5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: The Miracle in a Manger | 5 Minutes with Jesus | December 14, 2025
- At christmas we remember christ's birth in the manger.
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- At easter, we remember his sacrifice on the cross.
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- Every day for the rest of our lives.
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- Recall to celebrate that he rose from the dead.
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- Because of jesus, we are forgiven.
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- We are free.
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- I've always loved watching children in the tivity place.
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- So i was very excited one christmas
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- To fly home to scotland
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- And see my six year old nephew, who'd been cast as a shepherd.
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- I was touch and go whether i'd make it in
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- Time as my flight to scotland was delayed.
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- But my sister had promised to save me a seat near the front.
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- So i slipped in beside her just as the play
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- Was about to begin.
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- My nephew looked adorable in his bathrobe,
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- With a dish towel on his head and a toy lamb on a string.
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- Well, the moment he saw me, he grinned from ear to ear
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- And began to swing the lamb over his head like a propeller.
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- In retrospect, stronger string would have been wise
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- As the lamb landed somewhere in the sixth row from the front.
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- An elderly man with a good right arm
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- Threw it back, and the play went on.
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- I wonder what picture
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- Comes to your mind when you think of the nativity.
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- Traditionally, these scenes depict mary and joseph
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- Watching over the baby jesus with sheep and oxen looking on.
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- Some have a star. some have an angel.
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- But the setting is always a wooden stable.
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- Studying the place of christ's birth a little more in depth,
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- I've discovered
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- It's much more likely that jesus was born in a cave.
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- Justin martyr, an early christian apologist,
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- A defender of the faith, wrote in 150 a.d.
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- That jesus was born in a cave that was being used as a stable.
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- You might wonder why that matters.
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- Let me share a few things i've learned that
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- Add even more wonder to that glorious night in the book
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- The rock, the road and the rabbi.
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- Co-written with my friend kathie lee
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- Gifford, rabbi jason sobel, a messianic jew, states
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- That the bethlehem shepherds whom
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- The angel of the lord appear to, or no ordinary shepherds.
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- They were levitical shepherds, trained and tasked
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- With the responsibility of tending and guarding
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- The flocks used for sacrifices in the temple in jerusalem.
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- It's interesting to note how luke recalls
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- The limited information
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- That was given to the shepherds by the angel, the savior.
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- Yes, the messiah,
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- The lord has been born today in bethlehem, the city of david,
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- And you will recognize him by the sign.
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- You will find a baby wrapped snugly
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- And strips of cloth lying in a manger.
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- I can't imagine how many mangers there must
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- Have been in bethlehem,
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- But the fact that the angel of the lord told them
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- The baby would be wrapped in strips of cloth was significant
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- To them.
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- Lambs that were to be used in the temple for sacrifice
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- Had to be kept ceremonially clean, unblemished,
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- So they would all be wrapped to protect them.
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- It would seem that the shepherds
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- Who went in haste knew exactly where to go.
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- It was a place that was familiar to them.
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- A birthing cave.
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- They hurried to the village, and they found mary and joseph.
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- And there was the baby lying in the manger.
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- In his prophecy concerning the future reign of christ,
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- The prophet micah gets even more specific.
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- But where exactly jesus would be born?
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- When you writes, ask for you.
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- Watchtower of the flock.
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- Watchtowers were common in the ancient near
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- East and were used as lookouts to protect towns.
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- The hebrew words micah uses for this particular tower are.
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- Migdal eder, author and pastor cooper abrams writes, migdal
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- Eder, the terror of the flock at bethlehem
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- Is the perfect place for christ to be born.
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- He was born
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- In the very birthplace of tens of thousands of lambs,
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- Which had been sacrificed to prefigure him.
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- Let me add one more thing of note
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- Before we look at the wondrous significance
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- The place of christ's birth holds for you and me.
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- It was written by alfred, at a time a jewish convert
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- To christianity and a respected biblical scholar.
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- A copy of his best known book, the life and times of jesus
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- The messiah, where he writes that the messiah was to be
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- Born in bethlehem, was a settled conviction.
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- Equally so was the belief that he was to be revealed
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- From migdal, either the tower of the flock.
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- This migdal
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- Either was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks
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- Which pastured on the barren sheep ground beyond bethlehem,
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- But lay close to the town on the road to jerusalem.
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- Why does it matter?
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- It matters because it's all about jesus,
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- About why he came and what he did for us.
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- When john the baptist recognized him to remember,
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- He cried out, look, the lamb of god
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- Who takes away the sin of the world.
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- It was always god's plan that christ,
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- The sinless, spotless lamb of god,
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- Would be the final sacrifice to pay for the sin of the world.
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- The angel of the lord came to the levitical shepherds,
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- And they saw mary's baby boy lying in a manger.
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- The final perfect lamb, who would pay the ultimate price
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- When christ was hanging on
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- The cross outside of jerusalem.
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- The lambs for being led into jerusalem to be slaughtered.
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- Few recognized that the perfect lamb was paying
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- Our bill in full when jesus cried out,
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- It is finished!
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- At christmas we remember christ's birth in the manger.
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- At easter we remember his sacrifice on the cross.
- 00:05:49.672 --> 00:05:53.743
- But every day for the rest of our lives,
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- We're called to celebrate that he rose from the dead.
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- Because of jesus, we are forgiven.
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- We are free. let's pray.
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- Lord, how do we find the words to thank you for
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- The glorious gift that you have given us in your own life.
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- Thank you that you are willing to pay the price
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- To come as the perfect, sinless lamb of god
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- And to take the punishment that i deserved.
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- And when you said it is finished, you were seeing
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- Bill paid in full, so that because of you
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- We are free and we have a way home to our father,
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- And we thank you in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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