Threads: Before and Beyond Jesus's Birth: A Synthesis of Scriptures

By Debra Ann Carter

This presentation of the birth of Jesus Christ reveals Jesuss existence from Scriptures as a "moving" picture of His life from first mention through early childhood - a present-day revelation of Jesuss birth! Using primarily Scriptures, the story unfolds to reveal a bigger picture than is usually presented in the traditional telling of Jesuss birth. Prophecies from millennia past, the words of Jesus, and of the Holy Scriptures are woven together. As with a tapestry, a fuller view of God's plan and purpose for the birth of Jesus is revealed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512769418

Debra Ann Carter

Debra has been in love with the Scriptures from an early age, when she remembers her mother pulling her Bible out of a cabinet. Even so, Debra’s study of the Scriptures has only been informal, individually, and through Bible study groups for more than 40 years. One of Debra’s greatest joys is sitting down with the Scriptures, a notebook, and a pencil to dig into God’s Word.

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Copyright © 2017 Debra Ann Carter.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Gratis Use: Text from the NKJV may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic or audio), up to and inclusive of 500 verses or less without written permission, providing the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible, nor do verses quoted account for 25% or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted, and the verses are not being quoted in a commentary or other biblical reference work. This permission is contingent upon an appropriate copyright acknowledgment.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-6940-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6941-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016921305

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/06/2017

Contents

Chapter 1 Jesus’s Existence Before Conception

Prophecies

Announcement

Chapter 2 Jesus’s Conception

Timing

Son Of God

Son Of Man

Chapter 3 Jesus’s Purpose

First-Mentioned Purpose

Salvation Of Jews

Salvation Of All

Fulfillment Of God’s Plan

God With Us

Mediator

Chapter 4 Jesus, The Unborn Baby

Parents

The Holy Spirit

Mother

Father

Pregnancy Fulfilled

Chapter 5 Jesus’s Birth

Signs And Times

Location

Manner Of Birth

Chapter 6 Jesus, The Newborn Baby

Birth To Eight Days

His Names And Titles

God-Given

Man-Given

Chapter 7 Jesus, The Infant And Child

Effects Of Jesus’s Presence

Peace

Blessing

Astonishment

Worship

A Disturbing Effect

A Heavenly Effect

Prophecies

Promises

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

About The Author

Dedicated

To

My Lord God

And

All my family and friends, past, present, and future —

We are a tapestry of life in the making.

ThinkstockPhotos-87740742%20Hands%20and%20Heart.jpg

Special acknowledgment of gratitude

to

Heather and Jessica.

It is beyond words to express my delight that God chose me to be your mother.

I am so very grateful for your support of my faith and your extremely valuable input during the preparation of this work.

May the Lord God richly bless you abundantly even more than you can ask or think!

I love you both dearly.

August 2016

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PREFACE

And He Shall Be to Me a Son¹

Inspiration

Continual story threads run throughout Genesis to Revelation, the first and last books of the Holy Bible. One of the most extraordinary threads reveals the existence of Jesus Christ from pre-creation into eternity future. My response to recognizing this thread was, What will it look like if I remove the thread so I can see Jesus’s life in a broader perspective? I envisioned a tapestry woven from threads preserved from millennia past for a present-day revelation of His existence through His early years.

My inspiration for asking that question, for wanting to remove the thread, and for compiling the work that follows came from time with one of my very dear friends, whom I will refer to as Missy. She and I meet every month or so for coffee, read the Bible together, and share what we believe God is speaking. We also pray for our families and for ourselves, to continue in God’s plan and purpose for our lives.

Missy and her husband, to whom I will refer as Tim, have a wonderful family of twenty members, including children, spouses, grandchildren, and a parent. My family is also wonderful, yet very small. I have been divorced and a single mother for many years with two grown, single daughters. Even so, Missy and I have much in common, yet the strongest tie we have is our love for the Lord and the Bible.

One of the many ways Missy and Tim serve the Lord is to care for their grandchildren on a part-time basis to enable their parents to pursue their livelihoods. Missy finds a variety of ways to engage the children in their lives by cooking, reading, praying, and handcrafting items together. One December she handcrafted an Advent calendar for them.

Missy hand-printed selected verses from the Bible to place in the calendar and tucked them in each day’s pocket for the Advent season. Her hope was that on each day of Advent the children were going to anticipate reading the Scripture to have a better understanding of why we celebrate Christmas. Missy selected Bible verses about Jesus’s birth and purpose and shared them with me when I visited their home to see their recently placed Christmas decorations.

We had coffee that December morning together and enjoyed one of Missy’s homemade baked creations. At Missy’s suggestion, we took turns reading each of the selected verses aloud. As we read several, I noticed that she had arranged the verses in an order to present an unfolding story of the birth of Jesus and His purpose. We had an absolutely delightful time together that morning!

Revelation

The day after Missy and I read the Advent verses, in my usual time of morning prayer, I recalled the delight of reading those verses together. Meditating on that warm memory,