Jesus Christ Show | Hour 1 [12/25]

What a story it is. As you go through my birth and the story of what would take place not only on that day but for future to come, the weight of the situation when it comes to the people involved, my mother, my foster father. And when you put this picture together you start to see what many people will often say, Oh, this is the reason

for the season. As you gather with friends and family tonight and tomorrow to celebrate, be reminded not only of what took place and the faith they'rein, what you believe and why you believe it, And think that every turn of the story, every piece, every jot, every tittle, every single part of the story rests on the bedrock of faith. Now you can get lost in details. Was I born in December? No, absolutely not. But rather than getting into the different insights and specifics of the history, I want

you to think about the weight of the story itself. Matthew talks about the breakdown of the birth of Suam Sih, the birth of Jesus the Messiah, and it says it came about this way his mother Mary was pledged to be

married to Joseph. That betrothal is important back in the day, of course, in Biblical times when you are betrothed to someone like that or engaged, there is a period prior to that engagement of a year, and you were technically married at that point, but there is no consummation of the marriage. So pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, before there was before they consummated that marriage, which she was found to be pregnant

through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. You know the scriptural language there is to put her away quietly, and the reason was to have a child out of wedlock. Wedlock in two thousand years ago was more than just a scandal.

The amount of focus on Mary could be life threatening. Now remember Mary went through the weight of understanding by having an angel tell her what was going on. Well, now it was time for Joseph as well. After Joseph considered the divorce quietly, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the

Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Now this is to fulfill what had been said through the prophets. The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means odd with us. Joseph woke up. How's that for a dream? Right? Coming back from that, and he did what the Angel of the Lord had commanded. He took Mary home as his wife.

So the simplicity of that story, obviously, there are the stories of the Nativity and Luke as well, and breaking down going through those, each little nook and cranny of the story is one thing. But as you take in, as you take in truly what was going on and what that would be like, not only for Mary but for Joseph. These were people of God, These were people of deep faith, and they have now put upon them the most intense weight that could be imagined in seeded in their time over two

thousand years ago. And only by that faith, only by the power of their belief in God, their trust in God, could they move forward through something that is truly unimaginable. Hebrews eleven one says, now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Some have twisted the concept in of faith into something that is believing in something you

know not to be true, and that's not faith in the slightest. Faith is that small portion, that small portion, that leap of faith that comes after reason, past reason. You can take in everything that you can from your surrounding and you can believe this is what's going on. I know what is happening. But every time you actualize something, every time you do something,

commit to something, there's faith. You can't have trust in a partner know them for years, but to engage in a true relationship takes faith in the things that you've seen, the things that you know. But since you can't know the future, you walk forward in faith. You walk to the

curb to cross the street. You can look both ways. You can say, my eyes can see at least a quarter of a mile that way, at least a quarter of a mile that way, And I know that there is no vehicle fast enough to be invisible right now and to be able to get here and meet me in the middle of the street in that amount of time past my eyesight. But when you step off that curb, it is

still done in faith. Faith is not the weight of everything. It's that smaller part that comes at the very end where you can't know because it's future. You can't know, because it's outside of your true understanding. You can't know about something. But if you lived that way, if you had to have an engineer come in and check the structural integrity of every chair before you

sat in it, you couldn't live. So the power of faith stepping into a world of a virgin birth, not only as the woman, but now as the man, and the entirety of the weight that you are going to birth the savior of all mankind. That's a faith you can learn from.

So Christmas christ Mass is upon us, and what you're celebrating is not only my birth and the possibility of redemption and salvation eventually through my death and the teachings along the way your cell upbraiding the faith at the very least of two people, my mother Mary and my foster father Joseph. The weight of that faith is important because not only is their faith in God, their faith and belief was encapsulated in care for you. Were there going to be trials for

them? Absolutely? Was there going to be tribulation in their life, scrutiny by people around them? Absolutely. It gets worse when those in power or learn of a future king and go down the path of what is referred to as the slaughter of the innocence. All these things are put in the face of humans who are not thinking about themselves. They start that way. Mary says, how can this be? Joseph says, I need to deal with this the way I'm a man of the law. This is the way I

need to do it. The angel says, give it a second thought and understand what's going on. Joseph makes the right decision, and what goes forth is the opportunity unity for all. You contrast and compare that to what goes on in today's world. People have broken apart into individuals, become so independent they believe they need nothing else from anyone but for that person to serve them, everyone to serve them, and then to get out of their way to

