the space in between: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

cast down the mighty. lift up the lowly.

More than a decade ago I entered the seminary and then dropped out.

I've forgotten most of the things I learned there but this one still stands out:

Theology is not only the study of the Bible and dogma ---rather it is the discipline whose goal is the formation of the self in order to live the whole of life consistent with the reality of God (or following the way of Jesus Christ)

A good sign of theological maturity is when one increases in their empathy when they begin to understand the key aspects of life especially in science, art and the work of social change, where human activity is most distinct.

At a time when doctrinal precision fails the litmus test of ethics. Discernment teaches us that we need not look far. The Nativity story vividly illustrates that the Divine allies itself with the desperate, dispossessed and the downtrodden.

A life that is consistent with the reality of the divine allies itself with the struggle of the oppressed, the marginalized and the vulnerable.

The words of Mary in the Magnificat is an invitation to rise up against the false order of the Empire, and a refusal to treat evil as an acceptable part of a larger harmonious vision.

Cast down the mighty. Lift up the lowly. (Luke 1:52)

all i want for xmas

all i want for xmas is...

... to wake up without an alarm clock
...to ride my bike again for leisure
... to read a book in silence
... to play my guitar again
...to be able to take a long, warm bath
... to be relieved of my perpetual headache

Choosing to see otherwise

In the midst of all the pageantries and tradition that comes with the yuletide season, we are often led to believe that Christmas is a time of joy and celebration with our loved ones.

It is.

But to one must remember that, such wasn't the case in 1^st century CE in Roman Judea.

Once Jesus was born and after the shepherds, then the wise men have left, there was only the impulse to flee.

King Herod orders the execution of all young male children in the village of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn "King of the Jews".

In an ironic twist of faith the so-called Savior flees with his parents to their salvation from the oppressive hands of the State.

The Christmas story would not be complete if we exclude the story of the innocents massacred by Herod¹ as Jesus, Joseph and Mary made their way to Egypt –as refugees.

It's possible that we forget this story, because it doesn't fit in with the motif that we have been accustomed to because the State, the Church, the corporations, the establishment and the powers-that-be who benefit from the status quo chose to paint us an incomplete picture –one that is: safe. Unchallenging. Reactionary.

Because for us to see otherwise would mean the turning of tables and the shifting of power.

The great irony of the Christmas drama is that Christ was born so that he could die. We try to romanticize it by saying that it was a mission --a part of a divine drama that will unfold, where Jesus dies for his ungrateful creation.

The space in between Jesus' birth and death presents us with narratives that challenges us to rise up and make a difference by proclaiming freedom for the oppressed², turning the other cheek³ and loving our neighbor as our selves⁴–to bring hope.

How do we become hope incarnate in the midst of violence at a time when the poor suffer, when tenderness and life burned out of them⁵?

Should we be content in preaching heaven? In praying away our sufferings? Or should we take sides and declare that a better world is possible?

The gospel challenges us to struggle with the oppressed in realizing justice by refusing to treat evil as an acceptable part of a larger harmonious vision ---that is to live in constant anxiety with nothing but faith in the One who said that whatever we have done for the least has cosmic significance⁶.

___

1Matthew 2:16-18

2Luke 4:18

3Matthew 5:38-40

4Matthew 22:39

5A line I borrowed from Otto Rene Castillo's Apolitical Intellectuals

6Matthew 25:40

Holy $#*%! A Christmas reflection

“Christmas reminds us that we are usually looking in the wrong place for hope.1”

God’s humour and wisdom stands out in the Christmas narrative with his response to the question: Where is God? He is in the midst of nobodies accompanied by livestock in some back-alley stable reeking of camel dung and sewage.

Pleased as man with man to dwell Jesus, our Emmanuel2!

Luke's account of the Christmas narrative begins with Caesar Augustus' census and ends with the shepherds praise of the messiah, giving us insight into how the child Jesus enters history and turns our preconceived notions of power.

On one hand there is Ceasar Augustus, the Roman Emperor who at that time is believed to be god-incarnate ruling over the known world under Pax Romana. Conquering lands and exerting military might that they may be subjugated to the uneasy peace under the Empire. On the other are the shepherds: nomadic wanderers tending to livestock that heed the angelic proclamation of the messiah's arrival, who after coming into an encounter with the Christ-child return to their lot rejoicing.

