These were the words of Tom Brady quarterback of the New England Patriots at the end of his interview last night after their Sunday night football game win over the Pittsburg Steelers! This game was really a hard fought battle with both teams having to send players to the hospital during the game! Hopefully not with career ending injuries! Brady himself was body slammed to the ground by 300 pound plus linemen! So what was fun? Was it the pain, injuries, training or uncertainty of every game? Was it the risk of a career ending injury or death? It was the winning! The sacrifices are then forgotten! Do we have the child like excitement about Christmas? About giving? About receiving? Is it fun? In Luke chapter six Jesus is well past the manger scene! He is preparing his players for the game ahead! Jesus told His 12 players that they are going to hate you, isolate you, reproach you and call you evil because of me! Like NFL players they are going to sack you! But Jesus said to rejoice in that day! Leap for joy! You guys just won the Super Bowl! Your reward is great in Heaven! Your fathers the prophets suffered the same things! We do not like to think about suffering during the Christmas season! Yet that is why He came! To suffer for us! To make our lives fun and meaningful with purpose! To win! Losers made winners! The victory parade for you is going on in Heaven right now! While running your race sometimes the pain seems unbearable! Give your pain to Jesus! He became a curse for you! He took your pain upon Himself! We are on the same team! Jesus disciples except John all crossed the finish line with martyrdom! John was boiled in oil and then exiled to a stone quarry for slaves on the island of Patmos! They all looked beyond the finish line towards the goal and their and your victory in Christ! Those that have gone before us have prepared a way for us! Give a sacrificial gift to someone this Christmas as we were given the gift of a little baby boy born in a manger in Bethlehem! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: betlehem
The Word Made Flesh! John 1:14
We can all understand the word flesh as we share this as mortals! However, do we understand the word, “Word?” I went back to the Old testament where there are 9 Hebrew root words and to the New Testament where there are 6 Greek words. So when you combine this package of words this is what you get when God was incarnated in the flesh! God’s decree’s, purposes, promises, provision, conditions, utterances, pouring out, assurances, rational, logic, and faculty are released into the earth! One of the most interesting words I found in the Old Testament that means, “A pasture from the arrangement of it’s flock, fold or manner.” God’s sheep are out of order and He came to arrange them in order to protect them from danger! The lonely shepherd’s on the hill near Bethlehem were the real sheep God was interested in! You and I are sheep He came for as we have a bad habit of getting lost! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com