Merry Christmas – 2019

(Ver 1.2) Merry Christmas to all my faithful readers. I’d like to speak a blessing over every faithful Bible lesson reader and Bible student that takes the time to study and learn God’s Word with an open mind and then the determination to confirm if what was taught here was really what is found in your own Bible.   As I have said many other times, please don’t take my word for anything. I desire for any positive benefit for what is taught on this website to be for the glory of God only. Today in this Christmas season I want to express  my personal reasoning why I choose to give thanks at Christmas to God for saving me. Here is a list of Biblical Facts that should cause us all to be Thankful for the existence of a Christmas Day:

1. God Saved Us from the Death Penalty of Our Sin (Rom 6:23).
2. He Accomplished this through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross (1 Peter 2:24).
3. But this Salvation work would Not have been possible if it were Not for His Birth, First in a Manager in Bethlehem.

I usually get comments when I publish a Christmas blessing, from people trying to inform me that we don’t know when Jesus was officially born and we should all understand how our modern observance of Christmas has become so commercialized and is based upon so many pagan traditional practices of humans. We all should understand how a “Santa” could become a representative type, form or variation of the name “Satan”.  Just as the Easter bunny and eggs are a pagan distraction from the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. Based upon these and several other distractions, I am usually informed that no real Christian should participate in this pagan type of false holiday and celebration. We must understand that this is just Satan’s attempt to totally remove the holiday celebrations entirely from our memory. I agree that we could easily slip into patterns of poor judgement during these celebrations very easily.  But, I still believe that we should always attempt to place Jesus Christ as the center focus for these Days of Holiday Celebration.  Jesus Christ is the only reason for these days.

I believe that Christmas should not be primarily about us getting gifts and it should not even be about us giving gifts. While giving and receiving can be a part of the modern event celebration, we should celebrate these Holiday events as a remembrance and a memorial for what God has done for all of us. This is a common pattern initiated by the Lord in the Old Covenant. For example, God instructed His people to keep a certain feast of unleavened bread day in Exodus 13:9-10 yearly. In this command God said that they should observe this day every year as a memorial (H2146) and a sign (H226) for all the people. Wow, it sounds like remembering God’s special days were important not for God, but for us who easily forget what He has done for us over time.

I believe that we should Celebrate the Christmas Holiday yearly the same as was commanded for Israel to observe God’s special feast days annually. But, our focus should primarily be on the event and not the traditions of man. I believe that we should first start Christmas day with a prayer before opening presents and it would also be wise to read the accounts in the Bible about the divine birth event before we begin the day of celebration with any other practice such as gift giving.  We can even bring into our gift giving, God’s ultimate gift given to us through Jesus Christ (John 3:16).

I am continually growing spiritually to view Christmas to be a personal celebration and a personal remembrance of the promised hope that was prophesied to come by Jehovah God. These Bible prophecies promised us a savior to come and these consisted of God coming into the world as a child in the flesh (Isa 9:6) to die on a cross to redeem us from our sins (Gal 3:13) through His shed blood (Heb 9:22). If Jesus, the incarnate Word of God that was made flesh (Jn 1:1-14) had not legally come personally into the world as a human baby boy (Isa 7:14) there could have been no future salvation through His death (Heb 2:14) and we would all be headed to hell with Satan.

Thank God for His Love, His Wisdom, His Mercy, His Grace and His Holiness to become a perfect unblemished Sacrifice Lamb (John 1:29) without sin (Heb 4:15) became our sin and who was willing to die for all of humanity hanging naked nailed to a tree so that we could be made the righteousness of God (1 Peter 2:24) in Him. God our creator accomplished our salvation by choosing to become an intimate part of His creation (Isa 7:14, Mat 1:23) to personally pay the very high price with His Blood (Isa 52:3) and this was necessary and fair to satisfy His justice standards for the legal penalty and payment of our eternally separating sin. Through His personal blood payment (Mat 26:28), God provided a pathway out of our bondage and condemnation from our sins to be fully reconciled (Col 1:20) into a potential for a continual personal relationship with Him. In order to accomplish all of this the Bible says these things had to be fulfilled:

1. A Virgin had to conceive a Male Child (Isa 7:14, Mat 1:23)
2. The conceived Male Child had to be born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2, Mat 2:1)
3. This Male Child Had to be God in the Flesh (Mic 5:2, Isa 7:14, Mat 1:23, John 1:1-14)

Without these truths there is no salvation. If we believe none of this was necessary or true or important to keep and remember then I do not know who we are placing our faith for our salvation. There is NO OTHER ENTRANCE into the presence of Jehovah God (John 14:6) other than through Jesus Christ. I pray that you will join me in Celebrating NOT just the promised Savior’s birth but the fulfillment of that promise JESUS CHRIST God in the flesh that died for our sins. This is why I am eternally grateful and love to celebrate Christmas.  God Bless you in this time before the very soon return of the LORD to take us up to heaven. Be blessed and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  But please let us all remember Jesus during this time.