Here we see the startling contrast of how God's gracious condescension breaks into history with his arrival at the height of the Empire's power, choosing to arrive through a human family of middle eastern peasants and the company of livestock with no one but shepherds to call as guests of honors in a marginal town in Roman Judea.

In that little town of Bethlehem we come face-to-face with a God who takes sides and favors the company of the poor and the lowly. Veiled in the fragility of an infant Jesus, the Immanuel reveals himself in a back-alley manger to an unwed teenage peasant couple, livestock and herdsmen. Brought forth in frail humanity, the king of kings and the lord of lords enters history with the message that true power lies in our willful relinquishing of it for the sake of the Other.

The story of Christmas bids us to take the side of the lowly and to be open and vulnerable for it is the vessel upon which we can encounter the divine and live up to Jesus' edict to care care for “the least of these”(Mt. 25:40), and come out of the ordeal as the shepherds glorifying and praising God for all the things we had heard and seen.

Finding meaning in uncertainty

2000 years ago something life-changing happened to a young couple. It was news of a child. It was news unexpected. It wasn’t something they prepared for.

Yet it was welcomed with meaning in the midst of uncertainty. It was looked upon as a blessing from the Divine: a child born of a virgin. Little did they know that this child was the embodiment of God’s gracious condescension to actualize love in tangible terms as, Immanuel, among the presence peasants, foreigners, an unmarried couple and a flock of livestock all outcasts under the shadow of the Empire.

In the obscure little town of Bethlehem, everything came to a halt as heaven and nature sang a joyful chorus to celebrate the arrival of new life.

The Christmas story reminds us that our response to the anxiety of the present, finds cosmic meaning when we look at the unexpected, as a gift that invite us into a journey of encounter with the divine. It challenges us to not be distracted from the unnecessary pageantries that come with the season and calls us to relinquish control and to trust that all things work out for good.

May the light shine

This was not at all a perfect year for many of us. The world and its troubles had gotten the best of us and brought us pain, anxiety, disappointment and the seeming helplessness that comes once we are apprehended in the apparent darkness of our circumstances.

This feeling is not unique to our time.

This was also the prevalent disposition of many throughout history, including that of first century Judea, which lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, of the Roman Empire.

It was during this time under the shadow of Empire that a young couple found themselves at a cosmic crossroads in history unsure about the entire essence of their predicament, ushered in a child unto a world that is wrought in uncertainty.

In the obscure town of Bethlehem a child gasps for air breathing for the first time and opening its eyes to the world that would eventually lead him to fulfill his destiny to be its long awaited Savior.

In the darkness of the manger rays of light pierced the gloom with the promise of new life that is everlasting and is still making all things new even today.

May the light of Christmas shine ever more brightly as we remember Christ’s birth.

Show. Don’t Tell.

" …and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" – John 1:14

The mystery of the incarnation is not all about the omni-attributes of God being enshrined in the flesh of Christ nor is it in the hypostatic unity of spirit and matter[1].

It is also in the mystery of God revealing himself in one who is co-ordinate in living out the values that he puts in the realm of the material.

2000 years ago there were young lovers.

They were minding their own business, when in the mediocrity of their lives something happened:

It arrived...unexpectedly...

It was strange, and altogether life changing, but nevertheless they looked at it as a gift from the Divine.

It was welcomed with meaning, uncertainty and faith.

Little did they know that altogether this something that happened, this gift, this baby would in turn become this Palestinian Jew who would in both words and actions announce that the Kingdom of God has arrived.

This man would reveal God to us as the one whom we can call "Father". Ultimately this something would be 'God with us' and in turn would "give himself for us" because he loves us.

This something came unexpectedly and there's a lesson to be learned in welcoming unexpected because it is in the unexpected that the obvious is seen and felt. It is there that God works and there that God meets us in love.

Gloria in excelsis deo.

Christmas: A rant

Let me say it clear: I do not want to abolish Christmas; I am just frustrated with the beast that it has become in recent years.

I hate the way Christmas turns people into proactive gift recipients who expect people to give them presents. Newsflash, the idea of a gift is that it is given because those who want to 'give' so freely chosen to render gifts it cannot be the other way around.

I hate the way taxi drivers see it as a license to overcharge, choose passengers whine and make you feel that you should give them an extra on top of their meter rate.

