Christmas (Let It Be)

In this world, we can seldom anticipate how much it may hurt us to love someone. Romantic love, love of family, brotherly love for neighbors, and love of God; all of it can sometimes become painful, but it is God himself who convinces our heart that love will be worth it. I think that much of our life is spent wavering between the fear of loving and of not being loved.

Love often moves people to make painful sacrifices for the sake of others. There is no way that Mary, the mother of Jesus, could have fully comprehended how much hurt would befall her for her love of God. She probably would have understood some bit of it. She could have chosen to reject it, but she knew the prophecies of good that the Jewish Messiah, the Earth’s Messiah, would ultimately usher in.

She probably trembled at the prophetic words of an old man named Simeon when he first saw her baby. He said to her, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (NKJV Luke 2:25-35). The thoughts of many hearts; everything negative that could be imagined has been spoken against the Child of Christmas, against his words and teaching, against the truth of his death and resurrection.

To experience Herod’s attempt upon her child’s life; to see Jesus ridiculed and opposed by figures in authority, mocked, and cruelly crucified by the powers that be; all of that would indeed “pierce her soul.” But she also saw him after he had risen from the dead. She knew who her son was; that Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. I have written several posts in answer to many of the negative views concerning the Christian celebration of Christmas (see under Catagories, in my “Christmas” folder).

“Let it be.” Those were Mary’s words in reply to the proclamation of the angel, that she would become the mother of the Christ (NKJV Luke 1:26-38). Her complete sentence was, “Let it be to me according to your word.” That is a little harder saying than a simple, “Let it be.” Though translations of the verse vary somewhat, those were her words of wisdom.

Her advice on another occasion (John 2:5) in speaking of Jesus was, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Those are words of wisdom also. Be careful of whatever someone else says to you, whether in his name, or in the name of whatever. He has said that his sheep will recognize his voice, so search the record of his words. Do some soul searching as you do, and whatever Jesus says to you, let it be. Find the true word of God, and you can trust it. Don’t hesitate to pray in Jesus name for strength in following him.

One of the stories of the origin of the Paul McCartney song, “Let It Be,” is that he had a dream of his mother, whose name was also Mary, repeating those words to him. If that is true, and his mother is said to have been Roman Catholic, then the song may actually be more religious than Paul has wanted to admit. Perhaps the dream may even have been a message to him from God. Other stories of the song’s origin may have been efforts to shift our thoughts away from underlying meanings that the writer may not be totally comfortable with. Love lingers on in memory, and sometimes old grief returns if we drift a little too deep into thought.

The celebration of the Christ’s birth can lead to a rebirth of hope in the promise of God. People who are parted will meet again. The celebration of Christ will one day last forever. I’m not Catholic, but I can begin to understand the angel’s salutation to Mary (KJV Luke 1:28), ” Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”

Mary was a brave young girl through the love of God, and for the love for her child; the Son of God. In some magnificent way that I can sense but can’t express very well, Jesus completes all of life. He gives a beauty and meaning to life that we never knew existed until we believed in him. Merry Christmas! Let it be!

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The Sacrifice Of Christmas

None of us are perfect, which is why Jesus came to this world to begin with. He also knew that “Christmas” would not make our world perfect overnight. Some ancient prophecies heralded his advent into this world (Isaiah 9:6 and 7:14 KJV), but others foretold his suffering and sacrifice (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Biblical prophecies of lasting peace on Earth are yet beyond the immediate future (Isaiah 11:6-9).

How long can God let this hurtful world go on? Yet to stop rebellious man by force would be the last resort for God. God doesn’t desire the sacrifice of something else (Hebrews 10:5-10), but rather gives us his own self. Immanuel! What has this world cost God? It isn’t just the suffering and death of the only begotten Son of God; it is Christ’s living, his existence, and all that he has created.

It is also the sum of all the selfless acts of love by our fellow creatures, much of it entirely thankless. It is the work of every caring responsible person, each loving parent, and of every such kindness throughout all generations. God has inspired it, and much of it is done without a second thought. The sum includes all things done to preserve neighborliness, life, truth and goodness. It includes every mercy, every forgiveness, and we tend to think a little more on these things in the season of Christmas.

