Zacharias, Elizabeth, and John are involved in setting up the first Christmas. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus are involved in setting up the first Christmas. Caesar, Rome, and Roman soldiers and tax collectors are involved in the first Christmas, but no one was more involved in the first Christmas than God the Father was!
Christmas is God’s temporary invasion into human history at exactly the right time and place in order to pay man’s sin-debt through shedding His innocent blood on a Roman cross, being buried in a rich man’s tomb, and rising from the dead—according to Scripture. It’s “Bigger AND Better!” than we understand.
Any believer who thinks he doesn’t matter doesn’t understand the biblical imagery of the Church—the Body of Christ. The human body has cells that fight infection, organs that remove impurities, and organs that exchange what cannot be used for what is essential to use. Do we know how and where we as believers fit into the Body of Christ and the local church?
The “spiritual post-mortem” of our lives, our “spiritual autopsy,” will reveal what we prioritized and truly committed to during our physical life. That is quite true, and it also is quite tragic—our “spiritual autopsy” should not reveal what we prioritized, it should confirm what everyone already should have seen!
Most of the time, we are so focused on “our usual route” that we fail to take advantage of the new experiences and blessings of a detour that God arranges so that He can use us to minister to those with whom we don’t ordinarily cross paths.
“Believers should have Thanks-Living” because the LORD God is the Source of all good things which He freely and graciously sends our way—for which we should be exceedingly thankful every day of our lives!
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ today have exactly the same power available from God the Holy Spirit that was available to believers in the 1st-century, so it is not His fault that we do not see similar results!
Human effort will give a certain amount of energy, but it is unsustainable in spiritual matters. Remember the “stony ground” and the “thorny ground” in the parable of the sower? No Fruit! Only “Holy Spirit power” is consistently sustainable.
“A strategic setup move” may be quite intentional on our part—like paying off a loan early, or we may be completely oblivious to “a strategic setup move” until after the fact.