Human experience unfolds in story. Meaning is fashioned from places, plots, and players fused in real-time[1]. This is because more often than we like to admit it God uses the stories of people, events and the things we already know to reveal Himself and His will to us.

Christmas is a classic example of this.

Being gathered here together as a family already resembles something that happened around 2000 years ago in Bethlehem as the first Christmas was also celebrated by a family.

In fact as far as the biblical narrative is concerned it seems that human life begins and ends in the story of families: it starts with the story of Adam, Eve and their children and it ends with the entire household of God. In fact Matthew 1:1-17 speaks of Jesus’ genealogy: a story of families and its narratives of one family tragedy after another. And in the middle of this grand cosmic narrative is the story of the first Christmas that was again unfolded in the story of a family.

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23 (NIV)

The celebration of Christmas is a way for Christians to remember the good thing that God has done in the past. That is --to have given Himself in love, through the coming of Jesus Christ. Also to usher in the ultimate expression of love that will eventually come in at the cross.

While at the same time the celebration of Christmas is also to enact and bear witness to the Christian hope that one day God would ultimately and physically be with us 1 in the return of Jesus Christ to usher in the New Heaven and New Earth where John’s revelation says there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain –and that God Himself will wipe away our tears2.

The other day I watched a Youtube video of the World Council of Churches Christmas message, given by its General Secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia who in his reflection on the 1st chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians he lamented:

Christmas is a season to sing praises, yet in our time the reality of environmental destruction undermines the doxology of creation. The singing of the spheres is obscured by pollution and manufactured noise, the rhythms of the sea are disturbed by climate change, the beauty of many manifestations of life is disfigured by abusive practices rooted in greed. And as the earth suffers, so must its inhabitants. Already, the poor and other socially marginalized people find it ever more difficult to lift their voices in song. 1

Writing from a post-Copenhagen Summit state of mind I cannot do anything more than silently nod in agreement and whisper: “how true…”

What if God was one of us?

This was originally posted as a late Christmas post in my blog during the Christmas season of 2004 which was also around the time when I just had this re-discovery of Christianity. Anyway I hope what's written here still rings true as to the significance of the Incarnation.

_______________________

I would try not to claim authority or even authenticity for what is stated here but nonetheless I swear that what I'm posting here is quite true if looked at with an open mind to critical observation.

Christmas would probably be over if not has not yet started or is already in progress by the time that you've come to read this confusing paragraph. But season is not that of importance it is the reality of what is being signified.

I once remember how I attended a service at church where the pastor spoke of the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ by setting the tone with an alternative song that became quite popular when I was still in 2nd year high school, it was Joan Osbourne's 'One of Us".

Theologically speaking (in a Christian, admirer of C.S. Lewis' perspective that is) the song lacks depth in what we could say as firsthand knowledge on what the Bible says about God. But true enough the question is a valid one.

Indeed what if God really was one of us?

This speaks of how man has long been searching to fill that God-shaped void in their hearts that's been longing to be filled since the ancient of days (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Now what then indeed God was one of us?

To start with in a logical sense the question is quite not likely to be valid since if we then acknowledge that there is then a God, then that God which we acknowledge would validate that He is God since he created us right?

Now what then am I trying to drive at then the above given statement would mean that we are under the notion that we are first of all created beings right?

Therefore if we were created beings then it would mean that we have a Creator, right?

If you then agree with me that God is our creator then could it be logically possible that the creator would be quite the same as its creation?

Even the science of cloning would make no such claim, because the creator is highly superior than their creation since in the first place the creations existence is dependent on the creator's act of invention.

It would then be more valid (I guess) that the question would be better implied to whether God: "Is like one of us" rather than "one of us".

This discussion would go on under the presumption that we are both in agreeable terms that God is in existence and that His existence could be proven in Scripture (since I have no time to argue and prove to skeptics, atheists and agnostics of His existence.) After all this is about Christmas in the first place and mostly those who adhere and profess their belief in the Christian faith celebrate Christmas wherein I also belong to.

Let us look at the lyrics further and see what it says shall we?

God had a name what would it be?
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him
In all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that
you would have to believe
in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
and all the prophets
Trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome

When looked at closely the song speaks of how the singer speaks of how God is deemed as such a distant and impersonal God by organized religion. And speaks of how perhaps by some stroke of possibility God is in a way undergoing and living such an ordinary life as we have.

