that takes our sin upon himself on the cross where he died and because he was innocent of sin himself, God raised Jesus from the dead, so when we  turn to Jesus in repentance for our sin, we are totally forgiven, our sin permanently deleted, and it’s a new beginning, a fresh start.

A friend of mine Lucy gave me permission to tell her story.  Lucy was out walking her dogs along the disused  railway track at Musberry  in Haslingden, when she saw a life-size Jesus on the cross, he looked grey in his appearance and she discerned  that he had taken her sin upon himself and it was causing him pain which upset her.                      Lucy received Jesus as her Saviour, her experience of seeing Jesus is rare, but this  is what is going on when we say sorry to God and God forgives us through what Jesus has done for each one of us on the cross

The gift includes  the complete trinity of God. God the Father, Jesus his Son and God’s Holy Spirit.

I – invitation.

There’s an old saying, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. When we arrive in heaven, we might be surprised by who we see there.

With the gift there is an invitation to Jesus’ Marriage Supper. Jesus told a story: Wedding invitations were sent out, but the people invited didn’t turn up, so God said, “Go and invite the poor, the lame, every one you meet on the streets, so those people are you and me, we are invited to Jesus’ Wedding Supper that will take place in heaven.

T – truth. There are many Santa’s’ and Father Christmas’ but only one St Nicolas and there’s only one Jesus. The truth of what Jesus has done for us in his death and resurrection becomes reality when we experience God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit making their home in our heart.

H – hope. Santa asked the little boy what he wanted for Christmas? He replied, “Didn’t you get my email?”

Jesus is the hope for the world. In my study of the scriptures I believe that when Jesus returns to the earth, he will come with his believers and he will sort out our pollution problems and conflicts will end because he will rule the earth for 1,000 yrs.

Having faith is to believe and have the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, what we cannot see will appear.