Hello everyone, I hope you’re all fine by God’s grace, and that your week was awesome in The Lord.
Today, we’re diving into part 6 of our Christmas series, aimed at knowing a little more about Jesus.
Christmas is coming soon and I believe it’s important that we remember who we believe in. Whose birth we celebrate this Christmas, and on what basis our faith stands. It matters that we know who is The Jesus we believe in, and that we know why we celebrate Christmas every year.
To get into this, we’ll look at some words of Jesus.
Matthew 24:23‭-‬26 NIV

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

You’ve probably already noticed that there are churches out there which preach about Jesus, they say alot about Him but the Jesus they preach isn’t the Jesus of The Bible, The One who was born in Bethlehem and who gave His life for our sins.
Jesus knew it would happen, He knew that people would invent lots of stuff about Him. It’s because He knew it would happen, that He spoke to us about it way before time, so that we wouldn’t be tricked.
There’re so many people out there who are preaching a Gospel other than what was said in The Bible. A good number of them use The Name of Jesus to make people trust them, but in fact, the Jesus they preach isn’t The One we know. Some of us fall into behaviors, traditions, and beliefs mostly at Christmas because we were shown or told that that’s how we are to adore Christ.
I like the way Paul advised the Galatian Christians about this:
Galatians 1: 8-9 NIV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

During the Christmas season, we get carried away with the symbolism of the time, and we may easily forget the essence of the whole celebration and fall into things which not only have nothing to do with Jesus, but which don’t grow us any closer to God.
That’s why Christians should watch and pray and remain focused on The One about whom should revolve all the rejoicing during this season, and on what’s written in The Bible, not on human traditions.
It’s important that we remember the foundations of our faith, our core beliefs, so that when fake doctrines will come our way, we’ll be able to recognize them, denounce them, and reject them. But how will we do all that if we first don’t know what our faith stands on?
That’s why reading our Bibles should be a priority, so that we won’t get carried away by the lies of the devil,or by following the crowd in everything they do.
Christmas isn’t about an old man dressed in red bringing gifts to kids, Christmas isn’t about advertisement, money, movies etc. Christmas isn’t about adoring the image of a baby which is supposed to represent Christ in a manger.
Christmas is about Jesus Himself.
So now, let’s make our little list about Jesus and why we’re celebrating Christmas.

1. Jesus is The Word of God made flesh and He is The Son of God

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The fact that He is The Word of God, the fact that He is The Son of God, should push us to adore Him, and even more right now, in this season where the world says it’s celebrating Christ. It’s time for us to reevaluate how we’ve worshiped and adored Him this year and how we ought to worship Him and adore Him for the rest of our lives. It’s time to recommit to putting our trust not in idols, not in Santa Claus, but in Jesus Christ. It’s time to teach the truth to our kids and to make them realize that the greatest gift they could ever receive, God gave it to them when He sent Jesus on earth to die for their sins.

2. Jesus came to save us from our sins

Colossians 1:14 NIV

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves,in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Have you ever messed up so much in your life and felt so ashamed that you just wanted to start over? To have a second chance ? I have, and I guess we all have. That’s exactly why God sent Jesus on earth, so that we’ll learn that He forgives, cleanses, redeems. Our God is a God of second chances, so if I’ll celebrate for something this Christmas, it’ll be because I know that with Jesus, it’s never ever ever hopeless. He came exactly for that, to forgive us, to redeem us, to transform us. Isn’t this a wonderful reason to celebrate Christmas?

3. Jesus’s birth is good news to us

Luke 2:9‭-‬11 NIV

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

In order to die on The Cross for our sins, He first had to be born on this Earth. Isn’t it wonderful, to see that the birth of Jesus was a beginning of a new era for all of us?
And you may ask, why did He not just die on the Cross at once? Why did He first spend years interacting with people? I believe it was to show us God, to show how God feels and thinks about us. How merciful, loving and forgiving God is towards us. I believe His numerous interactions with people before He went to The Cross, were a lesson through which God was teaching us this : “I LOVE YOU”
And that’s why I celebrate Christmas, because it’s the moment of the year where I am remembered even more that Jesus came to this earth for me, because He loves me, because He loves you, because He loves us.
And you, on what basis do you celebrate Christmas?

Prayer

Father Lord God Almighty King of Kings, Thank You so much for loving me with an everlasting love and for sending Your beloved Son to become flesh so that years later, He would die on The Cross to save me from my sins. Help me make Christmas revolve around rejoicing in Jesus, not only for me, but also for my friends, family members, church community and co-workers. Help me live this Christmas as it should be; about Christ. In Jesus Christ’s Name,Amen.
Thank you so much for reading, you are blessed and highly favoured.
Let us know in the comments section on what basis you celebrate Christmas this year.
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God bless you
Victoriaeyog