Never forget that someone who forgives another has often paid a heavy price for loving that person. Jesus said that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:25-28). Wherever we fall short of this, we then become dependent upon God’s forgiveness and sacrifice. If we cannot love God, then our love for those around us can become little more than a bargaining tool, an “I will love you if…,” rather than an act of giving. The price of sacrificial love may be great, and but for one thing the rewards might seem pitifully small; this kind of love is actually life-giving and makes life worth living.

Jesus is the greatest gift that God could ever have given our world but he is certainly not the most appreciated, not yet anyway. God counted us worth it, and the real value of something is whatever it is worth to the one who desires it. This world isn’t heaven, far, far from it; but here is where the hard work of love must be done. Thank you God. Sorry for our excess in so many things and sorry for our lack of selfless love.

What is the sum of the sacrifice of God? It is God himself, who came down to this world to become one of us, one with us. Immanuel! The atonement is in Christ’s sacrifice. It is enough to bring peace with God, at-one-ment with God. It will one day bring peace on Earth. The cost may seem far “too much,” but sometimes it takes too much to bring us to our senses. I am certain that nothing less than the blood of Jesus could ever hold us strongly enough.

None of us are perfect, and we know it; these things hurt everyone around us, and God most of all. Nevertheless, God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should never perish but have everlasting life. Christ’s birth (Christmas) means life need never end.

God’s great desire is to give us eternal life, and this gift is in his son (1st John 5:11). The Christmas message from the angel in Luke 2:10-14 is “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Dear God, when we say “Merry Christmas,” let that truly be our meaning. The price is paid, let the gift be joyfully received.

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Merry Christmas From God

What has God given us for Christmas? What is the meaning of the miraculous secret? What a strange place to find it, wrapped up and lying in a manger. Mary believed in that secret. No doubt her experience was bewildering, but she knew that her baby was the Messiah, promised to mankind from the beginning of the world (Genesis 3:15). She remembered the words of an angel she had seen with her own eyes (Luke 1:26-35). Because she was yet a virgin, she understood that her child was the fulfilment of the centuries old prophecy of a virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14).

The prophecy in Genesis, from the lips of the Lord himself, was more specific than simply a prediction of a virgin birth. The reference to the “seed” of a woman rules out artificial insemination or any other interference by science. Merry Christmas, God has given himself to us, in the form of a child in a manger. He lived life as a man and suffered death to destroy the separation between man and God. His death and resurrection will ultimately destroy death itself. What we do with God’s gift is largely up to us.

It’s a secret that shouldn’t be kept. The world has purposely confused the history, and the church has made a mess of communicating the truth of the Christ. In spite of all this, the existence and content of the Bible is tangible evidence for this intervention of God. The Bible is the ancient Birth Certificate of Earth’s Messiah (Christ). It is also his death certificate and the chronicle of his resurrection.

The Old Testament, much of it written and predating the events of Christ’s life by thousands of years, was translated into the “Greek Septuagint” hundreds of years before the events occurred. The place and circumstances of his birth (Bethlehem, ref. the ruler from “old, even from everlasting” Micah 5:2) were recorded in the Old Testament and its translations long before he was born. Many major identifying factors of his life, death and resurrection are there.

The fulfilment of countless ancient prophecies proves the Old Testament and verifies that Jesus Christ is the real thing. The closer it is studied, the more ridiculous it becomes to doubt it. Most people who happen to read this have never met me. If I were to tell you that I would meet you at a particular time and place, describe myself in detail and tell what I would be doing, you would then be able to identify me upon sight. That’s what God has done in both the Old and New Testaments concerning the Messiah.

The primary birthmarks of the Christ are his scars. The problem with this, besides the suffering, is that the scars wouldn’t be visible until we put them there. The primary purpose of the Bible is to provide a historical record of the interaction of God with man before his advent as the Messiah, to predict man’s rejection of him, and his future return as Lord of heaven and earth. From Genesis to Revelation, the main theme of the Bible is the foretelling and revelation of the Messiah (or the “Christ” in the Greek language).

The translation known as the Septuagint is a version of the Old Testament that the disciples of Jesus often quoted in their witness for him. Afterward, the historical written testimony of these disciples has become our New Testament. The Bible, in its historical forms and translations, is first rate evidence for the truth of its own story. Just as you or I are leaving a story behind us as we pass through life, so did Christ, only none of us have had our whole lives predicted in such detail as was his. The Bible could have been named “The Mission of the Messiah.”

