The Christmas Story

Helen Pollock

A long time ago, before the beginning of time, God existed. He had always been for there was no beginning or end to Him. He was three persons in one. As these eternal persons existed they desired an expression of themselves so they created the universe and all that was in it. The earth was in that universe, but it was without any life.

God was lonely and desired companionship with a deep yearning. The universe was empty and He desired to have a family to share it with Him. He planned carefully. Even though the Bible gives the events one step at a time, it is made clear that all of the plan was drawn up in heaven before He began. Since God knows all things and creates all things, He developed a plan that was perfect and without flaw. Nothing that exists, exists apart from Him for He created it all.

The earth was positioned perfectly and life was created for it. Then, the Bible says, they said "Let us make man in our image". Man was created by and through God to have fellowship with God. He was given dominion over the earth and instructed to multiply. God, in His infinite wisdom, wanted people for Himself who would choose Him over everything else. He gave man (Adam) a free will to choose, gave him a wife for companionship, but left the tempter in the garden. He gave Adam only one command, "do not eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil". The woman (Eve) was greeted by the tempter, who caused her to question what God had said. She chose to believe the serpent , who was beautiful at this time, and ate of the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The tempter had told her she would be as God.. She desired to be as God and ate the fruit. Then, she talked her Adam into eating it. He chose to listen to his wife rather than God. They were cursed and hid from God for they now knew they were naked and ashamed. They were banished from the Garden of God and from His presence and this sin was passed on to all generations of men.

Every man now had to sweat to earn his living. Everything on the earth was cursed because of Adam, and men were made to continue to choose between hearing God and listening to men or the serpent.

God always had a people that He has chosen. When evil through men covered the earth, God chose Noah, a righteous man . He obeyed God in building an ark and boarding it as instructed and was saved from a flood that covered the earth. Archeological evidence is confirming many of the things that people have tried to say are stories. The Bible is told in stories , but they are real events that happened to real people.

Then, God chose a nation. The nation was Israel born from one man and three generations. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the promise of the people that God gave the promised land in Canaan. They were instructed to drive the people out and utterly destroy them so they would not be tempted to go the ways of their pagan neighbors. Israel compromised and made treaties with some. These caused them trouble for years to come. Isaac had a half-brother, Ishmael. He was not the son of Sarah, but of Sarah's handmaiden. He was banished from the land of his father , Abraham and was given by God new land. Ishmael prospered as the Arab nations of today. God said, however, that he would always be at odds with Isaac, from whom came Israel.

When Israel was saved by God through Moses, they were given laws and rituals to obey. The ten commandments are the foundation of those laws, but Israel and men today cannot seem to obey the one that says, "thou shall no other gods before Me". Our Gods are our reputations, money , careers , children, husbands and on and on. This is idolatry. Israel worshipped idols in the temple built by God and so He banished them to Babylon. Over 1500 years, Israel proved that it could not live up to the law that God gave. It was impossible for men to do so.

God's plan did not end here. He knew that He was the only one who could fulfill the laws that He had given. He had given Israel atonement for sin through sheep burned with fire. He now was going to come, Himself, and fulfill the requirements that He had given. This would be the only way that man could come to Him; it had to be through the work that He, Himself did.

In the Godhead there was God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God chose a maiden, Mary to give birth to God the Son come in the flesh. This was no ordinary child, for she knew no man. The Holy Spirit hovered over her and fertilized her ovum with His sperm and she conceived a son. Since God is the creator of all things there is no reason why this would not be possible for Him. More evidence supports the creation of the earth than supports evolution. People just don't want to admit it because they would have to acknowledge God and the birth of the manchild born of God.

This child was God come in the flesh. He grew up with brothers and sisters born of man through Mary and Joseph.

Jesus was thirty years old when John the Baptist baptized Him. The Holy Spirit came upon Him and led Him into the wilderness to be tested forty days. Then the devil tempted Him, the old serpent of the garden. He defeated him with scripture and was victorious over the flesh, pride and the devil. He then began His ministry. He was tempted in all the ways that we are, but He had no sin. Jesus is the only man to walk perfectly before His God. He gave up the glory of heaven to walk as a mere man on the earth that we might have a perfect atonement for our sin and cleansing from all unrighteousness.

During His three year ministry He taught all the basics of walking with Him. His journey led to a horrendous death on the cross, but on the third day He rose again from the dead and the graves were opened and people came out of them and walked the streets of Jerusalem. He fulfilled the law perfectly and by believing in what He did and walking in it, others could walk with God and become like Him.

After ten days, He sent the Holy Spirit to instruct, teach and draw people to Himself as He promised He would.

Now, after two thousand years, the Bible is true, the Holy Spirit is still drawing and God will have a people who have chosen Him above all else. Many are getting side tracked away from the central issues. The central issue is Jesus and Him crucified, through whose blood we have cleansing of our sins, not the blood of lambs and goats, but of God, Himself come in the flesh.

The time for this is soon coming to a close and the tempter, satan, will be taken from the earth. Before that time there will be a time when the earth will taste what it is like under his rule that they might call on God and be saved from Hell.

Each person must make a choice. If we do not choose God and the work done through Jesus Christ, we have by default chosen, as Eve did, to believe satan and be banished from the presence of God.

I Did Tell You, but You Do Not Believe

Helen Pollack

Jesus firmly states a truth that He has built throughout His journeys. Those who are not His sheep do not believe . They do not believe because they are not His sheep. He promises that none can snatch those who are His out of His hand. My, what a wonderful promise. In addition, He says that the Father will keep those .

John 10:25-30 25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one." NIV

He called them to believe that He is the Son of God because of the testimony through miracles that they had seen. Yet, they desired to kill Him. Even today, those that belong to Him are bombarded through the church, by ministers and those who would say they are leaders in the church. Everything is designed to snatch them out of the hand of Jesus into their hands. These leaders believe that they serve God, but rather they serve themselves. The testimony of men continuously competes with the Lord for the ears of people. Jesus promises, however, that those who belong to Him will know the difference. Unfortunately, those who do not know Him believe they do and will not know the difference until it is too late. If we seek Him we will find what we are looking for.

John 10:34-39 34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35 If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came-and the Scripture cannot be broken- 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. NIV

The clear warning here was not to follow the church leaders but to recognize the demonstration of miracles that followed Him. Today, we have to believe by faith that which we cannot see; yet, we can watch Him work His miracles in our own lives as we follow Him. That which He teaches us is continuously in contradiction to that which the many voices that are heard and received are saying. His written word is there to keep us on track. The words Jesus said are the basis for all that is taught and fulfilled by Him.

Sometimes, we are tempted to veer off course because people we respect are headed in another direction and focusing on other things like, prophecy, conferences, leaders, etc. Jesus promises to keep us, and His voice in our hearts gently brings us into Him and into His truth and draws us to Him against the tide that moves in the wrong direction.