Digging Deeper~ Sunday after Christmas

Is. 60:1-6:Isiah prophecies of wealth coming to the Holy lands because of the light that is come. Jesus is that light. He also prophecied about the wealth of the nations being brought because of the light. He says that gold and incense will be brought from a far. Many believe that this is speaking of the Wise men that followed a bright star from the East to bring gifts of gold and frankincense & myrrh. Ps. 72:1-7, 10-14:A prayer for a good king to come and judge the people in a righteous way. Then kings will come from far away lands will bring him gifts.  Eph. 3:1-12: Because of Jesus Christ Non-Jews as well as the Jews can have the grace of God. Now we can come before God with freedom.  Mat. 2:1-12: Matthew tells of the Wise men that came from the East to Jerusalem looking for the King of the Jews. They said that they had come to bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to worship him. This is the Sunday that we celebrate the fulfillment of the prophecy that Isiah and King David spoke of. It was the prophecy of how Jesus would come to be our righteous king & that kings would come from far away to bring him gifts of gold and frankincense (Is. 60:1-6;Ps. 72:1-7,10-14). Matthew tells of of that fulfillment in Mathew 2:1-12. They indeed came from far countries and brought the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Why did Jesus come? Paul tells us that it was to join all mankind, both Jews and non-Jewish people to God. So that we can all live is spiritual freedom (Eph. 2:1-12). We too can come to him and worship him for humbling himself and becoming a human, live the life of a human, teaching mankind what God wants of us to act like.  Then went to the cross to pay for our sins, so that we could have spiritual freedom from the kingdom of darkness.  Challenge of the week: This week, take the time to worship God for loving us enough to become a human, so that he could understand what it is like to be a human, reached out to mankind and then died to pay for our sins. So that we could be free to go to God and have a relationship with him.  Accomplishment of the week: How did you do?