Category Archives: Christmas
Blessing of Christmas Joy and Peace — 2023
(Ver 1.0) It is amazing to think about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The primary focus of this entire website is “LOVE” = “AGAPE” (G26). This is not the normal human type of selfish love, but rather it describes the God kind of Love defined to us 1 Corinthians 13. Human love is a feeling of loving someone because of what they can do for me. But God says in John 3:16 that He loved the unlovely sinful world enough to come to the earth in person to give His only naturally born Son, to die for us, so that we might be saved and not perish. Praise the LORD!
That should be the kind of giving Love that we choose to display for everyone that we encounter. It has been a great blessing to provide God’s messages of LOVE for over 14 years. The LOVE of God and His Word is the sole motivation for sharing with you what He gives freely to us all (Mat 10:8). Hopefully, you feel the same way.
While this month is not the actual time of season when Jesus was born, it is the time chosen to unitedly celebrate the event. Yes, it has become devil influenced and commercialized for corporate profit. The true meaning is being slowly minimalized with an emphasis of a man in a red suit coming down a chimney. Also, instead of telling people “Merry Christmas”, the politically correct greeting has been redirected by many people to only say, “Happy Holidays”. Nevertheless, a Christian can still choose to be a light to the world by remaining bold enough to hold fast to our confession of “HAVE A MERRY & BLESSED CHRISTMAS”. Please say it in love with a smile and if someone becomes offended, you are not to blame (Jn 15:18).
Many times, we have received the most negative comments about acknowledging and celebrating Jesus, on what they call a pagan day. But we can choose to disagree without being mean and hateful to each other. Halloween is clearly demonic; Christmas is not a day where we dress as witches and goblins. No one should believe in Santa Clause or celebrate pagan traditions. But celebrating Jesus should be the number one focus for every Christian. Because God gave us the greatest gift, we are expressing His love to bless others with our gifts to them. Why does anyone have a problem with that? Do they dislike the giving, the receiving, or just the fact that it potentially costs money?
Ask God to open the door for you to share what this day is really about to someone else on this day. Share the “Gospel” that God chose to be born in a manager in Bethlehem as a male child (Mat 2:6). Tell them He was born of a virgin woman (Isa 7:14), and this will be miraculous unlike any other human entrance into the world. Tell them His Father was God in Heaven that created the heaven and the earth through Him (Eph 3:9). Tell them He died for the all-inclusive penalty for the sins of all humans by shedding His blood on a “Tav” cross (1 Jn 1:7). He did this as the greatest exchange in history. With Him becoming sin for us, so that we could become righteous to God (1 Pet 2:24). Thank you, Jesus!
What a blessing it is to have our names written in His “Lamb’s” book of Life (Luke 10:20)! What a blessing it is to have His Spirit living inside of us to help us, guide us and teach us everything that we need to know for every season of our lives (Jn 16:13). What a blessing it is to pray to Him every day and then listen to hear what He has to say back to us through His written Word and by the voice of His Spirit (Jn 10:3).
So, today you are being presented with a choice. A decision point within the short space of time of your existence in a temporary reality. You may choose to agree to celebrate with us in love because of Who He is, and What He did for us, and Everything this gift gave to us, or you may just choose to gripe, complain, about a post that is flawed with imperfect dates, and methods like you would prefer to choose. Or you could be apathetic and just do nothing.
But maybe some of you should consider another choice. Think back in time on what God has spoken to you to do in the past. Do the most significant something that He has always wanted you to do that was spoken to you many years ago when you heard but didn’t obey. Maybe it was fear that kept you from beginning the call? Maybe you believed you were not gifted, or smart enough to fulfill the call like Moses felt (Exo 4:10)? However, give God a chance and believe He will provide what you need to fulfill His plan, after you begin it by taking the first step. Wow! That is a Word for someone.
The time of the coming of Jesus is very, very short! Therefore, let us get busy in church serving others, preaching, and teaching the Word of God to anyone that will listen, going into the world to reach the lost before it is too late. Stop looking to correct everyone else because they don’t agree with you precisely to the letter of the law. Just teach what you know and believe to be the truth. Jesus did not tell you to go into all the world searching for false teachers and attack them. But rather Jesus commanded everyone to go into all the world and preach the Good News! Everyone that chooses to obey Him and give their lives, will and bodies to Him for His control, will be saved, and everyone that chooses not to believe will be damning themselves to an eternity in a lake of fire (Rev 21:8).
