Hello, thank you for joining me today for Give Him 15.

The title of today's post is, You Have Your Choice.

Luke 2, 8 through 14, says, in the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their fog at night, and an angel of the

Lord suddenly stood near them. The glory of the Lord shone around them, they were terribly frightened.

So the angel said to them, don't be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy,

which will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David, there's been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

This will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the

heavenly army of angels praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace

among people with whom he is pleased. What a night, what a glorious visitation. What an amazing promise. What a choir.

What a cute baby. What a long wait. I can't help but wonder how these shepherds felt while waiting three decades, 30 years, before seeing any fulfillment of what they heard that night.

No healings, no miracles, no demons cast out, no sermons on the mount, no walks across water, nada, nothing.

If they had further visitations along the way for encouragement, we're not told of them.

It was bright lights, an angelic choir, at least we thought we heard angels, a baby in a feeding trough,

then back to the normal mundane life of tending sheep on a cold, lonely hillside, wondering about that night.

It almost seems cruel that God tells folks of what he's about to do or what he's going to do

and conveniently forgets to tell him it won't take place for several years.

15 for Joseph, 20, David,

25 for Abraham, 45 for Caleb. He doesn't actually forget, of course. He is using the weight as his refining furnace. It was said of Joseph that he was

put in chains and shackles, and until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord

refined him. Psalm 105. The Hebrew word for refine, Saraf, is a word

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