And So This is Christmas..?

You've heard that song by John Lennon. Right?

Sure, it goes, "So this is Christmas, what have you done?
Another year over,
A new one just begun.

And so this is Christmas,
I hope you have fun...

As far as secular Christmas songs go, this one's just ok for me. I mean I have my favorites, of course. "All I Want For Christmas is You," and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" come to mind.  I'm sure you have your favorites too. Then again maybe you're a huge Lennon fan and you love this song. I do like the chorus at the end though. "A Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year..!" ..and so on.

But as talented as I think John was, he sort of lost me in the first verse of this one because of those darn lyrics.

Christmas isn't about anything we've done. Its all about what God has done! It's a celebration...a commemoration and a time of reflection on the single most epic event that ever happened on earth! It's actually the biggest birthday party earth has ever known!

God Himself left His holy home on high to live among us. He came in the second person of the
Trinity, God the Son. He was born of a virgin, as the prophet Isaiah foretold 700 years before. He was fully-God and fully-man. He lived a sinless life of only 33 years, and yet His brief life impacted the world as no other man who ever lived.

He was the exact likeness of His Father, as the Scriptures say. He even told us, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."

(No man has seen God the Father, by the way. He never leaves His jaw-dropping throne described in the book of Ezekiel, the first chapter)

Jesus always knew exactly why He was here. He never deviated from His mission...The cross. He had saving His people on His mind, every single minute of every single day, until His time had come.

He taught. He ministered. He healed. He performed miracles. He admonished. He astounded. He
loved. He judged. He prayed--keeping open, continuous dialogue with His Father. Yet, He talked
back to the religious leaders of His day...and He lavishly loved His own.

He and only He, fulfilled every single Old Testament prophecy written about Him~Jesus, The Christ, The Messiah. Staggering odds.

But why? Why did He come? Why the cross?!

Because God has a problem with us~You and me. All of us.
It goes like this. He's holy and we aren't. We are born physically alive but spiritually dead.
Yes, all of us.
We have a sin nature that we cannot overcome. That sinful nature is bent on displeasing God. It's also incompatible with a holy God and His Dwelling place--heaven. We can't enter that holy place without becoming holy, like Him.

Our sin must be punished, for the "wages of sin is death, and... without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins."

So, God the Father sent God the Son to live a sinless, perfect life. He became the Lamb of God, Who takes away our sins... the once-for-all-time sacrifice for all who trust in Him...and when we trust Him and confess Him as Lord, we are given the Holy Spirit to live within us.

Jesus came at the time appointed by God the Father. Jesus was brutally beaten and nailed to a cross, where my sins were placed upon Him. So were yours, if you've trusted Him as your Savior. Yes, He took the punishment we deserved.

The great exchange.

He died and was placed in a tomb, but when He had paid for every sin, the grave could no longer contain Him! Otherwise, He'd still be there! He arose, alive and well, in a beautiful, glorified body! (Like we'll have one day!)
He lives forever and ever--the first of all of us who will be raised!

I met Him when I was just 12 years old. Something miraculous happened to me that day.
He made Himself known to me, as someone shared the Gospel with me.

I understood Who He is and why He came. I knew I needed Him and I prayed that He'd forgive me and be my Savior.
Immediately, He sent His Holy Spirit to live inside of me. Tears of joy and freedom flowed down my face... I have never been the same. That Spirit is 'the guarantee and the deposit of all His promises to come.' He is the third Person of the Trinity and He provides comfort and truth to my spirit.

At that moment, I became spiritually alive, and I know I will be with Him when I leave this earth!

What if we could really grasp the enormity of it all?
I believe we'd spend less time shopping and schlepping and stressing at Christmastime and more time on our faces before Him, crying out with the heavenly host, "Holy, Holy Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty!"

To think it began with the baby, born to a young maiden, in a stable for the stable animals to witness. The majestic star in the sky that night pointed the way to the greatest birth that has ever happened on our planet. A couple of shepherds came, with their sheep in tow. Eventually some wise men came from far away places...

But mostly, people missed it. They missed the birth of the One, True, Holy, Righteous God into our difficult, hostile and very sinful world....so that we could be in a saving relationship with Him, just as He had wanted from the beginning.

And so this is Christmas.
I've done nothing at all.
Yes, this is Christmas
for big and for small.
(Ok, I'm not a songwriter..!)

I pray for the greatest Christmas miracle of all for you this Christmas..."that you may know Him and the power of His resurrection..."
God Bless You my friends xx
Merry Christmas!