Christmas Musicals for Church
Issue link: http://read.jwpepper.com/i/100251
(music begins to ���Underscore 3��� ) (ms. 2, bt. 4) Abraham���s nation and David���s kingdom had been dedicated to the worship of the one true God. But once again, many of the people hardened their hearts and continued to ignore God���s pleas to return to His ways. Others waited and wept in exile and oppression. But the story was far from over. God had not forgotten His people and longed to lavish compassion and grace on them yet again. He sent a messenger���a prophet named Isaiah���with a glorious promise: the coming of the Messiah, the suffering servant, who would usher in a kingdom without end. y HOST: nl (voices slightly overlap) ���He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering . . .��� READER 2: ���He was pierced for our transgressions, by his wounds we are healed . . .��� READER 1: ���. . . darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples . . .��� READER 3: ���But the Lord rises upon you . . .��� READER 2: ���. . . His glory appears over you . . .��� READER 1: ���Your light . . . has come.��� HOST: ���When the set time had fully come,��� as the apostle Paul put it, God spoke again���this time in the person of Jesus the Messiah, whose birth, life, death and resurrection changed everything. Now the prophets��� ancient promises came to life. The people could see personified God���s unfailing dedication to restoring lost relationships through this carpenter and itinerant teacher. Jesus was the culmination of the story that had been written from the beginning of time. He was God���s final word. Fo rP re v ie w O READER 3: (music ends to���Underscore 3���) And this is how it happened . . . (music begins to ���Be Born in Me���) READER 1: ���God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin���s name . . . was Mary.���