Christmas
Greetings 2011 
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Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I
thank my God for blessing us with another wonderful opportunity to celebrate
HIS INDESCRIBABLE GIFT-the unique birth of His only Begotten Son to be our
Savior.
To
celebrate this amazing gift in a meaningful way, this year, I have been
reflecting on Galatians 4:4-7.
What a brief but blessed account of the Christmas Story tucked away in
this Epistle!
As
I prayed and pondered over this passage, I am freshly and forcefully reminded
that our Savior’s birth occurred at God’s APPOINTED
TIME. It happened in His perfect timing or as the Bible says, “at the
fullness of the time” (Galatians 4:4). I am convinced of this: As God acted
over two thousand years ago in the birth of His Son at His appointed time, so
also He will accomplish His purposes and plans for your life in His perfect
time. Isn’t that an encouraging message to us during this season of
celebrating the first coming of our Savior? Yes, indeed!
The
Bible says, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time
for every event under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). It also says, “He has
made everything appropriate (literally, beautiful) in its time”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11).
As
you celebrate the Savior during this special season, may the Holy Spirit
minister personally to your heart in believing that at God’s appointed time
He will fulfill all He has planned for your life without fail.
In
fact, God has given us a guarantee for this in His two-fold purpose revealed
for the coming of His Son at His appointed time. First, is the ATONING
SACRIFICE of His Only Begotten Son (Galatians 4:5a). The words of the hymn
writer Fanny Crosby are appropriate here. “To God be the glory great things
He hath done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son, who yielded His
life atonement for sin, and opened the life-gate that all may go in.”
Second, is our ADOPTION AS SONS
(Galatians 4:5b). How blessed we are, that we, who were once slaves and
sinners, have now been moved from bondage into freedom and into the great
household of God as full-grown sons, granted the awesome privilege of becoming
heirs of God! I find it very interesting that God didn’t leave our status as
heirs of God in doubt. He has given us a blessed ASSURANCE
OF OUR SONSHIP and our future inheritance by sending forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba Father” (Galatians 4: 6-7).
May
we celebrate the gifts of God’s Son and God’s Spirit with an overflowing
heart of gratitude and genuine worship this special season and all the days of
our lives on earth, until we see His blessed face in glory!
With
much love in Christ,
Joseph
Ametepe
