What is the connection between Guadalcanal, Omaha Beach, and Bethlehem? I didn’t think I had to explain what this title meant until I told my computer repair genius what my title to this sermon would be. He just stared at me. He has been a successful architect. One of his latest jobs was the new golf course on Bell Road in Auburn. He now runs a very fast-growing Internet provider service—he is middle-age, father of four, but he didn’t have a clue as to what Guadalcanal or Omaha Beach meant! I found this astounding. And it gave me a heads-up that perhaps many listening to me today may not have a clue either when we mention Guadalcanal or Omaha Beach.

But to continue my research based on extensive polling, I checked with my resident scholars, the Mower Brain Institute, and I got the same intelligent, blank look. Then I knew I was in trouble.

So, let’s get the connection. On August 7, 1942, the 1st U. S. Marine Division landed on the north shore of Guadalcanal, a very small island in the Solomon Islands, not far from Australia. Guadalcanal was the first time that American forces turned back the Japanese invasion in the South Pacific. That beachhead on that forgotten island saved Australia from being overrun by the Japanese and turned the tide of war.

The average age of those 15,000, or so, Marines was 19. All went badly for them from the get-go. Under fire during the landing, the American navy pulled away, leaving the marines without air support, without much of their supplies and with a portion of the division still on board. Those 19-year-olders became expendable very quickly. But they hung on in that rain-soaked, malaria-ridden land, fighting off the snakes, the leeches, and jungle rot as well as the entrenched enemy.

For the next six months, Guadalcanal became hell for both the young marines and the Japanese. In early 1943, the Japanese pulled out 10,000 soldiers, all that were left of their original 40,000. What happened to the 1st Marines? After the island was secure, they were relieved by equally young army draftees. But the First Marines required a full year of rehabilitation before they could be called a fighting unit again. They too had lost many thousands, dead and wounded. But—but for the first time, the tide that had been all retreat began to turn. Australia had been saved by those few Marines and the free world took courage. The cost of a beachhead is beyond calculation.

Now Omaha Beach: Omaha Beach was the codename for one of the five beachheads assigned to the Americans on D-day, June 6, 1944, along with Sword, Gold, Juno and Utah. In the early dawn, the first U.S. Infantry Division (Big Red One) hit Omaha beach in the face of the vast fire power of the defending Germans. The huge guns on the steep bluffs above the beach had not been knocked out by the naval bombardment, as everyone had expected them to be. Further, by sheer coincidence, the Germans had moved in a full panzer division a few days before D-day, unbeknown to the Allies. I could wish that every young person could at least once in his or her life see the video, "The Longest Day." Or read one of Stephen Ambrose’s books, such as Citizen Soldiers, just to get a feel of what real Americans once did for freedom. On that one day, that one division had 2000 casualties. Beachheads are costly, very costly. But from Omaha beach, the forces of freedom never looked back until they liberated Europe.

What do beachheads teach us? I think of least four lessons:

1) Beachheads are always a risk; not all beachheads are successful. Think of Gallipoli in the first World War.

2) The primary objective is to establish for the first time a successful beachhead on enemy land.

3) Guadalcanal and Omaha Beach were only the end of the beginning, not VJ Day, or VE Day--they were only the beginning of the liberation, not the end of the war.

4) Liberation forces did not stop their attack until the enemy was overcome.

Now the question: In what way was Bethlehem a beachhead? In Guadalcanal we sent the best we had, the First Marines. At Omaha Beach, the Big Red Division—the best we had. To Bethlehem Heaven sent into this Rebel Planet its Best Representative, and its Surest Guarantee that this Enemy-occupied world would one day be liberated.

Our first lesson: Beachheads are risky! Many months of planning, went into the hope that Guadalcanal and Omaha Beach would be turning points in a terrible war—the risks were great. Many months went into preparing the heavenly invasion in Bethlehem—and again, the risks were very great.

You know the story, it never grows old: Nine months before that very ordinary night in old Palestine something most extra-ordinary happened far off at the center of the universe—angels had put themselves on special alert. From galaxy to galaxy, the angels passed the question: "Where is He? Where's Our Lord?" Faster than the speed of light, inhabitants on billions of worlds were contacted, "Have you seen the Lord?" "No, He's not here." Streaking through billions of island universes, down past Andromeda with its 100 billion suns like our own Milky Way galaxy--angels sped, always asking the same questions, always the same answers: "No, He's not here. Where is He?"

But on this special night Gabriel waved to his colleagues, "Come with me. Come and see." Heading now for Andromeda's nearest neighbor galaxy, more than 100 billion light-years still to go, perhaps through the open space in Orion, they sped, through our own Milky Way system, with its 100 billion stars, each star with probably its own solar system.

On they hurried, until they came to a special star, not very large as stars go, but to a star called "Sun," that controlled the fate of at least nine planets that we know about. Still they had millions of miles to go. But angels travel very fast, you know, faster than sound, faster than light, and on that first Christmas they had an especially urgent mission--as Gabriel led them to Planet Earth, the third rock from the Sun.