Another Christmas is nearly here. Who knows if Earth will celebrate another before his return. But in the midst of the tumult and uproar of this world, some will hear the message of Christmas, learn of the mission of the Christ and receive the gift of God. What has God given us for Christmas? He has given us Christmas itself, and every good gift associated with it. He has given us himself in the form of his son (Isaiah 9:6). The receiving of this gift of forgiveness means eternal life.

This is hope for the future that is based upon the proven fulfilment of historical prophecies. God told us where he would meet us. He kept that promise in his only begotten son. God meets man in Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14, Immanuel, meaning God with us). Christmas means hope for today also, in spite of the unpredictable world that we live in.

Open that gift and believe. To quote the pre-incarnate Christ, “Then I said, Behold, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written concerning me…” (Septuagint, Psalm 39-40:6,7, note this quote in the New Testament, Hebrews 10:5-10) To avoid some confusion, note that Psalm 39 in the Septuagint is numbered Psalm 40 in other Old Testaments. As Isaiah 9:6 (KJV) clearly states, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…and his name shall be called…the mighty God.” Come what may this Christmas, God has given us the miracle of the Christ. Love and Merry Christmas to all.

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A Christmas Panorama

“…And on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” That is from Luke 2:14 in the King James Version of the Bible. It was a message meant for all mankind, carried by angels to announce the birth of the long-expected Messiah, the peace-offering of God. Most of us use the name “Christ,” rather than “Messiah,” due to influence of the Greek language. I hope that you believe the message the angels brought.

Most ancient cultures, in the form of stories and myths, have retained some memory of God’s prophecies concerning the Savior of mankind. The mythological records don’t give us the detailed record that we have in the Bible however. I wish that all the prophetical and historical information concerning Jesus could be pulled together into one panoramic writing about Christmas. I guess it’s better to do something halfway, rather than to do nothing at all, so I’m writing a few inadequate words for the sake of Christmas.

After Adam and Eve chose to rely upon their own fragmentary comprehension of “knowledge” rather than to trust God, God gave us (Genesis 3:15) the first biblical hint of the virgin birth of a savior. It is the “seed” of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head, and finally bring peace to the earth. Only this “Seed” can fulfil the promise of God. The leaders of nations have long promised world peace, and the Antichrist will promise world peace, but only Christ can bring it to pass. Sad to say, that will only happen after mankind has brought the world to the brink of total destruction.

Unless you have studied genetics somewhat, you probably will not completely understand the following statement. According to the biblical account of his birth, Jesus would have received all of his human DNA from his mother, none at all from a human father. He would not have had the normal Y-chromosome DNA inherited from a human male, but only what he directly inherited from God. That’s why the Bible didn’t say “the seed of the man,” in Genesis 3:15 (reference Y-chromosome Adam and Mitochondrial Eve, and my April 2012 post, “Genetics and Jesus”).

The prophet Isaiah may have been considering Genesis 3:15 and other such verses when he understood that a child would be born to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). It is foretold in that verse that the child will be called Immanuel (God with us). In that name, “El” is the short form of the Hebrew word for God, and you also see the word “man.” “Man” in Hebrew however, is the word for the bread from heaven that fed the Israelites during their wilderness trek. We get our word “manna” from this.

Amaryah is a biblical name meaning God has promised. What has God promised? The secret is in the name itself. “Amar,” means “promise.” “Yah,” is the shortened form of “YHWH,” the personal name of God. “MarYah” is an Aramaic name for Jesus. In “MarYah,” you can see the name of the virgin mother Mary, and Yah, the name of God the Father. God has promised himself (Immanuel, or Emmanuel) to us.

When an angel informed Mary of her conception, she questioned how that could happen without seed being implanted by a man, yet she believed the answer that she was given. In Matthew 1:20-23, an angel told Joseph in a dream to give Mary’s child the name “Jesus.” The angel then reminded Joseph of the prophecy of Isaiah. I haven’t the time to go into detail but according to Old Testament prophecy, the Christ’s given name would be “Jesus,” (ref. the Septuagint translation of the name Joshua as “Jesus”). The name “Immanuel” (or Emmanuel) tells us who he really is, “God with us.”

