Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
SOME PEOPLE CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW GOD COULD HAVE COME DOWN AND BEEN WRAPPED ABOUT WITH HUMAN FLESH, BUT HE CAME! It isn't strange to me, that seems so easy to believe, because I see Him born in hearts every day! He comes and lives in hearts and transforms lives and to me that's a much -- oh, I could say a much greater -- but that's a great miracle, a mighty miracle, that He can be born in your heart and in my heart and live there in our hearts, identifying Himself in that way with us.
THERE WAS A YOUNG GERMAN SOLDIER POSTED AT HIS SENTRY BOX before the barracks on a dark night, and suddenly he heard the sound of hoofbeats. It was his Captain's horse. He went quickly out and offered his salute and then stood like a marble statue until the Captain cried out:
"SAY OF WHAT USE TO ME ARE YOUR TOKENS OF RESPECT IN THIS PITCH BLACK DARK NIGHT! OPEN THE GATES SO THAT I CAN RIDE IN!" -- Ah, that's the trouble at Christmastime. People pay their respects in outward show. But for Jesus our Captain, are all the honors we pay Him at Christmastime! With it all, do we take Him into our hearts? There's an old verse that goes this way:
THOUGH A THOUSAND TIMES IN BETHLEHEM CHRIST BE BORN,
If He's not born in thee, thy soul is all forlorn.
And so I shall attend to my little errands of love early this year,
That the brief days before Christmas may be unhampered and clear.
Clear of the fever of hurry, the breathless rushing that I have known in the past
Shall not possess me, I shall be calm in my soul and ready at last
For Christmas, to worship the Christ.
I shall kneel, take time to call His Name.
I shall take time to watch the beautiful light of a candle's flame.
I shall have leisure, I shall go out alone from my roof and my door.
I shall not miss the silver silence of stars that I had before.
Perhaps if I stand both very still and very long,
I shall hear what the clamor of living has kept from me -- The Angel's song,
That mother's low cry, the baby's sweet song.
AND GOD'S WORD SAYS HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED "WONDERFUL!" There it is in Isaiah in the ninth chapter, "Wonderful!" "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, The government shall be upon His shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace."
WONDERFUL NAME BECAUSE HE WAS WONDERFUL IN HIS LIFE, going about everywhere doing good and healing all that were oppressed. Wonderful His death; dying for you and me that we might have life. Wonderful His resurrection that we might also be resurrected. And wonderful now in His life after death, because He is interceding for us.
OH MY FRIEND, IT IS NOT ENOUGH THAT CHRIST WAS BORN BENEATH THE STAR THAT SHONE, and Earth was set that blessed morn with a golden zone. -- He must be born within thy heart before He finds His throne. -- Won't you let Him come into your heart?
REMEMBER THAT STORY OF HOLMAN HAPTOM where an artist or someone came to him and told him that he'd made a mistake in the picture that he had painted, that he had not knob on the door, that the Savior was standing before a closed door with a lantern in hand. -- And then it was that Holman had answered,
"I DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE! THE DOOR IS OPENED BY THE SINNER'S OWN HAND FROM THE INSIDE! The handle is on the inside." The Savior can never enter a door unless it is opened from the inside. God's Word says, "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." (John 1:12)
OH, RECEIVE HIM THIS CHRISTMAS! HE'LL MEAN SO MUCH TO YOU! He'll transform your life. Welcome Him into your heart. He's still on the Throne and He wants to be on the Throne of your heart, and prayer will change things for you.