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- The Coming One
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- The Lamb of God As Told by a Scribe
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The Battle in the Heavens over the Redemption of God's Creation
December, 2016
A Christmas Reading prepared for our church Christmas program.
[The bold is selected hymns, song by congregation.]
God made angels to worship Him.
When Lucifer tried to usurp his power over God, he was cast out of heaven.
He didn’t fall alone. He took one-third of the heavenly hosts with him.
God created man, lower than the angels, but crowned with glory and honor, made in His image to talk with Him, to be like Him, to worship Him.
In the Garden
Lucifer watched as God communed with man. He saw the smile that man put on God’s face. And he wanted it gone.
He would destroy this communion man had with God. He would thrust a sword in God’s heart.
So, he deceived Eve and led Adam to fall.
Lucifer saw the smile leave God’s face. And he felt satisfied.
But God promised man a Redeemer to bring him back into His fellowship.
Thus, the battle through time began.
Satan led the people in Noah’s time to do evil that made God wish He’d never created man.
But Noah found grace in the Lord’s eyes.
Lucifer encouraged the men to build a tower toward heaven to make himself like god.
God confused his speech.
Lucifer stole what God gave and destroyed it. He twisted God’s Words to make them say what they didn’t. He substituted worshipping God with worshipping self. He lured men away from God’s face with the promise of something good, but left man empty.
And man wanted it, took it, and followed it.
Man looked to himself, and any thought of God dimmed.
God spared a remnant for His pleasure. He chose His people, from Abraham’s seed, to look to His face and worship.
But Lucifer wasn’t content to have all other people. He must have all mankind. He drew God’s people away from their Creator.
God reminded them through bondage, and famine that He was God. They needed a Redeemer.
God gave His Word chiseled in stone to tell His way.
They ignored it.
He sent His judges to deliver them.
They soon forgot.
God set up kings and kingdoms to lead His people to know Him.
They forsook Him.
God sent prophets reminding the people of His Words.
Lucifer knew how to silence a prophet. One man against a mob could easily be quieted.
Hope was hidden again.
Man forgot why he was created.
It takes suffering and hardship for man to remember.
But God brought man back. Because He longed for a relationship with the man He created.
They waited.
The time had come.
The Redeemer came.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Man thought peace had finally come.
But they were wrong.
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
All the angels weren’t singing.
Lucifer was livid. He couldn’t allow this King to rule.
Man could not see their need of a Redeemer. They would look to God and praise Him.
Lucifer wouldn’t allow man to make God smile.
He attacked God, using the man God made.
Lucifer worked with King Herod, killing all children two years and under. He would make sure this King was dead.
But God protected His Redeemer.
And Jesus grew to be a man.
Lucifer did not forget.
He found Jesus alone on the mountain.
This was God in flesh.
If Lucifer could make Jesus fall, he would be supreme.
Hadn’t he made Adam fall?
But the second Adam fought with the Words of God. His communion with His Father was unbreakable.
He knew God’s Words. He knew the power of them. And He used them.
Lucifer twisted His Words, but couldn’t deceive Him.
Jesus knew what they said and meant.
Lucifer, powerless before them, fled. His hatred grew for Christ.
But there was more than one way to win a battle. If he couldn’t turn the Son of God away from man, he would turn the hearts of man away from the Son of God. He could not allow communion between God and man to be bridged.
He planned. His entire force of fallen angels worked to turn man’s heart to him.
He tried to discredit, overthrow, destroy Christ.
He planted a deceiver within Jesus’s disciples. The man was their treasurer.
And the high priests, scribes and religious leaders, who knew the prophecies foretelling of His coming, were easily blinded by their quest for power and position. They could not see the truth of Christ’s Words.
The people were harder to control. They were stupid enough to believe His Words.
But Lucifer knew how to turn a crowd into a mob. Hadn’t he used the crowds to kill God’s prophets before? They were sheep following a leader. He must change their leader and they would follow him. Lucifer would make sure of it.
Lucifer and all his fallen host worked in the midst of Christ’s trial. Orchestrating deception, betrayal, and false accusation. He even led the mob to demand His crucifixion.
This Man would die. And he would pierce the heart of God.
