Happy Holidays to All

tim

The real thing to celebrate right now - and it's caused by the actual 'reason for the season', planetary axial tilt - is the shortest day, tomorrow. Because once we're past that the days start to get longer and we're heading towards better weather.

Maybe there are a few people that prefer the shorter, darker, colder days and if so I will happily support their right to celebrate the summer solstice and the coming of winter. But me, I'm celebrating the winter solstice. Besides, it's our 31st wedding anniversary.

boofredlay

Happy anniversary Tim.

cornel

One Christmas I read a newspaper article written by a reporter who had been searching for the meaning of "the Christmas Spirit.” When he concluded his quest, he rated this answer as the best: "It's in your heart. It feels warm and glowy. You can’t buy it, and you can't get it from anybody else."
That’s the popular concept of "the Christmas Spirit” - it’s inside us. We just have to “get" it. So, does it hit when we unpack our decorations and start play¬ing Christmas music? Does it require a Christmas tree? One strand of lights? Two? Is it more presents? Or does it come down to out-dazzling our neighbors with a bigger outdoor display?

Going back to the beginning
I decided to re-read the Christmas story in the Bible.
I wanted to study the reaction of those shepherds— working the night shift! - who were the first people to get the news of the birth of Baby Jesus. After seeing Him, we’re told that they returned to their sheep 'glori¬fying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:8-20).
Now shepherds in those days weren’t the gentle, soft-spoken fellows that greeting cards portray. More likely they were rough-cut and hardy. When the Bible says they were glorifying and praising God, it's describ¬ing something like the last second of a playoff game when the home team wins, and the whooping and hol¬lering cut loose! That was likely the only kind of "glori¬fying" they knew how to do...and they were awestruck!
Christ’s birth, enthusiastically celebrated by hard¬working shepherds, changed everything! That baby was the living proof that God really did love the world so much "that He gave his only Son. that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The real Christmas spirit
And that baby brings us back to the question, "What is the Christmas spirit?” I believe it’s a deep-seated joy in knowing that the story of the Christ Child is glori¬ously true! Many will celebrate Christmas this year, experience gifts and excitement, but never connect the celebration with the reason for it. They’re like people at a wedding reception who celebrate enthusiastically, but don’t even know the bride and groom!
That's the difference between those who really have the Christmas spirit and those who don’t. For those who have it, you could remove the trees, lights, presents, food, and music, and their joy would still be intact! That’s because the story of God coming to Earth as a baby is true, and they've come to personally know the Christ who was born in a manger!

How important is the baby in the manger?
Do you know the significance of the baby in the manger? The angel announced it to the shepherds. “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10- 11). The baby born in a Bethlehem manger was God himself. It was the miraculous birth of God the Son taking on humanity in order to substitute himself for us 33 years later. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Chrisr Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Jesus came to pay off the penalty for our sins we could never pay.
His sacrificial death on the cross paid the price for all of the sins you or I will ever commit: "For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin" (2 Cor¬inthians 5:21). Christ's resurrection three days later (Luke 24) confirmed the ransom price was accepted by His Father. Now “whoever believes in Him is nor condemned" (John 3:18).

cornel

There is a special blessing in the Christmas message that is frequently missed by many. The birth of Jesus is not simply an interesting fact of history wholly unrelated to our present life, but rather it has a direct bearing upon it.
When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, the personal importance of His coming was emphasized. The angel said, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).

Have you ever thought that it was including you, the Savior was born for? Do you realize that when God sent His Son into the world, He sent Him to become our Savior? Listen to the word of the an¬gel, “I bring you good tidings of great joy... for unto you is born...a Savior.” Yes... it was for us that Jesus came, for we are all sinners in need of One who can save us from the consequences of our own sins.

He did not come to be the inspiration of sacred art, nor to be the theme of Christmas carols, much less to be merely a good man and a great teacher. No, Jesus came to be the Savior, and as such He was born to us.
Bound inseparably together are the Savior’s birth and His death. He came to save, and to save He must die..., die in the sinner’s place, bearing the full penalty of God’s punishment for mankind’s sins. This too was personal - it was for you and me. "Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree.... the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 2:24,3:18).
And such a very personal message of God’s love and grace demands a personal response.

The Savior who was born was God’s gift to us and He wants us to receive that gift. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
To receive the gift of God by faith we must believe that Christ actually was born to be our Savior and that He died for our sins. Because He arose victorious over death, He offers us abundant, everlasting life.
Won’t we receive the gift of God this Christ-mas? It can be our BEST CHRISTMAS yet!

cornel

Have a Good News of CHRISTMAS!

And the angel said to the shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).
Familiar verses, aren't they? So familiar, in fact, that it is easy to miss just how remarkable they are...:
“Fear not...
I bring you good news...
A Savior is born...
He’s lying in a manger...”
The birth of Jesus is not the way we would have planned it. No person, however poor, should have to be born in a stable. No delivery room, no doctor. Hay on the floor, animals all around. And the smell! The mess! This is no place for a royal birth.

But God sees things differently. He chose a man¬ger over a mansion. He picked a carpenter over a king. He designed a quiet coming over a world¬wide celebration. Why would God, the Creator of heaven and earth, send his Son to be born in such a lowly place?
Perhaps Jesus, the only Son of God, was bom in a stable to give hope to all whose lives look like one. We sure do make a mess of things. Sometimes our actions stink. And though we try to make the best of it, the winter wind still sneaks into the corners of our lives, and the nights get cold and dark.
Too many days too far from God? Too many years too hard on others? Too much mess? God knows... and he has some amazing words for you:
“I bring you good news...
I’ll give you great joy...
I sent the Savior, Christ the Lord!”
Want to know God’s answer to the deepest long¬ings of your life? "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Here we find the answer, in the most unexpected place. Look long at heaven’s barn-born baby - he’s the Holy One sleeping in the hay - and listen as God whispers: No mess turns me back, no smell turns me away. I was bom to live in lives like yours.
He knows exactly what you’re like. And still he loves you. He simply awaits your invitation to come in. One word from you and God will do again what He did back then. He’ll place his Son in the stable of your heart. He’ll give you the gift of eternal life.

Good news! Great joy! Eternal life! Would you like to receive this gift this Christmas? Will you tell God you do?!

[Father, I believe You love me. You gave your one and only Son for me – born in a manger, dying on the cross to pay for my sins, rising again to save me. I accept Your gift to live forever with You. Apart from You, I die. With You, I live. I choose life. I choose You!]