Here is one of our main emphases today again, Jesus Christ is coming back so much sooner than you know! What if it was in the next minute, after you finished reading this post and decided you still have time to get saved, so I’ll just wait. Maybe you are saying to yourself, I am just having too much fun right now. But suddenly when you least expected it, Jesus appears in the heavens, and millions of people vanish instantly from the face of the planet. There will be some deceivers that will tell you, they were taken by aliens to cleanse the world of all the evil people and now the true humans were left here to save the planet from the coming “climate change” destruction of the planet. But it will be too late to then be saved from the most horrific time of human history called the Great Tribulation (Mat 24:21). Now is the best time to give your live to Jesus while the Holy Spirit is still speaking to your heart (Heb 4:7). There is a link to click below about knowing how to begin the walk with Jesus. Please click this link and leave a comment on it after you prayed the prayer. Thank you! It will be the best decision of your life, and we will meet again in heaven to share this experience with each other.
Conclusion
Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
We are celebrating a baby child that was God in the flesh. What a powerful display of God’s humility to make Himself one of His creations to save us! This is the ultimate display of Love that anyone could possibly do for someone. God said, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” (Rom 5:8). And Jesus also said, “No great Love has anyone, then He that lays down His life for His friends” (Jn 15:13).
My God has already richly blessed us all, with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3) and in doing this He gave to us everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). Remember if you have anything Good it is because God was the source of the gift (James 1:17). That makes this celebration a great time to “Give Thanks to God” for all His blessings. God has been faithful to us all and He will remain faithful (Heb 13:5), until He comes and takes us up, very soon (Rev 22:12).
Leave us a blessing today or share your prayer request so that all the readers will be able to pray and agree with you and with us at Agapegeek. Jesus loves you, and we love you more than we can express in words. Someday we will meet in heaven and have a lot to talk about knowing everything that Jesus has done for each of us. Praise the LORD Jesus!
This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Have a very blessed and Merry Christmas. Amen!
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2022 – WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM
(Ver 1.0) This is the season for celebration. Many people enjoy times with their family in giving and receiving gifts. This seasonal time has been abused. This seasonal time of remembrance has become only commercialized to some. To others it has become a pagan holiday to be avoided. But to many others it is still a time of peace, love, joy and thankfulness for the True and living God’s arrival onto the planet earth in a manifested physical human form.
This blows the minds of a lot of people. How could the awesome, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent Creator become a part of His creation? Why would He do this? Behold this child that was born in a manger in Bethlehem, He is the Savior of the entire world. Come let us find and see Emmanuel, which is interpreted: “God with us” (Mat 1:23). If this is not enough cause to rejoice, then you do not understand very much about who He was, and what God has done by being born a baby human. He has made a way for humans out of this dark evil world by us choosing to join with Him in unity. This plan brought us His brand-new creation! But how does one become “born-again” to be a new creation ( 2 Cor 5:17)? The answer is found in a question that Jesus asked to His disciples:
Mat 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Jesus asks his 12 close followers, the most significant question a human could answer. Jesus certainly had no doubts and knew exactly who He was. But how many people around Him knew who the Son of Man was? The disciples’ answers Jesus question with what they had heard people say about Him:
Mat 16:14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
Some say You are John the Baptist, some Elijah, some Jeremiah, and some just one of the prophets. None of the answers was correct. People obviously did not have a clue who this man was, that was walking with them. Do you know that what other people think, believe or know about Jesus will never help you personally? Even today some people still say, that He was just a prophet. Others think less of Him than that. So, Jesus makes the question more personal:
Mat 16:15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
This is the most important question you can answer today to save you from an eternity in hell. If you can answer this question correctly, you will be saved from a state of endless separation from the God who created you. Take notice how Peter one of the disciples answered correctly:
Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Wow! This was Peter’s winning “all in” response with no hesitations or doubts attached to it. This statement held such great confidence. Notice that Jesus did not deny the answer. People today have the same opportunity to give Jesus the correct answer. By anyone today confessing this reality of truth, causes us to make a personal confident affirmation that Jesus was God born in a manger in Bethlehem. It further affirms the belief that Jesus was a man that lived 33 ½ years on the earth in the flesh. Jesus was a man who was hung on a cross. Jesus was a man that died and was buried in a tomb for 3 days and nights. But it also means He was raised from the dead being the first born within a new creation. Then by acknowledging to Jesus that He is the Christ/Messiah, the Son of the Living God, we confirm to Him and everyone else that He is risen and alive forever more. Praise the Lord!
