CHRISTMAS STORY
CHRISTMAS STORY
I am His Cross
I am His Light
I am His Joy
I am His Light
I am His Joy
In Gethsemane, He prays, sweating blood in agony with thoughts of the impending as He prepares to meet corporeal death. Yes, there were holy prophets and righteous men before Him that experienced murder at the hands of the world, so what is the difference?
Fervently, He looks down the line of time and He sees me, and possibly you. There, there is His cross, His light, His joy. If He does not complete His mission they will never be, and those murdered before, in vain will they have believed.
His birth was wonderful, but His death and resurrection were magnificent. The Atonement preplanned, the moment at hand, what joy could compel such sacrifice? It is me, and possibly you. It is a greater gift than His birth which made it possible; birth being only the habitation of clay, as His existence has always been and forever will be.
The murdering foe possess no such weapon. You can refuse the gift of His Atonement, but you cannot misuse it. Sure, the deceived can play on His sacrifice and build great halls of worship to honor it, but it does not really work for them does it? So, He built His own house from clay and sacrificed it for me, and possibly you.
His Atonement has only one application. It can only heal. The sickness of your soul has but one remedy, His Atonement. Misuse you may not, refuse you may, but at the end of the day you know you are still sick. The preacher may console you with psychology, the doctor may perform surgery, but neither possesses the ability you possess through faith to be healed.
Tis the season, but not really; nothing about Christmas relates to Jesus other than the word Christ. He was not born in or on December 25th, we know this from Luke’s Gospel. There is no observance of a winter solstice holiday, or the use of Christmas’s accompanying traditions in the Bible at all. So, who are we really honoring?
It is so reflective of the modern church to go along with the world’s celebration of Dies Natali Invictus, “the birthday of the unconquered.” The Roman Catholic Church changed its name in 324 A.D. to Christmas, yet rolled into it all the customs of the former (tree, yule log, mistletoe, holly wreaths, Santa, gifts, etc.). The pagan celebration of the birthday of the “unconquered sun” (it being the shortest day of the year), is a celebration begun in observance of the sun. The days will now start to be longer.
Solstice and equinox holidays (summer, winter, spring, and fall) were, and are, common forms of astrological worship. I understand the intent of the Roman Catholic Church in choosing to overwrite pagan holidays, as this may have helped convert pagans, but in our day Christmas is really more pagan than a “holy day.”
Background aside, there still remains only one gift that gives throughout your life on any day but especially, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:15b). You cannot buy it with money because it is free. Your church may sell it to you, but it is not genuine. A Christmas story that is dishonest in favor of sophistication over substance will see your soul buy satisfactions that are short-lived.
What God is selling requires you sell all to purchase. Anything less and you have bought forgery. As you stress and worry over the celebration day’s approach, look at those things before you in the light of their end. Wood, hay, and stubble, is rubble for the fire. And while Christmas gifts may blind, the chime that ticks is the time you remain sick, absent the true healing gift of any season – The Atonement. It is the best and only gift for me, for you? Possibly.
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