Friday, December 22, 2006

Great Gift Idea

‘Tis the Season

A harried woman with two small children and armloads of packages squeezes her way onto the crowded elevator at the mall. To no one in particular she remarks, “Whoever came up with this Christmas idea ought to be taken out and executed.” A quiet voice from the back of the elevator responded, “Don’t worry they already crucified Him!”

Why do we give presents at Christmas time anyway? Some will respond ‘tis the season’. Some might remind us of the pagan rituals surrounding the birth of the New Year at Winter Solstice.

‘Christians’ might respond with various replies. We are commemorating the birth of Christ. We are emulating the ‘Wise Men’ from the Bible who brought gifts to Christ. Some will relate the Christmas story of the birth of Christ and the angels, and the manger.

All of these are ‘correct’ answers. The truth is we DID co-opt ‘Christmas’ from pagan rituals. There have for many generations been peoples that celebrated the Winter Solstice, and rebirth of the New Year. The ‘Wise Men’ did bring gifts to the baby Jesus. God did give us a great gift in giving His Son to live among us.

We find the real ‘gift’ of Christmas in Luke 2:11, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

God gave us a Savior. The Savior, in turn gave us a great gift in His death, burial and resurrection.

Jesus Christ is our Savior. John 3:16 explains, “For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Hebrews 10:10 & 12 tells us, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,”

We rejoice at Christmas, that God gave us His Son to live among us… That was an awesome gift. Jesus Christ was a great teacher and philosopher. More than that, His death on the cross was the sacrifice for all our sins - forever.

While celebrating the birth of Christ, we should also recognize His greatest gift to us, eternal life for all who believe.

The true ‘PRICELESS’ gift of Christmas is the Gospel of Jesus Christ
How cool is that? The best gift one can give another this holiday is to share with them the gift of life everlasting…
Christmas is an opportunity to receive the greatest gift ever given, and to share that gift freely with all our family and loved ones…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!



1. This is an edited reprint of an article posted last year around this time.

2. And for all you Scrooges out their - calling all the trappings of Christmas ‘stolen pagan rituals’ - check out this page - “The True Meaning of Christmas
Which came first the chicken or the egg? As in, are they co-opted from pagans or given meanings pagans then made corrupt?? Does it matter if you assign it a Godly meaning? Here is a thought - God named the constellations (check Genesis and Job) - Astrologers co-opted God’s design…]

1 Comments:

Blogger Cleopas said...

Hi David,

A wonderful holiday posting. Christ is the meaning of Christmas, the birth that would lead to our rebirth. Have a Merry Christmas.

Loren

7:47 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home