EVENNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/29/2026 4:27 PM
My
Worship
Time Focus: PT-3 “Introduction to “Jesus’ Birth
in Bethlehem”
Bible
Reading &
Meditation Reference: Luke 2:1-7
Message
of the verses: “1 Now in those days a decree went out
from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the
inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken
while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And
all the people were on their way to register for the census,
each to his own city. 4 Now Joseph also went up from
Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is
called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in
order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him, and was
pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for
her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her
firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger,
because there was no [g]room for them in the inn.” (NASB
2:1-7)
I will pick up where I left off in this morning’s SD,
as I continue to quote from John MacArthur’s introduction to the verses above.
“Santa Claus, the secular symbol of
Christmas, derives from the fourth-century Saint Nicholas, bishop of Myra in
modern Turkey. Though little is known of
his life, Nicholas was remembered for his generosity and kindness. According to one legend, he rescued three
daughters of a poor family from being forced into prostitution by providing
dowries for them so they could marry.
After doing their laundry, the girls hung their stockings by the
fireplace to dry. That night Nicholas
tossed a small bag of gold coins into each girl’s stocking. The custom of hanging Christmas stockings
derives in part from that story.
Settlers from the Netherlands, where Nicholas is popular, brought his
tradition with them to America. Nicholas’s
Dutch name, Sinterklaas, or Sinte Klaas, eventually became Anglicized into “Santa
Claus.”
“All of those extrabiblical elements
only obscure the simple, yet unfathomably profound, meaning of Christmas. No less a theologian than Martin Luther
confessed,
“When I am
told that God became man, I can follow the idea, but I just do not understand
what it means. For what man, if left to
his natural promptings, if he were God, would humble himself to lie in the feedbox
of a donkey or to hang upon a cross? God laid upon Christ the iniquities of us
all. This is that ineffable and infinite
mercy of God which the slender capacity of man’s heart cannot comprehend and
much less utter—that unfathomable depth and burning zeal of God’s love toward
us….Who can sufficiently declare this exceeding great goodness of God? (cited in Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand [Nashville:
Abingdon, 1950], 223).
“For the moment, the curtain has
fallen in Luke’s narrative on the story of John the Baptist (1:80), and is
about to rise on the story of Jesus Christ.
The promise made to Mary by Gabriel (1:31-35) is about to
fulfilled. As Luke picks up the story of
Jesus’ birth, he demonstrates how God sovereignly orchestrated events to bring
about a direct fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Divine intervention was required, because in
the normal course of events, Jesus would not have been born in Bethlehem as the
Old Testament predicted (Mic. 5:2), since Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth.”
(Mic. 5:2)
“2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too
little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who
is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
“Before describing the birth of the
Savior, Luke gave three settings for it: The world, national, and
personal. Those settings are fitting for
the One who is the Savior of the world, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy,
and redeemer of individuals who humbly put their trust in Him.”
3/29/2026
4:51 PM
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