OBSERVATIONS:
I asked myself what 3 things does the Angel of the Lord tell Joseph?

1. She [Mary] will give birth to a son.
2. You are to give Him the name Jesus.
3. He will save His people from their sins.

INTERPRETATIONS:
I asked myself why is it significant that the Angel of the Lord says 'He will save His people from their sins?'

I found it so interesting that the Angel of the Lord is letting Joseph know that humanity has been marred with sin - missing the mark of God's standards, soul sickness as Andrea and Jason Huang used to teach their Asian InterVarsity Christian Fellowship students. Because of this, humanity needs saving and only Jesus Christ can do that. Only Jesus can save people from their sins. This is so exciting to know that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners like you and me, to save the world marred in sin. In a  world marred in sin and captivity, Emmanuel has come to ransom us from captivity. Praise the Lord!

IMPLICATIONS:
I asked myself what are the implications for my own life?
Only Jesus can save me from my sins. I cannot ever save myself from my sin. I need the help of Jesus. Jesus alone can save humanity from the captivity to sin. No matter how much I try I cannot reach God's standards without the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ transforming my life and saving me from the captivity of sin. He wants to do the same for you too friend. I realized long time ago that in all the religions of the world man and woman try to reach God by their good works in the hopes of finding favor with Him but God loved the world so much that He reached out to us by becoming our Emmanuel being born on Christmas day 2000 years ago in a world marred in sin. We are saved by His grace showered upon our lives when we yield our life over to Him. All our reaching does no good because even 1 sin does not make us perfect anymore to stand before God but Christ became our perfect righteousness inteceding before us, taking away all our sins so we can have right standing with God. By the Blood of Christ shed on the cross to ransom humanity, God's judgment passes over us when we take His vaccine of Blood to cover us. No other way works.

I ask you now dear friend, who are you depending on to S.A.V.E you?
Dear friend, this Christmas season in a world marred with sin, I don't know who you are depending on to save you. But this I know, whoever you are depending on to save you, I have come to realize that only Jesus Christ can save because He is the only One who is perfect, who went to the cross, shed His precious cleansing Blood so that His Blood can cleanse and wash away all our sin. Only the precious blood of Christ can save. If it ended at the cross, there would be no hope. But Jesus came back to life on the third day to save you and me from sin's captivity. He became our ransom so now when God looks at us, He does not see our sin but Christ's blood covering over us and Christ's righteousness imputed to us. Therefore, God's judgment will passover us and we can be saved for Eternity. It starts with understanding what sinners we are and how we have missed God's standard's and then realizing that Jesus is the bridge to reach God. The cross became the bridge to cross over to God. It is all because of what Jesus did for us and our acceptance of our sinful condition and Christ's antidote for our sin.

Won't you accept that today friend?

Jesus wants to save you and me from all our sin. Yes, He does friend. He loves you so much and there is no love as such. My mommy told me that she was a devout practicing Hindu but while listening to the Billy Graham Crusade and reading Christian literature, she realized that only Jesus Christ could save her from the power of sin. When my mommy gave her life to Christ, she became the best mommy ever in the whole wide world. My mom was already loving towards us and with Christ she became even more loving. It is Christ that brought the transformation in her life. It is through my mommy that my brothers Ravi, Raj,  Rohit and myself became followers of Christ and eventually my dad gave his life to Christ as my mom read to him the Bible everyday. She would sit as his bedside and read from Matthew - Revelation including the Psalms almost everyday for 70 days. On the 70th day, my dad gave his life to Christ before leaving this earth.  On Dec 20, 2007, 15  years ago, my daddy was buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetry but more importantly, he resides with Jesus now because He asked Jesus to save him from the power of sin and death. You can do that too friend!

Before marriage,  I wanted to marry only a born-again Christian girl who loved the Lord Jesus more than me. When I became interested in Chandraleela, I asked her to share her testimony of coming to Christ. I was really excited to hear her testimony and the impact my father-in-law Deviah ,who is also with Jesus, made in her life and my in-laws (Mother-in-Law, Sunandha, Vidhya, Elisha, and Pravallika's life. My father-in-law is responsible for my wife being saved and my in-laws being saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I also learned what is equally important other than being saved by Jesus is fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Finisher and Author of our Faith, daily so we remember how we used to live for the Lord and how we are living for the Lord now. If our living for the Lord now is less than how we used to live for the Lord, there has to be soul searching done in our lives asking the Lord to reveal areas we have deviated from that we never would have before.