Well the question is profound and I cannot claim or at the least answer it in a way that it would make sense (even to myself) but I have here something that we could consider.

The Bible speaks of a person named Jesus who was God incarnate the second person in the Trinity (John 1:1, 1:14; Col. 2:9) who came to earth to finish the work mankind's redemption from the wages of sin. (Rom. 6:23,5:8 ; Heb.2:9)

Furthermore the gospels speak of His coming which was made possible by His virgin birth, and that in itself speaks of how he was borne out of a person, he was there since creation but he chose to become man so that he could reestablish his broken fellowship with his lost creation. (John 3:16, Rom. 5:12, 5:8).

I know to somewhat I'm saying might not be making any sense but true enough the question posed by the song is quite valid and needs to be addressed.

Yes indeed God became one of us, but not so as to know how it feels to be like one of us but rather it is to die for us and give us life everlasting if we'd chose to receive Him and enter into our lives. (Christ, by highest Heav’n adored; Christ the everlasting Lord; Late in time, behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;Hail th’incarnate Deity, Pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. - Hark The Herald Angels Sing, 2nd & 3rd Stanzas, Charles Wesley)

You see its what makes Christmas special its the fact that God indeed became like one of us in order to restore His broken relationship with us that we in the first place broke of with Him. (Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp Thine image in its place: Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love. Let us Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the inner man: O, to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart, - Hark The Herald Angels Sing, 5th Stanza, Charles Wesley).

You see the song indeed poses a rhetorical question and this in some could be said:

God had a name what would it be? - Jesus Christ
And would you call it to his face? - Yes. (1. Cor. 1:2)
If you were faced with him
In all his glory - yes the Bible says I can confidently face His glory (Heb.4:14-16)
What would you ask if you had just one question - what must I do to be saved (Acts 16:30, take not that the following verse tells of the answer
And yeah, yeah, God is great - yes indeed He is
Yeah, yeah, God is good - Yes because life everlasting is made possible when He chose to become like one of us.

To end let us take the chance to ask ourselves this question:
"Have I come to the saving knowledge of having a relationship with God by accepting Him as my Lord & Savior?"

I believe that it is fitting to ask this of ourselves since this is that time of the year that we take joy at the coming of Jesus as a wee babe here on earth to die for us so that we may have eternal life.

The Bible says that if we confess with our mouth "Jesus is Lord" and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we shall be saved, (Rom. 10:9-10, John 1:12).

May I ask if you are willing to enter that relationship and invite Jesus into your life?

If your answer is yes please follow the following prayer:

"Dear Jesus, I know I have sinned against you. I confess that I am a sinner. I accept the sacrifice you made on the cross on my behalf. I ask you to come into my heart. Please cleanse me of my sin. And give me eternal life. I repent from my sins and put my trust in You. Thank you Jesus. Amen." (Courtesy of CARM.ORG)

What you prayed above is not some complex formula of a magical prayer it is simply an act of sincerely admitting our present condition to God and acknowledge our need for Him to enter into our life. If you prayed that prayer with all your heart this is a time for you to celebrate because Rom. 10:13, says that for whoever calls on the Lord will be saved.

I guess it is but fitting for us to ponder on this thought by reading this verse from the hymn Joy To The World by Isaac Watts and this is where I will end.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

God may not be one of us but he became of us and not only that he also came so that we could be given the right to be His children. Truly Jesus Christ is Our Savior from the cradle to the grave. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

it's already new year's eve and as you can see this is a very late Christmas post you see I have no internet access so i hope you'll forgive me for posting this way too late anyways here's the post...

I was standing alone in an empty super market aisle when I thought of this...

Here I was a tricycle ride away from home. I just finished helping Jeanie check her test papers from school. Later on, I washed the dishes and did my laundry and this won't really be exemplary if today weren't Christmas.

I guess that's how it really is with Christmas, it will always fall short of its hype, (don't you ever wonder why the anticipation of Christmas is always more fun than Christmas day itself?) because we cannot replicate the incarnation of Christ who is the only reason for the season and behind all the gifts and celebration we'd always end up doing what we've always been doing which is to live (as in converting oxygen into carbon dioxide) which isn't really so bad...

But it would eternally be more meaningful for all of us if truly we've experienced Christmas in our hearts by putting our faith alone in the person of Christ and his complete and finished work of redemption which began in a manger in Bethlehem and ended in the resurrection.

