“It is good to be children sometimes,
and never better than at Christmas,
when its mighty Founder was a child himself.”
~Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
Tag Archives: christmas
The Importance of Prophecy at Christmas — and in OUR Lives…
In Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is an evil man, whose only love is himself and his money. When confronted by the outcomes of his evil life, past, present, and future Scrooge is repentant. He isn’t just sorry – he wants to change, to make amends. He tries to do so with the little time he has left, by investing in the Cratchit family. In a sense, he’s trying to redeem himself.
Even when I was a little kid, watching that in movie or cartoon form, the same thought occurred to me. Ebenezer, what makes you think that these last half-dozen or so years of your life can make up for the decades of evil you’ve done? It is impossible for you to redeem yourself. That’s true of Ebenezer. And it’s true of you and me.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus is our Redeemer. He is the One who can pay for the evil we’ve done. It says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)
While all of us know this deep inside, the Bible is what makes it crystal clear to us. As the prophecies concerning Christ’s advent in Bethlehem lit the way for those seeking him, so God’s word lights the way for us.
Please forgive the sound of my voice in this message. I could barely talk. ~Steve
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Learning to Love at Christmas
When I think of love and of Christmas I am tempted to say, “If you want your Christmas to be meaningful, then let’s enter into loving relationships,” but that would be incomplete. Loving people doesn’t just make Christmas meaningful. It makes life meaningful – even rewarding. However, in order to love as you’re wired to love, you have to enter into a loving relationship with God. You do that through Jesus.
The Bible says that Jesus is the way to God. That’s not politically correct. But the Bible indicates that it’s true. Jesus calls himself the gate. He says he is “the way, the truth, and the life.” Peter says there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. You can know God’s love by receiving Christ as your Savior. Then you can begin to love others from the overflow of Jesus’ love.
The audio below teaches us about different kinds of love and explains how to show the love we should, not just at Christmas, but all-year-round.
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