And then they paused. They hovered in silence above a little Jewish town called Bethlehem. Why Bethlehem? Because a baby was about to be born. Perhaps one angel said to another, "nothing special about that!" But this baby was different. Nothing like this had ever happened before in all the universe. "Could all this be true", the angels asked? Their Lord of the universe, here on a little planet called Earth, their Lord still hidden in a woman’s womb, utterly dependent upon a peasant woman to even survive?

But Gabriel signaled for quiet. With wonder and respect, the angels waited. And then it happened! With the baby’s first cry, those angels released the emotions of the universe. The lonely shepherds heard them first.

Jesus made Bethlehem into Heaven’s Beachhead in a hostile land. He was that Mighty Force that began the roll-back of the dark night that had covered the earth. Ever since that night, this planet every December has been celebrating that beachhead, wrapped up in the mystery of that manger. No matter what men and women may think of that beachhead, that baby boy split history that night into BC and AD. This is one birth on earth that can not be forgotten no matter how much anyone wants to ignore it.

How risky was Bethlehem? Baby Jesus came into this world as helpless as any baby is born, subject to the DNA and genetic stream all children inherit.

Breaking out of Bethlehem’s beachhead, he grew up in a carpenter’s home in the small town of Nazareth. He grew up as every boy and girl does, meeting all the perils and temptations that attack every young man and woman, both from without and from within, "as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss." (DA:49). Beachheads are always risky.

But the big question: Why Bethlehem? Why was establishing a successful beachhead on enemy land so terribly important for even God? Listen carefully: this is what God was up against. His first-born, now His enemy, had convinced one-third of the angels, and then all men and women on this Planet, that God has been very unfair, just plain unjust, in demanding that His created beings should obey laws that could not be kept, or else!. And if they tried, they would be scared followers and miserable legalists. In other words, behind God’s smiling face was a big stick and everyone gets zapped, sooner or later. Now that’s precisely what the great controversy is all about. Satan says that we can’t trust God who is so unfair and God says, "Try Me, and you will like it!"

So— Jesus came to this Rebel Planet where Satan would have home court advantage. Beginning in Bethlehem, He would prove Satan wrong. For 33 years, Jesus, as a human being, was Heaven’s clearest answer to Satan’s charges that God was unfair and that God did not have the self-denial and self-sacrifice that He demanded in His followers. Under the care of dedicated parents, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). Every day He was building those boutons of habit—He was learning, as every overcomer must, the basic principle of the kingdom of heaven: "I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30).

Jesus has made His battle plans very clear to friends and enemies alike. Try Revelation 12-14. Nothing secret here. Here is where we all fit in. The devil knows what those plans are and so should we. Listen as Jesus revealed God’s strategy as to when He can declare victory: "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world" (John 17:18); "Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’" (John 20:21).

What does this mean? He has left it up to His church to expand the beachhead of Bethlehem. I know that it is an astonishing thought. Jesus is asking for His followers to help Him break out of the beachhead that He established . Amazing isn’t it? The whole universe is waiting for Christ’s followers to do their part in pushing back the forces of evil on Planet Earth. But only those who first recognize why Jesus came to earth in the first place will be prepared to be sent into the front lines. Only those who understand why He made Bethlehem His beachhead will understand what the church’s battle orders are today?

Listen to the following insights: "If you are a true representative of Jesus, it may be that through you they will be led to understand something of His goodness, and be won to love and serve Him. Christians are set as light bearers on the way to heaven. They are to reflect to the world the light shining upon them from Christ. Their life and character should be such that through them others will get a right conception of Christ and of His service" (COL:115).

Now the second: "It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. Men are losing their knowledge of His character. It has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. At the time a message from God is to be proclaimed, a message illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. His character is to be made known. Into the darkness of the world is to be shed the light of His glory, the light of His goodness, mercy, and truth. . . . The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them" COL:415-416. Our marching orders!

What does Bethlehem mean to me? I know that the dark night of evil will one day be over. I know that the forces that invaded Bethlehem can liberate my weak, fuzzy, muddy mind and keep it clear and clean.

I know that my Liberating General has personally agreed to be my Shield and Defender. I know that some days and nights will be dark and strange and unexpected in my life and in the life of my loved ones. But I also know that the hope of final liberation from the bloody hand of Oppressive Evil gives me the reason to be joyful, and trusting, and at peace, during those dark hours.

Lonely you may be, so was He. But He fought on, trusting His Heavenly Father. So may we. Baffled at times? So was He. Disappointed with friends, even loved ones, so was He. But He knew that the forces of light and truth were stronger than the forces of deceit and moral garbage. And He did not give up. And so may we keep holding on a little longer, one more day, one more week, one more year. We too will never give up

At times, I think I hear the trumpets. And they are not playing taps, but reveille. On one hand I see the twilight of integrity and honor and on the other, I see the brightening of the eastern sky, for that rising sun that will never set! Let His light shine through you and that dawn will be hastened!