This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look!
I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look!
I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!
“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared for all people.
He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!”
“I looked for someone who might rebuild
the wall of righteousness that guards the land.
I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall…
Therefore, since we are surrounded
by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith,
let us strip off every weight that slows us down,
especially the sin that so easily trips us up.
And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened
and what the angel had said to them about this child.
…It was just as the angel had told them.
And I will give them singleness of heart
and put a new spirit within them.
I will take away their stony, stubborn heart
and give them a tender, responsive heart,
so they will obey my decrees and regulations.
Then they will truly be my people,
and I will be their God.
The faithful love of the LORD never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Sudden, 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!
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
with means ‘God is with us.’”
(Hubble telescope image)