NO LONGER A BABY

We are at the end of yet another year, and on the threshold of the year before us. Christmas celebrations have come and gone. We remembered once again the incredible provision of Almighty God for the redemption of Man from the eternal consequences of sin and rebellion towards Him - by sending His Son in human flesh to be born as a baby in an unlikely setting for a king - a dirty, dusty stable. As Rick Joyner of MorningStar Ministries states in his book "The Harvest": That The Lord Of Glory would choose such a place to make His entry into this world is one of the more profound revelations of his message to man..................Human reasoning would never lead us to a stable to find God. The only way He could be found was by revelation; only those who were led by the Spirit would come. That which is born of God is usually found in a place that is repulsive to the pride and presumptions of carnal men. As the apostle Paul stated it: "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He may nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God" (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
Jesus did not remain a baby. That baby grew up to be Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, who after three and a half years of ministry to all who would receive His ministry - words of Life, physical and emotional healing, deliverance from demonic oppression and many other works and miracles, some recorded in the Gospels, many more unrecorded, according to the apostle John in Jn. 20:30,31 and Jn. 21: 25 - was condemned to death on a cruel Roman cross, the sinless Son of God, fulfilling the will of the Father in dying an agonizing death in our place, taking the penalty for our sins, in order that we might be reconciled to God the Father . Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
If that was not good news for us in itself, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, conquered the power of death and hell, rising triumphantly from the grave on that first Resurrection Sunday.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not only recorded as actually taking place, in the Bible. There have been scholars who have set out to disprove the resurrection of Christ, only to conclude, after honest research, that the events recorded in Scripture are historically verifiable. Two such scholars of note are Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853), a law professor at Harvard University, who became one of the forerunners of the discipline known as Christian apologetics - and Frank Morison, who also set out to disprove the "myth" of the resurrection, only to come to the conclusion, like Simon Greenleaf, that the Biblical record of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was true.
For forty days following His bodily resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared to multitudes of people, including the eleven remaining original disciples (Judas Iscariot, the twelfth, betrayed Him and took his own life). At one time, he appeared to five hundred at once ( ! Corinthians 15: 6). After commissioning the disciples, and telling them to wait in Jerusalem for the Promise of the Father,  the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. On the Day of Pentecost, an annual Jewish feast commemorated fifty days after Passover, while waiting in the Upper Room, the 120 gathered were filled with the Holy Spirit, receiving the gift of speaking in other tongues - a gift which is still available to Christian believers today, along with other gifts of the Holy Spirit as listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Jesus said before His ascension to Heaven that"You  shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses" starting from Jerusalem and spreading to the farthest corners of the earth. The power to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bringing in the hearts of the hearers, a conviction of sin and the need for repentance is part and parcel of the equipping by the Holy Spirit of the believer in Jesus. The ministry of Jesus in the world and in the Church continues unabated today through the lives of Bible-believing Christians who have taken Jesus at His word to "Follow Me, and I will make you disciples of men". He said to his disciples in John 14:12 that the works He did on earth they (and those who followed them down through the Church age) would do and greater works than these they would do, because He was going to the Father.
Down through the Church age over the past 2,000 years, millions upon millions of lives have been transformed, many radically, by the same Resurrection power of the Holy Spirit which raised Christ from the grave. The dead are being raised to life today. Miracles of healing and provision are occurring all over the world, where the name of Jesus is proclaimed as Lord. You won't hear about these happenings in the secular media, but they are happening. JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER!
As we enter a new year, with all its challenges personally, as well as nationally and internationally, while darkness is increasing in this sin-sick rebellious world, let those of us who claim Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord consecrate ourselves afresh to live uncluttered, and fully committed lives to honour and glorify Him.
If you are reading this, and have never made a commitment of your life and will to Jesus Christ, please know that, as you come to Him with a repentant heart for the sin and rebellion in your life towards God, He will cleanse you from sin as you call upon His name, and acknowledge His death on the Cross in your place as the means to your salvation. Just as Jesus rose from the dead after three days, you too can know the power of the Holy Spirit to help you live a new life in Him. It is not an easy life. The true disciple of Jesus will face persecution, but know that God is dwelling in you by His Spirit to enable you to be strong for Him in any and every circumstance of life. For further help in becoming a Christian, may I suggest: www.vision.org.au, the Vision Radio Network in Australia, part of United Christian Broadcasters. Click on the Resources tab at the top of the page, then from the drop down menu, click on Christianity. God Bless you. I pray that 2015 will be a year of you knowing in increasing measure the goodness of God in your life, and one of fruitfulness in His kingdom.