And the good news about it is that it is being offered to us here and now as a free gift, granted that we'd be really honest to God and ourselves and admit that we're sinners and that we need Jesus Christ as our Savior.

I mean I am in no position here to preach or convince you to become converts to my opinion the choice is really up to you. Has the miracle of Christmas already happened in your heart?

"God became a man to enable men (and women) to become sons (and daughters) of God."
- C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

A Late Christmas Post

i was supposed to have post this on the eve of december 24, but i wasn't able to have access to the net at home.. so i guess this is a bit too late, but nonetheless i hopee this is not yet too late a greeting. on a sidenote i just had this painful toothed extracted and i'm off to church camp for tommorow until the 30th so i hope this post is worth something. thanks. merry christmas.

I would try not to claim authority or even authenticity for what is stated here but nonetheless I swear that what I'm posting here is quite true if looked at with an open mind to critical observation.

Christmas would probably be over if not has not yet started or is already in progress by the time that you've come to read this confusing paragraph. But season is not that of importance it is the reality of what is being signified.

I once remember how I attended a service at church where the pastor spoke of the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ by setting the tone with an alternative song that became quite popular when I was still in 2nd year high school, it was Joan Osbourne's 'One of Us".

Theologically speaking (in a Christian, admirer of C.S. Lewis' perspective that is) the song lacks depth in what we could say as firsthand knowledge on what the Bible says about God. But true enough the question is a valid one.

Indeed what if God really was one of us?

This speaks of how man has long been searching to fill that God-shaped void in their hearts that's been longing to be filled since the ancient of days (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Now what then indeed God was one of us?

To start with in a logical sense the question is quite not likely to be valid since if we then acknowledge that there is then a God, then that God which we acknowledge would validate that He is God since he created us right?

Now what then am I trying to drive at then the above given statement would mean that we are under the notion that we are first of all created beings right?

Therefore if we were created beings then it would mean that we have a Creator, right?

If you then agree with me that God is our creator then could it be logically possible that the creator would be quite the same as its creation?

Even the science of cloning would make no such claim, because the creator is highly superior than their creation since in the first place the creations existence is dependent on the creator's act of invention.

It would then be more valid (I guess) that the question would be better implied to whether God: "Is like one of us" rather than "one of us".

This discussion would go on under the presumption that we are both in agreeable terms that God is in existence and that His existence could be proven in Scripture (since I have no time to argue and prove to skeptics, atheists and agnostics of His existence.) After all this is about Christmas in the first place and mostly those who adhere and profess their belief in the Christian faith celebrate Christmas wherein I also belong to.

Let us look at the lyrics further and see what it says shall we?

God had a name what would it be?
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him
In all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that
you would have to believe
in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
and all the prophets
Trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome

When looked at closely the song speaks of how the singer speaks of how God is deemed as such a distant and impersonal God by organized religion. And speaks of how perhaps by some stroke of possibility God is in a way undergoing and living such an ordinary life as we have.

Well the question is profound and I cannot claim or at the least answer it in a way that it would make sense (even to myself) but I have here something that we could consider.

The Bible speaks of a person named Jesus who was God incarnate the second person in the Trinity (John 1:1, 1:14; Col. 2:9) who came to earth to finish the work mankind's redemption from the wages of sin. (Rom. 6:23,5:8 ; Heb.2:9)

Furthermore the gospels speak of His coming which was made possible by His virgin birth, and that in itself speaks of how he was borne out of a person, he was there since creation but he chose to become man so that he could reestablish his broken fellowship with his lost creation. (John 3:16, Rom. 5:12, 5:8).

I know to somewhat I'm saying might not be making any sense but true enough the question posed by the song is quite valid and needs to be addressed.

Yes indeed God became one of us, but not so as to know how it feels to be like one of us but rather it is to die for us and give us life everlasting if we'd chose to receive Him and enter into our lives. (Christ, by highest Heav’n adored; Christ the everlasting Lord; Late in time, behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;Hail th’incarnate Deity, Pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. - Hark The Herald Angels Sing, 2nd & 3rd Stanzas, Charles Wesley)

You see its what makes Christmas special its the fact that God indeed became like one of us in order to restore His broken relationship with us that we in the first place broke of with Him. (Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp Thine image in its place: Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love. Let us Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the inner man: O, to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart, - Hark The Herald Angels Sing, 5th Stanza, Charles Wesley).