Therefore, during this time of out celebration of the birth of the Lamb of God in a manger, let us remember how blessed we are to know Him personally and to fellowship with Him daily. Romans 10:9-10 proclaims that if anyone will believe in their heart that Jesus was raised from the dead, and then confess with our mouth that Jesus is MY LORD, they will be saved! This is the number 1 priority for this website, to get people saved and then to bless them with the knowledge of the true Living God, so that they will never depart from this faith in Jesus Christ.
God bless you if you prayed this prayer for the first time. Please leave a comment acknowledging your decision to follow Christ. Jesus said very clearly, that if you acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge you before my Father in Heaven (Mat 10:32). It is absolutely essential for you to go and tell someone, and it does not have to be this website. You can go to your friend, a neighbor, a loved one, a family member. Just please tell someone, I made Jesus my LORD and Savior, and then open your Bible and begin to fellowship with Him. Ask Him to speak to you from His written Word to show you what He has given to you as a free gift.
Thank you to all readers and subscribers that pray for us on Agapegeek.com. We are blessed immensely to have the pleasure to spend time with those of like precious faith (1 Peter 1:1). God bless you all and “be a blessing” to someone today and have a very Merry Christmas! Please never forget the Greatest Gift that you can ever receive is from our Father in heaven, His name was Jesus Christ and He is LORD!
Merry Christmas – 2021
(Ver 1.0) Celebrating the coming into the world of God in the flesh. He came from heaven to a womb, to be born in the city of David. He was laid in a manager. He grew to be a man and began to minister to his people as a humble servant. He did many great and mighty miracles for three and a half years. Then he was hung on a cross, where He died for us all to save us from hell. His body was laid in a tomb for three days and then He arose from the dead victorious over death, hell and the grave. His work gave us all the same hope by placing our complete trust and faith in Him.
Luke 2:7 – And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone from Agapegeek!
JESUS IS COMING SOON!
BE READY!
Merry and Blessed Christmas 2020!
(Ver 1.0) Merry Christmas 2020 and a Blessed coming Victorious Happy New Year 2021. Many of us celebrate the entrance into the world of the Lord Jesus Christ on December 25th. We have selected this day to honor the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Without His birth, there could have never been His death on a cross. For this reason, He came into the world to save us from our sin penalty of eternal death. We should be eternally grateful to Him for this gift.
2Co 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Everyone loves to receive gifts. But God gave to us all, the ultimate gift. What a great indescribable GIFT Jesus was to you and I. He is the gift that never ends. We like to give people gifts in this world but they are such temporary happiness. What was a WOW type of gift right NOW will become passing OLD gift of yesterday and probably end up in the garbage soon. Have you ever received a new smart phone, tablet, computer or something else and think this was the best gift every and so great? Then in 1 or 2 years there comes out a newer version that blows that old model away and you have to have that new one? Jesus is NOT like a new gadget or electronic device. He comes to live on the inside of us and if we allow Him to, He can just get better and better as we learn to know more about Him. Wow, Wow and WOW! I pray you know what I mean.
Give thanks to Jesus for what He has given to you today. Be a blessing to your family, to your friends and those that you see today and every day. Acknowledge and thank HIM for the LOVE that He has given to you. Then let His LOVE on the inside of you shine to ALL those that you encounter by being led by the HIS Spirt.
