Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Carol Gospel - O Come All Ye Faithful

The Gospel According to (Christmas) Carol
O Come All Ye Faithful

(Be sure to read the introduction to this series.)

God has been speaking to humanity since Genesis, chapter 1. And I, for one, think it is pretty cool that the first words that man ever heard were "Be fruitful and multiply".

God spoke the Ten Commandments to Moses. He spoke the 23rd Psalm into David's heart. He spoke "I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you" to Joshua. God spoke promises to the prophets, assurances to Mary, wisdom to Solomon, church discipline to Paul, and stunning revelations about the future to John. In fact, I believe the whole Bible is the inspired word of God written down by faithful men.

Before going on, give a listen to Acapella's version of "O Come All Ye Faithful"


This week's carol suggests that maybe we should capitalize "Word":
"Word of the Father now in flesh appearing"

You see, when Jesus stepped out of Heaven and into this world, He came as… how can I say this? Well, put it this way, my voice and my words are the expression of my thoughts. Jesus came as the expression of God's thoughts, His Words:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1.1, 14)

You've heard of the admonishment, "walk the walk and talk the talk" (or however that goes). Jesus came as the Talk of God walking around.

And something else stunning happened that first Christmas. It is something that God wanted and mankind needed since that incident in the Garden in Genesis. On that day, God drove man not just out of the garden, but also out of His presence. We were created to crave a relationship with God. We need it! When Jesus, the Word of God, appeared in flesh we got back what we had long ago lost – fellowship with God.

Perhaps that is why, of all the Christmas Carols, especially on this wonderful album of carols performed by Acapella, there is one line that means more to me than any other:
"Yea Lord, we greet thee"

I know, we are long removed from that stable in Bethlehem. I was not in the crowd at the Sermon on the Mount. I was not at Calvary that dark day two thousand years ago. I have not seen Jesus face-to-face. But I believe some day I will see him face-to-face. And although I can't sing a lick, I can tell you for sure, some day I am going to enter Heaven and I am going to sing out bright and clear, "Yea Lord, I greet thee".


Now that is Good News!

Bonus: Here is a nice post about the history of several most-beloved carols.

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