get whatever their need is so that they won't be bothered. Could you imagine being bothered by bringing a son a child into this world? When you haven't even been with somebody, yeah, I mean been with a man and then your husband to take that on as well, not for their own blessing and it was, but for the blessing of others and being in that mindset to have a faith that surpasses even your own comfort, but the comfort of others. Merry Christmas to you all, and I pray that you are spending time

with people that care about you and you care about them. Gifts are nice, but really it's about the connection and the meaning in those gifts, just like it was when I was born. The gold, the frankincense, and murr all have importance behind it. You have gold dealing with royalty, you have frankincense, an incense that deals with spirituality, and mr an interesting addition because it was used as an embalming fluid and a fluid not exactly, but

a fluid that was used at the time of burial. Those gifts obviously mean something and speak to things that were going to happen. And I hope that the gifts that you give and receive tie into meaningful sentiments to the people in which you give them. If you have a theology question or a life situation question, Give us a call. Eight hundred five to zero one five three four, eight hundred five to zero one five three four Randy. Welcome to

the Jesus Christ Show. Hey, Merry Christmas and happy birthday Jesus. Oh thanks Randy, thanks for calling. How can I help you today? Yes, they're always longer on this topic. Oh, no, breaking up a little. Oh, let me step out. I'm sitting in a parking lot and I'm gonna guess he's sitting in a parking lot in his car. Yeah, can you hear me? Now I've stepped out, it's still it's still breaking up a bit. What I'm gonna do is I'm going to put you

on hold and we'll check your line and come back to you. Pat. Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Hi Jesus, how are you today? I am well? How are you well? I I have a quick question maybe you can help me with Okay, I'm I don't know if it's a faith question, but uh, basically I I worship you. I believe in that you were born for our sins. But there's people that I work with,

there's people that know that they don't worship. They don't believe in you, and they're their food there, They're flourishing, they have money, they have possessions, and I'm currently struggling. I'm struggling financially wise. I currently lost a house due to a house fire. My son had passed away years ago, and I'm just wondering, Jesus, is is this a trial with my faith? Well? A trial indeed. I mean those things are trying to you. I mean, goodness, the loss of a son, a

home being burned. Absolutely, those are trials. Now, if you're saying it's based on lack of faith or something, absolutely not. But the weight of what is valuable on earth is much different. That isn't to belittle either of those things or anything that happens in your life Goodness, No, not in the slightest. Whoever, the things that you've described in many ways can be blessings, but aren't blessings unto themselves. Having things like you said about

you know, money or homes. Is there something to be learned? Absolutely, whether it's the house, the circumstance when it comes to the death of a child, that is simply that people die. Now they can go in different ways. That's something, you know. The moment a child is brought into this world, the hope and the prayer is that you know, no parent wants to bury a child, and the hope in the prayer is that

you go before they do. But ultimately, somebody's going to have loss, whether it was your son when you pass or your son passing when you're alive. That's a reality that everyone knows that. The hope is that they have a long life, but none of that is guaranteed, of course, to anyone. So beyond the reality of that and the sadness and mourning, I'm pulling back a little bit for you to see a bigger picture and understanding as to how God interacts with you and to teach you. Now, it's not

that God puts trials in your path. There are things that happen in your life because of the collective of humanity. Your house, for instance, how did it start fire electrical? Yeah, so that's not something you did per se unless you knew about it or had concerns or smelled smoke before and didn't do anything about it, or you'd had it checked or something like that.

Not putting the blame on you, but humans do human things or two, whether it was not done properly, or whether some element of the house was not done properly, or too many things were put on a single circuit. Whatever it is. Things happen in life because a multitude of interactions. People come in, people come out, different things happen. So if there's something that you could have done, then yes, there's a lesson in there, but it doesn't mean God made that happen for you to have that lesson.