In Luke 2:10, the announcement of the advent of Jesus the Christ is called, “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The fact that we don’t yet see peace on earth doesn’t mean that God has abandoned his desires and plans for the earth. In the song, Bells on Christmas Day, there is a line; “Then in despair I raised my head, there is no peace on earth, I said.” We will all probably feel that way at one time or another in our lives, but the way we feel will not cancel God’s promise. Ideals should not be abandoned just because they are difficult to establish, and God is not a quitter.

Sometimes in the past, for just a little while, the coming of Christmas has interrupted the bitter conflicts of war. In some cases, common beliefs in Christ between countries have prevented them. A great monument called the “Christ the Redeemer of the Andes,” (not the great statue in Rio with a similar name) is erected at an elevation of 12,572 feet on the border of Argentina and Chile. It commemorates a peaceful resolution avoiding a war between the two countries because of their common submission to Christ.

One meaning of the word “mass,” refers us back to the communion, the bread from heaven broken for us (Matthew 26:26), the word “mass,” being taken from “maza,” a Greek word for a barley cake. Merry Christ’s mass! Spend the Holyday with your family, and remember the birth of our Lord and Savior. He will yet bring “Peace on Earth.”

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The Winter’s Son and the Winter Sun

We don’t know for certain when Jesus was born, but Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate his birth. It’s good to have something to look forward to in winter, and a wonderful time for the birth of hope.

If we could convert God from spirit into matter, what we would then have is Jesus. We couldn’t do that of course, but God did. That is what Jesus is. Born into this world as a baby human being, that is who Jesus is; Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23), “God with us.”

I don’t think there’s a person on God’s earth who can get all these things in proper balance. I think that sometimes we don’t see the real Jesus, can’t see the real God, because we are too preoccupied with “omnipotence,” and “sovereignty.” We want to see God rule the Earth, but we seem to want God to take shortcuts. God wants human beings to listen to reason, and to learn the truth. He wants to persuade people, not force them. Jesus once rebuked his disciples for wanting to “command fire to come down from heaven,” to destroy someone (Luke 9:53-56). He told them that he had not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.

We should study his life on earth microscopically, and not attempt to set him out again beyond the reach of man, to search for him with telescopes. He came to earth as the Christ, and we need to look at him as the man, because Jesus is the full expression of God (Hebrews 1:3). The world can never see the heart of God otherwise.

Many times the church, attempting to show him in his infinite greatness and power, may make him look small to the world instead. The Bible says the weakness of God is stronger than men (1st Corinthians 1:25), and that he was made perfect through his suffering (Hebrews 2:10). In becoming a man, he touched the heart of man, though it crucified him to do so. Such a demonstration of sacrificial love makes him greater to us than he could have been otherwise. Though he was perfect to begin with, he became even more so.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with celebrating the birth of Jesus. I heard all the anti-Christmas propaganda before I was twelve years old, and for a while, they had me believing that stuff, but all days belong to God. Man worships nature (Romans 1:23,25) but the one who gave us all of nature is yet greater than the gifts that he gave us. God’s greatest gift is the gift of himself in the form of Jesus (John 1:1,14, 3:16, 4:10).

Ancient pagans turned altered forms of God’s name into the names of idols (see note below), which they associated with forces and objects in nature. But God created all of nature, the seasons, and the changing of the earth’s relationship to the heavens throughout the year. Genesis 1:14 records God saying of the sun, moon and stars, “Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” It is wrong to try to disconnect God from the winter solstice, or any other day of the year (Colossians 2:15-17, Romans 14:5).

There is endless evidence to support my statements. The coming of the Hebrew Messiah (Greek, “Christ”) was foretold in ancient history, and witnessed and affirmed by Pagan stories and secular records. The world anticipated his coming, and at least one group of wise men from the east was able to locate him shortly after his birth (Matthew 2:1-12).

I know that practically every sentence in the Bible is disputed by someone, but the story of the life of Jesus became world news at a time when many people would gladly have disproved it if they could. The recorded debate and argument about him from his era is evidence enough that Jesus lived and fulfilled Old Testament prophecies.