You see the song indeed poses a rhetorical question and this in some could be said:

God had a name what would it be? - Jesus Christ
And would you call it to his face? - Yes. (1. Cor. 1:2)
If you were faced with him
In all his glory - yes the Bible says I can confindently face His glory (Heb.4:14-16)
What would you ask if you had just one question - what must I do to be saved (Acts 16:30, take not that the following verse tells of the answer
And yeah, yeah, God is great - yes indeed He is
Yeah, yeah, God is good - Yes because life everlasting is made possible when He chose to become like one of us.

To end let us take the chance to ask ourselves this question:
"Have I come to the saving knowledge of having a relationship with God by accepting Him as my Lord & Savior?"

I believe that it is fitting to ask this of ourselves since this is that time of the year that we take joy at the coming of Jesus as a wee babe here on earth to die for us so that we may have eternal life.

The Bible says that if we confess with our mouth "Jesus is Lord" and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we shall be saved, (Rom. 10:9-10, John 1:12).

May I ask if you are willing to enter that relationship and invite Jesus into your life?

If your answer is yes please follow the following prayer:

"Dear Jesus, I know I have sinned against you. I confess that I am a sinner. I accept the sacrifice you made on the cross on my behalf. I ask you to come into my heart. Please cleanse me of my sin. And give me eternal life. I repent from my sins and put my trust in You. Thank you Jesus. Amen." (Courtesy of CARM.ORG)

What you prayed above is not some complex formula of a magical prayer it is simply an act of sincerely admitting our present condition to God and acknowledge our need for Him to enter into our life. If you prayed that prayer with all your heart this is a time for you to celebrate because Rom. 10:13, says that for whoever calls on the Lord will be saved.

I guess it is but fitting for us to ponder on this thought by reading this verse from the hymn Joy To The World by Isaac Watts and this is where I will end.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

God may not be one of us but he became of us and not only that he also came so that we could be given the right to be His children. Truly Jesus Christ is Our Savior from the cradle to the grave. Merry Christmas.

why celebrate christmas?

A few days ago I stumbled upon a program of the INC, speaking of why 'christians. (pertaining to members of their sect) ought not to celebrate Christmas.
They argue that there is no mention of a command by God The Father (whom they acknowledge as the only true God, that is superior than Jesus, because to them Jesus is just a man since they don't subscribe to the orthodox Godhead that is defined in the Bible as the Trinity), and they concluded that since there is no biblical basis for such therefore it is not to be celebrated, another is that they emphasized as much as other groups that oppose Biblical Christianity that it is the Roman Catholics that invented the said celebration.
Well I have no arguments with them on the statement that its not commanded in the Bible, yes indeed the Bible does not command us to do so there are only two commandments that the Bible tells us to follow Communion and Water Baptism. But true enough there are also no commandments that tells us not to celebrate the Savior's birth and not to remember Jesus Christ. However we must understand that Philippians 2:9 records the fact that the Father exalted Jesus and given Him a name which is above every name. Let us also desire to exalt Jesus in every opportunity that we have and celebrating Christmas is one of them.
As for the allegations that Roman Catholics invented it well, I may have my reservations towards Romanists as well and based on what Church history tells us that the early Christians had celebrated it as early as 90 AD. and the organized Latin Christians (Roman Catholics) started in 313 AD so as to rival pagan feastivities. It goes to show that way before the advent of Roman Catholicism early Christians have already commemorated it.
Its also worth putting into account that those who promote the boycott of not celebrating Christmas to their members is the fact that instead of preaching love, joy and hope during the Holiday season, they preach hatred and disdain.
Lastly is that Christ is to be remembered not only during the Christmas season but the commemoration of His birth is also a time where it ought to be given emphasis on how we should re-evaluate our lives so as to understand the extent of what was given to us in Bethlehem some to 2 thousand years ago, another is that its our motives that count more as we celebrate Christmas rather than that of the rituals and above that commercial hype and the other good things that which a number of us give a high regard to during Christmas. Another is that celebrating Christmas is also an oportune time for evangelism because it arouses people who've not yet come close to Christ to ask that question of why it is important and why is the birth of Jesus a turning point in history in which the direction of history is now divided from BC to AD.
So why celebrate Christmas you ask?
I say why not?