Lucifer could see the events unfolding before him. He could follow the prophecies foretelling of things his hosts were leading. He would win. He knew it.
Blessed Redeemer
At the death of Christ, while He hung on the cross, Lucifer watched from above and gloated. He had won. There could be no Redeemer now. God could not communicate with man. Man would be forever separated from God. Now they would serve him. He would control them.
When the heavens turned black and the rain fell in torrents, Lucifer knew it to be the tears of God pouring out for His Son.
Lucifer laughed. And all his host of fallen angels rejoiced. They had won.
But even in his victory, Lucifer couldn’t help but look over his shoulder to make sure. Too many times through the ages he had thought he had won, but he hadn’t. This time, he must.
When Jesus was buried, Lucifer made sure they put a Roman seal with a guard. No one must claim false hope.
He had already heard that Judas, the betrayer and deceiver, had hung himself. It was no concern of his. Just a mere fickleness of man, realizing disappointment of his Creator. Lucifer would not be able to use him again.
Even the religious leaders met to commiserate over their destruction.
Lucifer cared not for their worries.
But he watched that grave. Was it secure? He was tense, anxious, nervous…He had killed the Son of God, he had no doubt…. but…
God always did what he didn’t expect. How was that fighting fairly?
He laughed at the thought. Had he ever fought fairly? He used God’s man against Him.
When God’s angels came, Lucifer knew he was too late. When they opened the tomb and showed the empty grave, he despaired. Didn’t he have power over death? He sighed. Only by God’s permission could he bring death. Lucifer hadn’t taken Jesus’s life; Jesus had given it. Did he even win this battle?
Now he looked at the angels guarding the empty tomb. He couldn’t even keep a dead body, dead! He had no power over life… How could he have not seen this? But he would not recognize God as supreme.
With Christ’s death, God had provided His substitute for the blood sacrifice required for the sin of man.
God had sent His Redeemer and given salvation. The Redeemer had come.
And now the Redeemer lived. That proved to all mankind that not only would Christ save them, but He would keep them from Lucifer’s hand.
Rejoice the Lord Is King
Lucifer had failed.
But his arrogance would not allow him to suffer defeat for long.
The Redeemer had come.
But man must acknowledge the Redeemer.
God had given man the choice. But Lucifer would use it to keep man from looking to God.
God wanted them to looking at His Face, seeking His pleasure.
Lucifer would work to keep them looking elsewhere.
Near to the Heart of God
When man looked away from God, which was easy enough to encourage, he didn’t notice God’s smile had been lost.
But Lucifer knew. He watched. He longed for that. Because anything that took away God’s smile would help him.
And so he resolved to lead man away from God, to keep him from looking to His Face and seeing the pleasure that he could bring to the God Who Created him and made him to please Him.
And so the battle rages today.
Not to keep the Redeemer from coming.
Lucifer failed that battle.
But to keep man away from the Redeemer.
But even as Lucifer seeks to turn man’s heart away from God, God still hasn’t given up His desire to see all men come to know Him. He is still calling. He is still saving. He is asking for the man He created to know Him and to worship Him and to bring that smile back on His Face.
Time will end soon.
And when it does, there will be another battle.
Of course, Lucifer and all his fallen hosts will be there, expecting to remove the smile from God’s face.
But God will be fighting with His chosen through the ages who have put a smile on His Face.
Christ Returneth
Onward Christian Soldiers
At the Name of Jesus
Man will know Him and worship, as he was created to do.
And God will win.
More Love to Thee, O Christ
I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
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Sonya Contreras
Other Short Stories
Do You Have the Right Words?
To Live Forever
Christmas Stories:
Unwanted
Luke's Findings
What God Lost
Empty Hands
The Coming One
The Innkeeper's Wife
When Heaven Came Down
When Hope Was Lost
The Battle in the Heavens
Stories Behind the Songs
Easter Stories:
Luke's Findings, part 2
What God Lost, part 2
Finding Peace
From Fire and Thunder to Love and Submission
Forgiveness Made Possible
The Lamb of God as Told by a Scribe
What Love Is This?
Remember: The Symbols of Passover Explained
Other Christmas and Easter Stories are compiled in Expecting Jesus.
Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.