“And she (Mary) brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7) Oh, the Baby Savior was laid in a manger! Had the rich Jews known this, they would have opened their houses to the Baby. But God had chosen only a manger for His Son. God chooses only the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, base things of the world, and things which are despised…That no flesh should glory in His presence (I Cor.1: 27-29).
Dearly beloved, as you read this Christmas message, do you feel that you have no enough money to buy the goodies of this world? Look at the manger of your Savior and thank God for saving you from the sin through this manger, a despised thing. Dear minister of God, do you feel that you do not have the talent to preach? Do you think that you have no sufficient funds to run your ministry? I am not going to pray for a financial miracle for you, saying that Jesus was born in the manger so that you can have abundance of material blessings. I entreat you to thank God from the depth of your heart for having chosen you as His minister, because you are of the foolish, weak or base things of the world. I will not urge you to get first all the material blessings for your ministry and then go out to preach the gospel. The Holy Ghost implores you to go out for God’s work in the same financial position as you are now. Looking at the manger, go out for His work! We need to look at the manger of our Savior and not at our bank balances. Looking at the manger of the One Who was born for us, we should empty ourselves of our pride and of our own righteousness. Oh, the manger, a despised thing we, the despised, need for our ministries!
No room in the inn for a godly couple with their Child in the bitter cold! No room in the inn for the mother of the Savior! Many ministers of God go on extending or raising up their towering buildings or church buildings and expanding their empires on this earth, when there are thousands of the poor saints in their own nations and in the other nations who are of the Body of Christ that worship God in thatched huts. These godly people have no room to lay their heads because they have no roofs over their heads. Do you, YOU, YOU, care for the poor saints in the under-developed and developing nations who are of the same Body of Christ, of which you proudly claim to belong? Have you denied shelter to the godly people by not sharing your material blessings with the poor widows, the women forsaken and divorced by their husbands, and the needy people in your church or in your town? “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love Him? But ye have despised the poor…” (James 2:5-6). Let us confess before our Lord on this Christmas day that we have despised the poor.
Paul collected funds from the people of God and went to Jerusalem to minister to the poor saints, whereas the present day ministers extract “tithes” from the poor saints in their churches. Paul, while writing to the Corinthian churches, commended the house of Stephanas, the first fruits of Achaia that they had “addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (II Cor.16: 15).
Apostle James in his epistle to the “twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad”, (James 1:1) lamented over the “rich men” and asked them to weep and howl for their miseries “that shall come upon” them. Today the Holy Spirit gives the same message to the members of the Body of Christ scattered all over the world. “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is …….Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton...” (James 5:1-5).
We celebrate Christmas. If we do not have the vision of the manger of our Savior and of the inn, which denied shelter to His parents, Christmas has no meaning in our lives at all. At times, we abbreviate the word “Christmas” by writing “X Mas”. This means we have a celebration without Christ. We have cut “Christ” the Word with a big ‘X’. In our lives, we do the same thing. Woe unto us if we do not remember the poor saints in our churches, the poor people or the orphans in our town, the poor widows in our town, the homeless in our town and the women divorced and abandoned by their husbands in our midst!
I exhort you to visit the house of a poor saint in your town (a widow or a woman forsaken by her spouse) or of a poor, godly couple in your town with a Christmas gift. Alternatively, you can visit an orphanage or an old age home with your Christmas gift. And God will bless you.
- Job Anbalagan