Thank you, to all of my readers, subscribers, friends and all those in family of the LORD JESUS CHRIST! Have a very blessed and Merry Christmas and a very Prosperous New Year. God bless you and keep you. I love you and God loves you and if God is for us who then can be against us. Our continued prayers will be for you to continue to grow and know Jesus better today than you did yesterday. 2021 will be a great year of victory and rejoicing. Expect it!
My Reason to Celebrate Christmas
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:
- God Saved Us from the Death Penalty of Our Sin (Rom 6:23).
- He Accomplished this through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross (1 Peter 2:24).
- 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:
- A Virgin had to conceive a Male Child (Isa 7:14, Mat 1:23)
- The conceived Male Child had to be born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2, Mat 2:1)
- 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.
Christmas and the Gospel Message
(Ver 1.1) I am praying that all of my friends, subscribers and readers have an extremely blessed Christ Centered time of Celebration for the Birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this year of 2018. We too often lose the primary focus for the reason for this time of year. We give God the praise and the glory for what He has done for us in Jesus Christ coming to the earth throughout the entire year, But, I just want to give Him a well-deserved special emphasis of praise for being born here on this planet nearly 2000 years ago.
Today I want to share a quick lesson on Christmas. One of the main reasons that I am writing this lesson is to help eliminate a type of religious ignorance for why Christians should celebrate the Birth of Jesus on December 25 every year. No, we do not know that He was born on this date. No one can prove that He was born then or not born then, but that is really not the reason we celebrate. If you would like to celebrate on a different day or not at all that is your choice. But, as a body of believers I commend the person that set a specific time for celebration of this glorious event. Even though this day has been commercialized and fought over to be removed we should walk in love and be happy to share Christ with others through His great Grace and love.
Someone was trying to tell me in one of my recent Bible lessons that I was wrong by saying Jesus went around the earth in person preaching the Gospel to people. They further tried to say that since Jesus had not yet been crucified and died to pay the penalty for our sins the Gospel was clearly not available to be preached to anyone. I believe that it is sad for anyone to think this way. That is not what the Bible says at all. Today I am going to share how the Gospel was preached 2000 years ago when Jesus walked the face of the earth and before He died. Then we will explore how God shared this news even way beyond Jesus came and how it was preached to people over 4000 years ago.
The Gospel in the Old Testament
We will begin with a verse that is written in the Book of Galatians that reveals the Gospel was preached to Abraham 2000 years before Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. Please read this verse and learn what God calls the Gospel:
Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
The Greek word that I wish to focus on is the word G4283. It was translated as “preached before the Gospel” in this verse. This Greek word is a compound of two other Greek words G2097 and G4253. The first word to consider is G2097 and this is the Greek word that literally means to announce good news and it is often translated as the Gospel in the New Testament. The second Greek word G4253 that is being connected to this present tense Gospel preaching or announcement of good news verb is one that simply means “fore” or “before” in time relationship to the present. God is very clearly stating that the “Gospel was preached before” to a man named Abraham specifically. Wow, I didn’t think Jesus had died yet but still God says this was the Gospel being preached. How can this be? What was it that God said was the Gospel?
God answers these questions by informing us “That He would justify the heathen through faith”. The Greek word G1484 that was translated as “heathen” simply means “a race”, “a nation” and “Gentiles”. God is declaring the method of salvation by faith for ALL HUMANS way back to Abraham and Jesus was not even born, lived, died or raised from the dead. Isn’t that amazing? God is looking down the corridor of time forward to something that was to be accomplished in the future and preaching it like it was already a done deal. Praise God!
- GOD Preached the Gospel Good News to People that Jesus was Coming before He came.
