Bethany Baptist Church

Bethany Baptist Church met this past Sunday at 10 a.m. and began with a song titled “Tell Me The Old, Old Story,” and a devotion “The Joys of True Marital Love” from Ephesians 5:25-33.

Verse 31 is the key verse in this passage of scripture. This was not a new idea. This verse was taken from Genesis 2:24 in talking about God’s plan for marriage is one man and one woman.

Throughout history people have strayed from the one-man and one-woman plan of marriage. We should have enough wisdom to learn from other peoples’ mistakes.

As we see in the Middle East, problems come from not following God’s plan. Abraham had two sons with the oldest by Hagar and the second was the chosen son by his own wife Sarah.

He should have waited on God and had no woman other than his wife. This is God’s plan and we should follow it.

After we had Sunday School, we sang “Good Christian Men Rejoice,” “Silent Night,” “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” and “Away In A Manger.”

Bro. Aubry is still at home recuperating from his surgery. He hopes to be back with us in about two weeks. In his absence, Bro. Glenn Vines filled in and brought the message.

His message was about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. We celebrate his birthday on Dec. 25, although we do not know exactly what day Jesus was born. The important thing is that he was born.

Dec. 25 is the day set aside by man as the day to celebrate. The Nativity scenes are not as they were, possibly no animals in the stable and the wise men took about two years to find the Christ child.

The letter “X” in Xmas has been around a long time. The letter “X” in Greek was Christ.

The message was taken from Matthew chapter 2 and Luke chapter 2 and was entitled “Emotions Surrounding The Birth of Jesus.”

Mary had many emotions – she was scared, confused and nervous. She was young, engaged to Joseph and was told she would have a child, out of wedlock. Normally Joseph and her father would put her away. No one would care for her if this happened.

She was chosen among women to be a virgin to have the Savior of the world, and she had to tell Joseph that she was having a baby and it was not his. Joseph did not know what to do, put hide her away secretly?

He would put her away or marry her which could destroy his life. Both had to leave home to go to Bethlehem to pay taxes and to be counted in the census. They had to travel about 70 miles and were worried about what would happen on the way.

Would the baby be born while they were traveling to their destination. They had no choice to but to go and this was necessary because of the prophecy of the birth of Jesus.

The Shepherds were excited to hear the news that a king had been born. They were looking for a military king to save them from the situation the Jews had gotten themselves into. They were under Roman rule and the Romans were very not kind to them.

They were so excited that they went immediately to see the baby and spread the news of his birth. We today should be eager to spread the gospel message. Those who heard the news were filled with wonder, not looking for a baby, but a military king.

The wise men saw a star in the East and began traveling from afar. It took them about two years to get to the home of Jesus. He was no longer a baby, but a small child. We do not know exactly how many, or who the wise men were, but they came a great distance to worship Jesus and bring him gifts.

They knew who Jesus was and knew he was the Messiah. There was King Herod who knew nothing about Jesus, but pretended that he wanted to worship Jesus. He did not want a king to be born and was filled with so much hate that he ordered all boy babies under the age of two to be killed.

God had a plan for Mary, Joseph and Jesus to go to Egypt until King Herod died, then they would be able to come back home. There is much hate and anger in the world today.

Many do not know what God’s plan is in their life. Joseph trusted God, went through with marrying Mary. The Shepherds were excited and spread the news of the birth to the world.

What emotions do we have when we think about the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the World? There is no need for us to get away from Santa, gifts and decorations as long as we know that Jesus Christ is the reason for the season. Take the Gospel message to the World.

We closed with a song, “I Love To Tell The Story.” We had our Chirstmas program along with food and fellowship on Sunday night.

Our prayer list includes our church, Bro. Aubry, Shirley, Grace, Bro. Hubert, Colyn, Lisa R., Jenny H, Debbie R. and her family, Vikii, Helen, missions, missionaries and many more including the unsaved.