Are we practicing what we based our life upon trusting the Lord without wavering or are we leaning on to our own understanding?

While we are waiting, we need to trust in the Lord. I love the song, 'While I Am Waiting'

I have had to do a lot of soul searching even after being saved by the Lord because many times my actions don't reflect what it means to be saved by the Lord. Help me Lord Jesus!

Friend this Christmas season come as you are to Jesus and let Him save you. Don't think you don't need to be saved because you are already a good person and do good things.

None of us no matter how much good we think we do or how good others say we are can reach God on our own. God's standards are much higher. 

Let us look at some examples:

If you had water that was 99.9% pure and you saw someone put 0.01% drop of a killing substance in it, would you still drink it thinking 99.9% of it is good and only 00.1% of it is bad?

If you were given a 8 oz glass of milk and someone spit in it in front of you, would you still drink it thinking, 7.99 oz of it is milk and only 0.01 is spit? (Andrea and Jason of AIV used this example in one of their evangelism training years ago)

If you had a white shirt you were to wear to an interview but a small visible black ink stain leaked from the pen in your pocket,  would you still wear it thinking 99.9% of the shirt is white and only 00.1% of it has a mark?

The answer to all of these questions is NO, if we are honest with ourselves.

If we humans make judgments like that because of our own standards, why should we think God who is perfect and Holy will have lesser standards. If anything God's standards will be higher.

Yet, we think to ourselves, I have been a good person all my life or I have done 99% of good things in my life, so what is that 1% of bad I did. Since my good outweighs my bad, when I die, God can accept me. HOGWASH!

God sees the drop of killing substance that is sin, the spit that is sin, and the black stain that is sin. Only the precious cleansing Blood of Jesus can wash away the sin and purify us with His antidote, making us white as freshly fallen snow.

Because a Holy God cannot allow sin to enter into His presence into Heaven, Jesus came into this world as God-incarnate to save humanity from sin. Now when we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary, His blood covers over our sin and God's judgment will passover us since He will see us covered in the righteousness of Christ.

So never ever think you are good enough to reach God for the Bible says, "No one is good; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"

'All your good works are like filthy rags [filthy rags refer to the uncleanness of a woman's menstruation cycle in Old Testament times] says the Lord'

I already shared this once but it is relevant. Years ago Pastor Mike  with the help of the youth group shared an excellent skit called 'Ragman, Ragman, Ragman the Christ' written by Walter Wangerin, Jr. It was a powerful skit about what Jesus Christ went through to save you and me friend.

So friend, our only hope is Jesus to save us. He alone paid the price to ransom you from the bondage of sin and death. This Christmas season, there is a wonderful song I love hearing called 'O Come O Come Emmanuel'.

 Come as you are no matter what your condition is and find hope in Jesus for He is the reason for the season.

As a nurse, my sweetie wife Chandraleela knows more about hospital ins and outs than I do. As I thought about what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary, I wanted to use a hospital analogy  to share Christ's redemption for you and me even as we think about the havoc and deaths the COVID-19 virus has caused. In comparison, the sin virus is infinitely deadly.

We are like an ambulance taking sick people to the hospital. People are dying and there is an emergency because of an pandemic virus. The ambulance takes the initiative to go to the place people are dying and bring them to the hospital. They are not dead yet but there is no time to wait. The ambulance needs to get to the hospital for that virus to be treated. The virus has infected the mind, body, and soul spreading rapidly. You and I cannot do anything to heal our friends of this virus except be the AMBULANCE taking them to the HOSPITAL where the GREAT PHYSICIAN waits.

Once at the hospital, there is a GREAT PHYSICIAN that waits. The sick are gathered from all corners of the earth and come to this hospital.  This hospital is called CALVARY OF SALVATION and the EMERGENCY WARD is called GOLGOTHA.

The GREAT PHYSICIAN is not like other doctors who can only treat patients with  physical ailments but this GREAT PHYSICIAN is much more and knows He has to stay 72 HOURS for every dying person there to be healed.

