CHRISTMAS MEDITATIONS FROM ISAIAH AND MATTHEW

Excerpts from 'The Bible In The Now' and 'The Gospels In The Now', available at amazon.com and www.jimswilleybooks.com

For unto us... not unto me… not unto you... but unto us, the collective, corporate community of mankind...the household of humanity...unto all of us, a child is born; unto us, the global family, a Son is given, and the responsibility of the government will rest on His broad shoulders. In fact, all the governments of all the peoples of the world will ultimately recognize Him as their one true foundation, for the earth is His, and He belongs to all of us . He will be the physical embodiment of the “I Am,” the God who defies description; and, in an attempt to define the indefinable, He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase and expansion of His kingdom and government and peace there will be no end. He will reign initially from David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time, on into the eternal now. The passionate zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
(Isaiah 9:6,7 - The Bible In The Now)

18. Now, this is how the physical birth of Jesus took place – how the eternal Word in the now became an actual human being who lived and moved on the earth. A young woman named Mary was engaged to be married to a man from King David's family whose name was Joseph. But before they were married, and before they ever had any sexual relations, she discovered that she was pregnant. But her pregnancy was not a natural occurrence – she had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit.

19. Understandably, Joseph did not believe Mary's story about the supernatural pregnancy, but because he was a good man and did not want to publicly embarrass her, he decided to quietly call off the wedding and move on with his life.

20. But while he was thinking about the best way to break off the engagement, an angel from the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph, Mary is telling you the truth; as hard as it may be for you to believe, she is still a virgin, even though she is definitely pregnant. She did not ask for this to happen, and she has not been unfaithful to you…she was chosen by God for this miracle. Go ahead and marry her, because the Holy Spirit did, in fact, impregnate her, and she is going to need your support through this.

21. “She will give birth to a boy, and you, Joseph, are to personally name Him as if He were your own Son; and you are to give Him the derivative of the name Joshua which is Jesus - the name that in Hebrew means Savior, or, literally ‘God saves.' This name will be prophetic for Him, for He will save His people (all the people who live on His earth) from their sins.”

22. All of this happened to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet...
(Matthew 1:18-22 - MATTHEW IN THE NOW)