Christianity holds celebrations on days that other groups of people observe in other ways, but that doesn’t discredit God. There are only so many days in a year, and someone would claim them all if they could. There is symbolism found throughout the Bible likening the ministry of the Son of God to the sun, providing warmth and light to the earth. There is a prophetic statement in Malachi 4:2 foretelling the advent of the “Son” of God. In that verse, he is called the “Sun of Righteousness.”

To varying degrees, all the ancient world possessed some knowledge of God’s promise to send his Son. That explains the ancient legends and stories containing similarities to the biblical record. As wonderful as the sun can feel as it climbs in the sky, the sun has no feeling for us, but God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son (John 3:16). The winter’s Son, is the true winter sun. Glory (the rightful credit) to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men (Luke 2:14, K.J.V.).

Note: Practically all yearly celebrations had their origins in the acknowledgement of God, and the names of many major “deities” of the most advanced civilizations began with the confusion of languages at Babel. Ancient attempts to transliterate “YHWH,” the Hebrew name for God, into other languages accounts for many early “names” for pagan “gods” (ref. All posts in my April 2015 through August 2015 archives, and also “Dawn of the Rising Son,” in my April 2011 archives). I pray and intend to follow this writing with another post giving more details.

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the Script (In Spite of Evil)

Evil exists. It relentlessly forces itself upon our awareness. Depending upon the situation, it may claim to speak for God, or to be God. It may deny the goodness of God, or even the existence of “good” itself. It uses the hurtful things of this world to try to turn us against God. The mind games it plays with man began at the Tree of Knowledge in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-5), and 2nd Corinthians 11:14 says that evil presents itself as a messenger of enlightenment, “an angel of light.”

Evil will promote any answer except the fully correct one. It pushes human beings to do hurtful things, and then uses our guilt in destructive ways. With a few well-chosen words, evil may cast doubt upon any truth, and make long experiments and explanations necessary if the truth is to be found.

Evil tempts us to adopt its tactics in order to defend ourselves against it, and thus, it conquers us by making us more like itself. Sometimes we run the wrong direction seeking an escape. We play around its shadows, and evil uses us as pawns and puppets. Evil made sacrifice necessary, and when God became one of us (Isaiah 9:6), it nailed him to a cross and has ever since tried to bury the evidence.

Evil may seem as inconsistent as all insanity, but there is a method to the madness. Its aim is to utterly confuse man, to divide, conquer and destroy him. Evil mocks the warning sounded against it and causes every caution to seem foolish. Evil misuses every good thing that God has created (ref. “Deviation From Design” in my June 2012 archives) and tries to pin the blame upon the sovereignty of God.

Evil misinterprets the Bible. The Bible says that God was “not in” the wind, the earthquake, and the fire on the mountain where Elijah hid in a cave (1st Kings 19:11-13), yet evil presents all natural disasters as “acts of God” (ref. “A Random World” in my Sept. 2010 archives). Like Elijah, we run from those things, but God calls to us in a “still, small, voice.” Evil pushes us to run away from the only one who can help us. Evil will cast doubt upon anything that God would say to us, either in the Bible, in our conscious, or in any other manner.

Evolutionary scientists think that evil is primarily the result of chemical interactions and circumstances, but they can’t deny that it exists. A few evolutionists may inconsistently allow for certain degrees of human choice, while some theologians, misunderstanding our sovereign God’s gift of freewill to man, may argue that all things are predestined. Evil strives to make us feel as if we have no choice, either because of its own great power, that of God, fate, or destiny.

It may then reverse itself and argue that our wrong choices will have no consequences. If that argument fails, it will swear that our every move will lead us into disaster. It is always ready to back every deception with some misapplication of evidence, and to make the right choice difficult. Evil constantly attempts to manipulate us by fear.

If not for God, it would have had its way long ago, and would completely dominate the universe. It makes use of terrorism, evolutionary thought, false religion, and popular sentiment against the Christian God (along with ignorance in the church), to pave the way for the Antichrist. It is maneuvering Earth’s citizens to accept the absolute control of a government leader who will set himself up as God. No social structure could be formed which evil could not use for our harm.

If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that our beautiful world could be so evil, even if God had warned me a thousand times. This kind of unbelief is the reason that the world is as it is. God must eventually separate and contain evil, but in the meanwhile, we will see enough of it to become sick of it, and I am tired of writing about it.