The Gospel in the Birth of Christ Jesus
Many people know the Christmas Story but I’ll provide some new details that may have been overlooked about the Gospel being declared in time of His birth. We will begin by reading in Luke 2 starting at verse 10. Before this verse we should already know that Jesus had been born in a manager in the small town of Bethlehem. An angel was sent to shepherds a short distance from the manager with a powerful message. Let’s read it:
Luk 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Luk 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luk 2:12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Luk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Isn’t God awesome? A messenger angel was sent to shepherds to tell them of the birth of the future sacrifice LAMB of GOD! Please notice the words written in verse 10 “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings”. Guess what the Greek word is that was translated as “Good Tidings”. This is again the Greek Word G2097 that is often translated as the Gospel. Who did the angels say that this Gospel message was for? The angel said it was for “ALL PEOPLE”. Isn’t that the beginning of the same Gospel that was spoken to Abraham? The angel continues the Gospel by saying “In the city of David is born a savior which is Christ the LORD”. Christ is the Hebrew word Messiah and it simply means anointed one. LORD is a key Hebrew word because this is JEHOVAH a name for the God of all creation. The angel was announcing to all mankind that God had come to the earth in the flesh and this was the GOSPEL! It was too Good to be True News. The angels in the heavens immediately break out in joyous celebration speaking praises to God and blessings of peace and goodwill to all men. Wow, I am in awe of God’s love for us to do this for me.
- When Jesus was born God preached the Gospel Good News that He was here.
Jesus Preaches in the Flesh the Gospel on Earth
I could give more scriptures to this lesson but it is my desire to keep it short and to the point. Did Jesus, when He walked the face of the earth in the flesh before He died preach the Gospel to people? The Bible says that He did. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Luke 8 this time and begin to read in verse 1:
Luk 8:1 And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,
The KJV translators had another problem with determining the correct word to be included in this verse. They choose “glad tidings” but again this is the Greek Word 2097 that is most often translated as “the Gospel”. Therefore we learn from the word chosen by God in the scriptures that Jesus preached the Gospel before He died. What I find amazing about this is that in this verse Jesus is described to go to EVERY city and village to preach the Gospel to the people living on the earth before He had died, was raised from the dead and ascended back into heaven. Jesus in person was announcing such great news to them that they clearly did not understand it as many today also fail to believe in Him.
- God Preached and declared the Gospel Good News in Person that He was the promised one that everyone was looking for to come.
Conclusion
The death of Jesus on a cross followed by His resurrection from the dead 3 days later could have never occurred except that He was first born into this world. God initiated a process by declaring what would happen before it happened and then worked through human people on the earth to bring it to pass. Abraham cooperated, David cooperated, Mary cooperated, Joseph cooperated and many, many others. Jesus came to die and pay the penalty for all of our sins but to accomplish this He had to be born of a virgin and live 33 ½ years on the earth and then cooperate to lay down His life in such a great display of humility that I struggle to understand fully how He loved us that much to do that.
I pray again that you will be blessed this Christmas and go and spend time in His Word understanding How much He loved us to do what He did by being born in Bethlehem to be laid in a feeding trough. I love you all and I appreciate your time in reading this blog of Bible studies. Spend time with your loved ones to celebrate Jesus and tell them about the God that came to die for them. God Bless you all.
Praying for You ALL to be Blessed this CHRISTMAS 2017!!!
Thanking God for His Glorious GIFT to the World!
We are so very blessed to have so many readers and subscribers who LOVE the Bible this much to study with us on AGAPEGEEK. We will be praying for you all this coming 2018 year. We also appreciate your prayers for us also. Thank you to every prayer partner. God has continued to bless us because of your prayers.
HAVE A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS!
From the AGAPEGEEK Website
Problems with the Traditional Christmas Story!
(Ver 1.3) Almost every Christmas these days I come across another example of how people have adopted a tradition rather than the Bible. It seems that people are more comfortable with their idea of Christmas rather than what God said really happened in the Bible. What am I talking about? Mostly I have a problem with the manger scenes and living nativities that many churches put up this time of the year. If you have ever read any of my blogs you know I am a stickler for the details. I feel if God went to so much trouble to put a story in the Bible for us to read, we ought to have enough respect to figure out what it says and then to teach that. Obviously there are a lot of people who disagree with me on this or they wouldn’t have the wise men visiting baby Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem.
You really don’t have to be a rocket scientist to read and to study the Bible. You just need to pay attention to every word. The wise men were never in the town of Bethlehem and Jesus was there for less than a week. If you have read the Bible you know that the story starts by Joseph and Mary having to travel to Bethlehem in order to pay taxes and participate in the census that the Roman government had imposed on all of their citizens. Sounds a lot like what Congress is trying to do to us now. But I won’t go there. Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem because they were of the house of David. If they were not David’s descendants Jesus would not have been born in Bethlehem. It is funny how God knew what was going to happen and He prophesied where Jesus would be born way before hand.