And I think some people get that confused. The blessing in the Old Testament really was about special favor. It often dealt with joy and prosperity. But as you move into what Christians refer to as the New Testament, that changes. It's really about spiritual blessing rather than material blessings. And you can find that that changes as if you think of Scripture, the entirety of it as

the life of a child. So the beginning of Scripture and what Christians refer to as the Old Testament really the law and the prophets, and you go through that, you'll see that there is a different kind of interaction with humanity, between God and creation. It's a little rougher. Yet the blessings often tend to be more physical in nature, So like a child, the rewards, whether it be toys, getting food, shelter, all these things that

are necessities, the blessings seem bigger. But as one gets older, you can see that God starts interacting with humanity as it goes through adolescence, you know, in the teen years, and then into adulthood, and the blessings become different. Wards are different, like love and connection is different than a toy. It's deeper, it's realer, it lasts longer, it's not something

you put out in a garage sale two months later. So similarly, as you get more mature in your relationship, it's the exact opposite of what most people might think, Oh, my life is going through these trials, so I must not be connected with God. And although that could be the case at times, but those trials speak differently. Those trials will deal with your relationships or things like that. But houses burned down, it's horrible that happens

to you. Electrical problems happen, and in life. As horrible as that is, it's not completely out of the norm. So in this particular case, you're taking those things on. So what can you learn from them? You tell me, Pat, what are some of the things that have gone through your head as you've dealt with these things. Well, I'm trying to be as strong as I can for my family, you know, showing a

good faith based for them, and that's power. That is power. I mean you really you hit it. Our conversation this morning and our talk this morning was about having faith that is so deep it's but beyond your comfort, it's for the comfort of others. How spot on was that, like Joseph who looked and said, this doesn't feel right to me. So you take that on yourself, and no, it's not going to feel good. And I'm not saying that this is going to be the rest of your life,

Pat, there is more to come. But you are the living proof and example to your family and to people around you of your faith. And I know that's a lot to take on. You're going, so my house has to burn down, I have to lose a child for others to see my faith. No, but it happened to you because people die and houses burned

down, and it's not what has happened to you. It's your reaction to it that shows the world who you are and why you are and in that one Peter three point fifteen, they want to ask you about that hope that they can't understand that lies within you. All right, Randy, let's give this a shot again. My friend, Hey, thank you Jesus. How am I coming in? You sound better to me, my friend? So what's going on? Yeah, I'm just wondering all this hype about the artificial

intelligence and what's come. And they've been talking about it a lot on the on the air. Yeah, I have some conspiracy theorist friends and stuff that you know, you know those folks are. They're always worried about some nefarious thing going behind it. But you know, it brought me ever since I

was a kid. I remember in Revelations thirteen they talk about an image coming to life and talking the false prophet has it yet they're talking about these robots that they're making, Elon Musk and all these guys neuro link in our brains that coming cashless society. You know, we're halfway there. I wonder when it comes to some of these scriptures about not losing our freedoms, not being able to sell or trade or barter unless you're hooked up to this electronic network.

And then on top of that, all of a sudden, what these machines are all going to turn smarter than us and trick us or manipulate us or I don't know, if you like the Terminator movie and you know, destroy all humans like this, I saw movies. Say, why do you think, Jesus, what's coming with this? You know? I stay in prayer and I'm not overly worried about it, but I have friends that seem to be very worried about it. Well, this has happened forever, Randy.

This has been going on since printing presses. When the printing press was invented, it was thought to be problematic every new technology. You talk about Revelations thirteen, fourteen and fifteen talking about what takes place before the mark of the Beast, you've got the anti crisis false prophet. You talk about things that are taking place, like the breath to the image of the beast that you talk about coming to life and all of that, And people are trying

to fit these things into scripture. When you read scripture, a study scripture, there's isoget and exeget there is. When you're studying, you're either taking from scripture. You see it and you take from it naturally or you try and force something into it, and doing that can be highly problematic. They talked about this with credit cards. Do you use a credit card? I do, yes, I have to. But you know that used to be a problem for Christians when they first started. They thought that was going to

be the mark of the beast. You have to use this piece of plastic, you become a number. And they thought that about social Security cards. So Christians have many times and religionists many times over and over believed that some technology was going to be the mark of the beast. But the reality is that has never come to fruition. Technology is the same as any else. In the hands of somebody who wants to do good with it, good will be done. In the hands of someone who wants to do bad with it,

bad will be done. But the technology itself is neutral. It has no value morally one way or the other unless it's used for good or evil. There are many good things that can come out of AI, and there are many bad things. It once again is in the hands of humanity to make the decision as to what direction it goes. Your own personal Jesus someone to hear you cares, someone who cares