1998-12-22. 1998 Christmas Message
Butler PA #45
Topic: Christmas Message
Group: Butler TeaM
Teacher: Jesus
TR: Gerdean
JESUS: I am Jesus.
LIANA: Good evening.
JESUS: Good evening to you, my dear child. I am glad to come and be with you a moment. I know you are all imbued in your culture in this time of year with our recollection of my birth here. It pleases me to be with you and to speak to you about my having been on your world.
I like to visit with you now and again as a fellow sojourner on the path of life, as one whose humble origins are shared with yours, and with many of your fellows who have known the humility of shelter from the storm such as my mother Mary found in the shelter where my manger bed lay.
Your world, even now, has its humble folk, many of whom are without shelter. Many who are, even now, in this cold night, gathering warmth from their manger, their shelter from the storm. Many times, literally, more often figuratively. Many of you, too, have discovered the security of your place, your nest, your manger bed. And you nestle warm and secure in the arms of your loving family.
This holiday brings to the forefront of your minds, of your spirits, an awareness of the Jesus in each of you. It is one reason why this is a difficult holiday. It reminds you at some level how infrequently you think of me. How seldom I am actualized in your consciousness by and through our family of men and women, brothers in the Kingdom, in the spirit.
It is sad for me, even still, my friends, to realize that my being your Christ child brings to your mind such a sense of guilt and unworthiness. I did not come to remind you of humiliation, but of righteousness and joy in knowing Our Father as a reality. It is, of course, understood you are human and you err. You are imperfect, you have limitation. This is understood. If I intended you to be perfect, I would have created you perfect.
Do not run from me and hide from me in a false sense of guilt as if you yourself have left me in the cold, and if you should feel that you owe a duty to your brother who seeks shelter from the cold of life, then respond to him as your need appeals to you, and allow your burning heart to serve and don’t deny yourself my gift to you, the gift of life, the gift of joy in service.
I will be sad by myself, for I have to balance this sense of sadness an overflowing tenderness for each of you in your understanding of your smallness. Embrace me, and I will bring a shelter in your storm and comfort you in your nights and enliven you in your days. Rejoice in knowing me. I come not to offer you shame and guilt. I come not to bring any burden to you, but rather to remove your burdens, to take them upon myself for correction, for reconstruction.
I am your elder brother. I will teach you. I will stand by you and walk with you as you learn how to work in the vineyards. I will dance with you when you rejoice in the knowledge of our Father. I will comfort you in your mourning your losses and in your victories of that which you have salvaged, in the challenges you have overcome. In short, my children, I would share your life with you, in every aspect. Would that you would come to me and tell me of your woes and your joys and include me as your great friend.
I invite you now into my manger, to feel the humility of the straw, and to listen to the lowing of the cattle and the cooing of the doves. Hear beyond to the angels singing. See beyond to the universe rejoicing and marveling at the possibility of divinity made mortal.
My children, you are yourselves a reflection of my Father and me in your mortality. Allow yourself to accept the inheritance I give you. Accept the symbolic gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, the treasures of the kingdom of heaven. Little lambs that you are, be with me on my day, when many, many minds are focused on my being. Bring to them in your sharing and in your gift-giving and in your food and song, a simple remembrance of my life in the flesh. I am your brother. I am like you and you are like me. And we are pleasing in the sight of our Father in heaven. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad in this knowledge.
