Come just as you are.

Did you know that the first recorded announcement of Christ's birth was to the Shepherds?  Surprisingly, it came to the social outcasts of the day.  Rough, belching, beer drinking uncleanly men, these were were the first ears to hear the announcement of the Saviour.  God chose these men.  But why? 
These men represent you and I.  The angels didn't say, go wash your face, comb your hair and sober up before you go and see this breath of Heaven called Jesus.  No they said  ^"And this shall be a sign unto you; You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."  You shall...this says to me GO just as you are.  As unclean as they were the angel made no lists of purity rules and regulations for them to fall at the feet of The King.  The old passed away, a new covenant was being given. We know that in Jesus’ time, sacrifice was required for the forgiveness of sin. Clean animals were sacrificed in a proscribed manner by priests made ritually clean. Only then were a person’s sins forgiven. Until, that is, Jesus comes to give us a new way. That’s because Jesus comes as the new sacrifice. That’s what the gospels tell us. Jesus is called the Lamb of God over and over, beginning when John the Baptist (“John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”). ...to be continued