In all of its rampage upon the earth, evil has not been able to overcome good, and that is evidence of the protective power and grace of God. The Saviour exists. “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (1st John 4:4). “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).” God is with us in spite of evil. We can therefore give thanks to God.

I wanted to finish this post before Thanksgiving, but I have been too busy experiencing the effects of evil. We celebrated Thanksgiving anyway. In spite of evil, there is always something to thank God for. When evil seems to overwhelm us, we can be thankful that Evil can never overcome God and that it is not his equal (Mark 4:37-39). We can be thankful that Christmas is coming, and that someday, Christ will return.

Besides celebrating a historical event, Christmas is a prophetic promise of a time to come. In spite of all the rage of evil, when all is said and done, Jesus will bring the “Peace on Earth” that he has desired from the beginning of the world. Like the softest snowfall, we will hear the still, small, voice of God.

The greeting on the television commercial, “Merry Whatever Doesn’t Offend You,” is humorous, but I really mean no offence to anyone when I say, “Merry Christmas to all.”

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Christmas And A New World

If you have ever been in a situation, or a relationship, where you have felt continually compelled to prove yourself, then you’ll know that it doesn’t work very well. I honestly believe that God deeply desires to prove himself to man, but how is the best way to do so? The ways in which we attempt to test him are shallow, and unfair. Our “tests” for God are usually ultimatums requiring him to cater to us in some way.

Before the fall, nature would have been a good witness for God, but now it seems to tell two stories. Nature yet testifies of God, but it is also shows evidence that something is very wrong with our world. Besides knowing that God exists, we also need to understand that he is good. Knowledge can be misunderstood, and it can be abused and used in deceptive ways.

Except for the authority to judge all knowledge, with its infinite facets relating to good and evil, God gave the world to Adam and Eve. He gave them practically everything, only withholding something infinitely harmful. Don’t let anyone con you with the shallow idea that this was about sex, for God had already told Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:27-28) to “multiply, and fill the earth.” The forbidden fruit has something to do with the interpretation of all knowledge.

Adam and Eve took from the tree of knowledge, and the harm that God warned them of has befallen us. Now, the world blames God for it. The world can’t go on forever in this condition. How is God supposed to prove his love to a misguided world that cannot be sustained forever in its current state? What if he were willing to die with us, assuring those who will trust him of resurrection and paradise?

According to the Bible record, that’s what God has done. His sacrificial suffering, and death on the cross, proves his love to us in a way that nothing else would, and his resurrection shows us that death is not the end. God is offering us a new world (Luke 23:39-43). By the way, the word “world,” (werald, or weralt) means “old man.” According to the dictionary, it comes from the old English words “wer,” which meant “man,” and “eald,” an ancient spelling of “old.” By the same token, the word “werewolf” simply means wolf man.

Getting back to the subject, this present world is harsh, and unfair in the greatest extremes. It is the contribution of created beings, primarily man, to God’s creation, but this isn’t the final state of things. Whether we accept it or not, God has revealed himself to man (John 1:1-4, and 1:14). His appearance in this world (Christmas) shows us what God is really like. He proves his existence, and the truth of the Bible, by fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies. The remaining prophecies will be fulfilled upon his return to Earth.

Christmas (the sending of Christ) means that someday there will be peace upon the earth. It means that God yet holds good will toward mankind. That was God’s greeting to us in Luke 2:13-14. Christmas means that God isn’t just out there somewhere, but that he is with us. That’s what the term “Emmanuel” means (Matthew 1:22-23, and Isaiah 7:14).

The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Old Testament, was translated in the centuries preceding the birth of Jesus. That is a matter of historical record, and the prophecies concerning the coming Christ were already written there. Christmas celebrates a coming salvation, freedom, and life in an incorruptible paradise. Our loved ones are not gone forever, but we can be reunited with them. This is all real, and has nothing to do with “religion,” That is what Christ’s advent into this world means.

I’m wishing you every good thing, and a whole new world, when I wish you Merry Christmas. Please don’t let any of a million things keep you from receiving Christ. When Jesus was born into my life, he entered a place much more unpleasant than a dirty stable.

Whatever we say in this life must be said in few words, and this post is already long. I hope you had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year

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