Now all glory to God,
who is able to keep you from falling away
and will bring you with great joy
into his glorious presence without a single fault.
All glory to him who alone is God,
our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All glory, majesty, power, and authority
are his before all time,
and in the present, and beyond all time!
Amen.
…we should love one another…
Love means doing what God has commanded us,
and he has commanded us to love one another…
We know that God’s children
do not make a practice of sinning,
for God’s Son holds them securely,
and the evil one cannot touch them.
We know that we are children of God
and that the world around us
is under the control of the evil one.
And I will give you a new heart,
and I will put a new spirit in you.
I will take out your stony, stubborn heart
and give you a tender, responsive heart.
And I will put my Spirit in you…
…every child of God defeats this evil world,
and we achieve this victory through our faith.
And who can win this battle against the world?
Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
God showed us how much he loved us
by sending his one and only Son into the world
so that we might have eternal life through him.
This is real love—
not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice
to take away our sins.
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—
the armies of heaven—
praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
When the angels had returned to heaven,
the shepherds said to each other,
“Let’s go to Bethlehem!
Let’s see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has told us about.”
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—
has been born today in Bethlehem,
the city of David!
And you will recognize him by this sign:
You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth,
lying in a manger.
…”Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said,
“for this is what the prophet wrote:
‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”
Because of God’s tender mercy,
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.