Mic 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Here is another point that I always like to make about the Christmas story. Why was Jesus born in a manager? I think most people think that it was simply because they were so poor that they couldn’t afford anything better. But, that is not what the Bible says either. We can clearly understand that because of Mary’s condition of being almost 9 months pregnant that they were not making as good of time as everyone else that was also having to travel to Bethlehem. When Joseph and Mary finally arrived in Bethlehem we know that Jesus was born in the manger because the inn was already full of people (Luke 2:7). We can easily conclude that Joseph had the money to stay at the inn and also enough in his pocket to pay his taxes. You did know you don’t pay taxes if you don’t have any income or money earned, don’t you? So Jesus was born in a manger because of the slower travel time and the insufficient space at the inn and not the lack of money of Joseph and Mary as many teach. That to me is a very important point to the Christmas story that you should not throw away and ignore.
Next, we find in the story of Christmas, that the angels appeared to some shepherds that were nearby tending their sheep and told them of the great news of the birth of the messiah (Luke 2:8-10). It is certainly significant that shepherds were told this since the Lamb of God was just born in Bethlehem and who better to come to see this Lamb of God, than these nearby shepherds tending their sheep. So we know that the shepherds were at the manger and witnessed the Lamb of God in Bethlehem personally. So where do we get the idea that Jesus was also visited by the wise men at the same time? I honestly do not have a clue where this tradition originated, nor do I care. If you read the account in the Bible you find that the wise men could have been there to see Jesus, up to two years after his birth in Bethlehem. We know that Jesus was circumcised in Jerusalem on the 8th day of his life so we can thus determine that Jesus was in the manger for less than a week. Just long enough for Mary to recover and for Joseph to pay the taxes. They then went to Jerusalem and did what the law instructed them to do for their new born son and offer all the appropriate sacrifices.
What would you assume that Joseph would have done then? If you guessed go home you would probably be correct. So here is the root of the problem, we have two different accounts of the birth of Jesus, the main account is found in Luke, but Matthew also provides us additional information. The problem occurs when people try to combine these two accounts into one story when they are really two separate accounts. In Matthew 2 we discover that the Magi were come from the east and they appear in Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. We also discover that they talk with King Herod and stir up a hornet’s nest of controversies. They are told that the messiah is prophesied to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. I guess this is automatically assumed to be where they travel to, to see Jesus. But that is not what the Bible says.
Mat 2:11 and having come to the house, they found the child with Mary his mother,
You can see in Matthew 2:11 that the wise men show up at a house and not at a manger. Who do you think this house belonged to? You can assume many options, but the one that makes the most sense was it was Joseph’s house in his hometown Nazareth. Here is the other interesting point to be made in this story, the Greek word translated as “child” does not mean baby or new born. When Jesus was a baby in the manger he is called by a different Greek word. You can look it up for yourself. This Greek word actually means a half grown child. So we can see that a lot of time has passed before the Magi make it to Jesus.
All you have to do is read and study and you come up with the right story. If you preach and teach the wise men showed up at the manger then you are either ignorant of the truth or you choose to preach a lie, either way the truth is oppressed for what you think and not for what the Bible actually says. So when we see a manger scene with 3 wise men on camels we are looking at a lie, a fabrication of the truth. How can the world learn to believe what a Christian is saying is the truth if what a lot of what they say is a lie. Is it important to be truthful all the time? I believe that it is. There are really so many other things we could look at in this story. For example, no where does it say that there were 3 wise men. Where did we get that in the story? I assume it is because they brought 3 types of gifts and everyone assumes that every wise man had a different gift. When we make such assumptions we again see how man can so easily get it wrong. There could have been 100 wise men or 2 wise men both would fit in the Bible text that we read in Matthew. My point is for us to be as precise to tell what the Bible actually says and for us to lose our traditions and what we thought was accurate. When we start to teach the real truth the world will have a much better opportunity to see it and to accept it.
I hope that you have a great Christmas Day.
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