Christmas

The song goes- “Long time ago in Bethlehem, the Holy Bible say, Mary’s boy-child, Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day. Hark the Herald Angels sing, a new King born to-day, and man shall live for ever more because of Christmas day.”

In the pictures we see depicted, the first Christmas which was the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, in a very humble stable environment, and in the second picture the three wise men from the East who came to worship Him and present Him with presents consisting of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

He was born to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, but it appears that God chose to have Him born in a stable, and not in a palace, so that no one could say “he had a better start than I did”. In the second picture we see how God directed these important men to come and confirm His Royalty. Also as Jesus earthly father was a poor man, God arranged for these wise men to bring Gold as a gift, and this would have helped Joseph to be able to afford to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, to escape King Herod’s decree that “all the new born children in that area were to be killed”. This was a decree Herod made (after the Wise Men left), because he thought that Jesus would be a threat to his own Kingship. Therefore, to be sure he got the right child, he decided to kill all the babies in that area.

What then is so special about Christmas? Well, for starters, our calendar dates from Jesus birth, and Christianity is named after Him. Some people call it the “Christian Religion,” but Christianity is not a “religion” in the way that all other religions are. You see, religions generally require their followers to obey certain rules and regulations in order to appease their gods. Whereas true Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ: Which means the acceptance of Him as the Lord and Saviour by anyone who believes in His Divinity and the fact that He sacrificed His earthly life as a substitute for each one of us. This should be followed by our “Repentance” which means a complete change of values, when we realise that Jesus Christ (the 3^rd Person of the Trinity of God) was prepared to leave His Heavenly home, come to earth in all humbleness, live here as one of us, “be tempted on all points like as we are and yet be without sin”. And allow Himself to be humiliated and murdered so disgustingly, just so you and I can have our sins deleted and can go on into Eternal Life.

There is no Religion in this world that can go anyway near to matching that personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Jesus said; “I am the way, the truth and the life, no person cometh unto the Father but by me.” With Christianity there is nothing for us to do but “believe” and repent, as I have outlined above. We don’t have to burn any type of incense or smoke, to ward off evil spirits, or sacrifice animals or people to placate an angry god. Whatever was required to reinstate us to be fit for eternal life in Heaven has already been achieved for us by our Loving Heavenly Father Himself, He has given us forgiveness and dominion over the enemy through Jesus sacrifice on the cross when we accept this “born again” experience.

Christian behaviour should be second to none: Jesus said we should “Love God and Love our neighbour as we love ourselves” and He has even given us the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit to assist us to get this behaviour pattern right.  Jesus pointed out, that If we do “Love our neighbour as our self” then we will automatically keep the 10 Commandments that God gave Moses, and this is logical isn’t it? After all, you won’t kill someone you love, you won’t steal from them, you won’t “bear false witness against them” or anything else that might harm them, will you?  Thus, if all the people in the world were real Christians we would have a form of “Heaven on Earth”. There would be no wars or selfishness.

O.K. Then, where do you stand in all this? Are you prepared to be a Christian and go to Heaven for Eternity? Or are you satisfied to be “something else” and go to Hell for Eternity? The bible gives no third option.

Just thought I’d ask, in case you had not thought it through. Jesus (The Son of God) died for you. No one else has, or even if they did they would not be perfect enough to nullify your sin because “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. (Romans Chapter 3 Verse 23)    Best wishes, Tom.