Steve Webb  0:02  
Hi, this is day 12 of the 2022 encore of the 2009 season of the Lifespring Why Christmas show hosted by James Cooper, creator of whychristmas.com and me the OG Godcaster Steve Webb. We're having a drawing on the Christmas Day edition of the show for an autographed copy of Bryan Duncan's A NehoSoul Christmas CD. If you'd like to be entered for the drawing, be sure to go to Lifespringmedia.com/day9 to see how. That's Lifespringmedia.com/d-a-y-numeral nine, no spaces. Every day from now to Christmas day you'll hear an episode from the 2009 season. And if you're not yet subscribed, or following the show, you can do that at Lifespring. Why Christmas dot show? This is a value for value podcast. What does that mean? Well, if you're enjoying the show, how much is that worth to you? The price of a Christmas latte or of a Christmas goose something else. Whatever makes sense to you, the podcast is for you. But whatever you give would be very, very much appreciated. Go to live stream mania dots comm slash thoughts to find out more. And if you have a quality modern podcast app, you can stream SATs as you listen and you can send booster grams. If your podcast app doesn't show a boost button when you look down at it, then you're using an antique app, find a shiny new one for free over at new podcast apps.com. If you have any questions, email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. Okay, let's enjoy the show together.

Steve Webb  1:49  
Hello, and welcome back to the Lifespring Why Christmas show. It's Day 12. And I'm Steve Webb. You've heard it said that God works in mysterious ways. Well, here's a great example of that. If you had an announcement, a huge announcement that would affect the lives of everyone you know, to whom would you break the news? First? Would you tell the guys that come to your home once a week to collect the trash? Or would you seek out your most respected and well known friends? Well, when the time came to announce the birth of Jesus, the Messiah that had been anticipated for generations, the one who would bring peace to all mankind, God decided that he would send his messenger to some of the most low profile socially unconnected, and even smelly people of the time, shepherds. Now I don't know about you. But I think this was God's way of saying that the Messiah was for everyone, not just the important and well connected, not just for the religious types. This Savior was God's gift to the world to all mankind. So it's the middle of the night, the shepherds are outside with their sheep like good shepherds are supposed to be. There's no light, save for a small campfire, the stars in the moon. And all of a sudden, they're surrounded in some sort of bright heavenly light. And an angel appears before them. Nothing like this has ever happened to them. They're terrified. But the angel says no worries, I've got fantastic news for everyone. Just a little while ago was Savior was born in your kind of town, Bethlehem, go check it out for yourself. And then to punctuate the announcement all of a sudden the heavens open up in there are dozens, hundreds 1000s 1000s upon 1000s of angels singing and shouting and praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. Can you put yourself in the shepherds place? Can you imagine the scene and then they were gone. So the shepherd said, Let's go see. And they went and found the baby who was just as the angel had told him he would be in some sort of stable, surrounded not by wealth and power in fine linens. But by Mary, the humble teenage girl, and Joseph, a working class guy and hay and the smell of farm animals in the light of the few candles. Having chosen these lowly shepherds to be the first to hear about the birth of the Savior, why would anyone be surprised to learn that the Messiah could be found here? See you tomorrow

Transcribed by https://otter.ai