Luke 1:67-69 - Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David"

Zechariah was not a special guy. We know that he was not a high priest in Jerusalem, so he probably came from a small rural synagogue in Israel. Yet God chose to reveal the coming Savior of mankind to this country rabbi. Zechariah's prophecy (the first words he spoke after an angel made him deaf and dumb) was a sign that God uses ordinary people to glorify His name. Christmas reminds us that God is looking for the Zechariah's of our day to fill them with His Holy Spirit and use them in amazing ways.

Today's commentary by:
Dave Whitehead, Senior Pastor, Grace NYC

What do you think? Discussion at: http://facebook.com/DailyBibleVerse

Matthew 1:23 - The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel -which means, "God with us."

The story of Jesus confronts us with events that defy and even offend rational thinking. Matthew pulls no punches: this Jesus is miraculous from start to finish. The birth of God as a man is one of the great mysteries of Christianity. Which is of great comfort, because if everything about this God could be explained one should question its supernatural origin. The preposterous nature of this miracle (and the ones that follow Jesus) demands a verdict. As C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: " Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Today's commentary by:
Dave Whitehead, Senior Pastor, Grace NYC

What do you think? Discussion at: http://facebook.com/DailyBibleVerse