He knows what He has to do! This GREAT PHYSICIAN knew that only His BLOOD can wipe away this pandemic VIRUS, so for you and me He went to the blood transfusion room where people were about to die. There He lay down on the bed  made of wood.

The surgeons walk into the room. They turn this GREAT PHYSICIAN on His back.  Instead of using an IV, a WHIP with sharp glass, etc is used to draw out the BLOOD from the GREAT PHYSICIAN'S back! It does not stop there but to elevate the head on the bed of wood, a CROWN OF THORNS is used which draws more BLOOD.

As the head is elevated, the GREAT PHYSICIAN's hands are stretched wide on the wooden bed. Then the feet are bound together. This is done for the BLOOD transfusion to begin. Instead of using an IV, NAILS and a HAMMER is used. The NAILS are pounded through the hands into the wooden bed with a HAMMER so the BLOOD flows and that BLOOD is saved. The NAILS are pounded through the feet into the wooden bed with a HAMMER so more BLOOD flows and that BLOOD is saved. As the BLOOD continues to flow from the GREAT PHYSICIAN's body, the GREAT PHYSICIAN flat lines. Then the surgeons insert a SPEAR into the heart to make sure all the BLOOD is out. All the BLOOD is out!

Now, the GREAT PHYSICIAN is moved into the JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA MORGUE being guarded by security.

Now the CALVARY OF SALVATION hospital has a BLOOD DONOR whose BLOOD can be used to save everyone there from this PANDEMIC VIRUS. 

Those dying need to be taken there to receive the BLOOD transfusion that is available. However, the BLOOD will not be forced upon those dying! THE PUREST RED ANTIDOTE is only given to those that are willing to receive the BLOOD TRANSFUSION so they could LIVE.

All that accept the BLOOD are being CLEANSED of this PANDEMIC VIRUS in their system that is infecting the mind, body, and soul.  This BLOOD goes into the dying person's mind, body, and soul and eats away at the virus cleaning them and making them pure. This VIRUS is known as SIN. The BLOOD is the PRECIOUS CLEANSING BLOOD OF THE GREAT PHYSICIAN, JESUS CHRIST.

The WOODEN BED is the CROSS OF CHRIST where the dying need to be led too.

72 HOURS LATER, there is a commotion at the JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA MORGUE. THE GREAT PHYSICIAN is not there anymore and the ANGELS that visit tell loved ones who came there, that THE GREAT PHYSICIAN IS ALIVE and will save all that come to Him.

It is true even to this day, for all that come to the CALVARY OF SALVATION HOSPITAL come to realize that His CLEANSING BLOOD shed on the WOODEN BED (CROSS) will never run out. Anyone infected who wants to be healed of their sickness can accept what Jesus did for them and be covered in His precious CLEANSING BLOOD.

I have done that friend and know that at the foot of the cross where Jesus died shedding His precious cleansing blood for my sin and the sins of the world, I can find forgiveness and grace.

Thanks be to God that Christ's death on the cross was temporary to remove all His precious cleansing blood for our sake but after He was buried, Jesus came back to life to save.

To this day, all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved when they acknowledge what Jesus Christ has done for them and what He can do for them.

Friend, Jesus loves you so much and if you were the only one living on earth, Jesus would have done the same for you. What I shared with you was an analogy but in real life it has happened. Jesus went to the cross for you and me and His precious cleansing blood was shed so you and I could have life. Jesus came back to life 72 hours later and is alive but His blood continues to heal people on every corner of the earth to those that accept Him.

May you come to know Jesus and His power to save you! Amen!

"Savior Always Valiantly Emancipates! (S.A.V.E)/"Who are you depending on to S.A.V.E you?"

Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into this world to save me. Thank you for loving me so much that if I were the only one living, you would have still come to save me. Thank you for your power of love and thanks for dying on the cross, shedding your precious cleansing blood to wash away all my sin. Now when God looks at me, I am covered in your righteousness by your blood. When I come to you, I am forever yours and will always belong to you. You see me as precious and special in your sight. Thank you Jesus. I pray for the one right now who does not know you that they would come to know you as their Lord and Personal Savior. Thank you so much Jesus for your help. Thank you that you hear us and answer us. Thank you for being our Emmanuel to come ransom us from the bondage of sin and death. I need your help Oh Lord. We all do. Thanks so much Jesus. In Your Name I Pray Jesus! Amen!