BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Talk about a wonderful Christmas! I was so thrilled about that motorcycle I thought it would be the gift that topped them all. But I turned out to be mistaken. As I discovered some years later, God has given us all a gift that’s far, far better. He’s given us His Son, Jesus—and what God has done for us through Him is a thousand times more thrilling than any other Christmas gift could ever be. More Than You Ever Dreamed “But Brother Copeland,” you might say, “I’ve heard about the birth of Jesus all my life, and though I’m glad it happened, I just don’t get that excited about it anymore.” That’s probably because there are some things about it you haven’t heard. You’re like I was when I saw that present under the Christmas tree: You don’t yet realize all that you’ve been given. You haven’t fully discovered that in Jesus you’ve received more than you could ever dream. You can get a glimpse of what I’m talking about in John 1, where the Bible describes the birth of Jesus like this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (verses 1-4, 14). Those verses aren’t usually associated with Christmas because they don’t focus on the natural facts about Jesus. They don’t depict Him the way people generally think of Him at this time of year, as a baby lying in a manger. Instead, they reveal who He truly was and is: an eternal member of the Godhead, the Creator of the universe, the divine light of mankind, and the living WORD of Almighty God. When Jesus was born, He might have looked small on the outside, like just an ordinary infant. But on the inside He was The WORD of God made flesh, as fully human as any man who ever lived, and yet at the same time the very incarnation of God. The very thought of it is staggering—almost more than we can comprehend. But, amazingly enough, it’s not the whole story. Tucked right into the middle of this passage in John is something about Jesus that’s even more astounding. According to verses 12 and 13: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Read those verses again and think about them for a moment. Do you see how they refer to those of us who are believers? They talk about our new birth in the same way they talk about the birth of Jesus! They bring together those of us who are born of the Spirit, with Him who was born of the Spirit, revealing a divine union between Him and us that puts us on an equal basis. ******continues on next page***** BVOV : 5

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