Christmas

(Click here for our Christmas video)

What does Christmas mean?

“It’s a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. The English term Christmas” (“mass on Christ’s day”)

But we can skip all the scientific meaning and definitions, but just so we are clear we as Christ Followers are celebrating Jesus Christ Birthday, and this is not when Jesus was born, he has always been and always will be, but we are celebrating the day he was revealed to the world as God in human skin, Our Messiah, Jesus Christ! (Read the Christmas Story here)

What do people say Christmas is?

So many folks now a days want to take Christ out of everything, schools, government, work, even “churches” and instead they will say happy holidays or worst yet, they will say XMAS, really? Unfortunately yes.

Common Arguments about Christmas

#1. Some people argue that at one point nothing was nowhere and somehow that something that was in the nothing nowhere, blew up the something that was in the nothing and it made everything, and that’s why we are here today and that makes so there is no God, and if there is not God then there is no Jesus and no hope for any of us so we don’t need to celebrate Christmas.

#2. Some people will say, “this is a pagan holiday started way before Jesus, with a holiday called Yule, which referred to the feast of the winter solstice, basically sacrificing babies to the sun god Horus.

#3. Some may say, “Its all about Santa Clause bringing gifts to children. Of course this was started by his popular image based on traditions associated with the monk Saint Nicholas from Turkey said to be born around 280AD.

#4. Some people say no one knows when Jesus was born so we can’t celebrate his birthday, others say he was born in September, because that’s when the shepherds would be out watching their flocks.

So that’s 4 of the common arguments on Christmas, so sit back get some hot coco, grab your bible open your heart and mind and lets dive in!

Argument #1

Well, let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way, what year is this? 2022, Wow your good! I wasn’t expecting y’all to get it that fast, that hot coco did the trick! But that is right it’s actually A.D. 2022  (AD “Anno Domini” which means “year of our Lord) so the first one can’t even be a argument, even if it was possible to create something out of nothing nowhere. Someone still had to do it, and that would be our mighty God, just to prove this further, You right now live in the year of our Lord and you can’t argue with that, even tho a lot of people are trying to change that now as well.

Argument #2

We are not even sure if this is even where people come up wit the story of the man with the bright red suite, the man so many movies were made about, the man called Satan, I mean Santa, (see what I did there?) But lets just say everything about him is true and real back in the day, we know for a fact, even if Saint Nicholas did exist at one time, he is definitely dead now, tradition kinda shows him as a hero that was helping the less fortunate and giving gifts to children, but even if all that’s true, he is dead now, so why are we celebrating him? (Check out this artical for more info on the story)

Argument #3

Even if Yule was the original festival held on December 25, and again we don’t even know for sure if this is how it started or if this is even a argument, but even if this is true, I’m not celebrating Horus as god because there is no other god then my savior Jesus Christ the one and only Creator of the world, not some sun god that thinks he’s a horse. But either way I’m defiantly not sacrificing babies, and If you are doing this, then you might want to check yourself, personally I would repent and turn and follow Jesus immediately.

Argument #4

When we have a loved one that has a birthday, what do we do? We have a birthday party! Man y’all are spot on today! That makes me so proud!

Let’s say you adopt a child, they have no parents and all birth records were destroyed, will you just not ever celebrate a birthday for them? Of course not, (you would just give them a weird name and let them run for president). But of course you would still celebrate their birth, why? Because they are here and they are alive so you celebrate their birthday, it’s that simple, so nip it, nip it in the bud!

Celebrating a Birthday

Once someone dies we may have a funeral (which should be a celebration if they are a Christ follower, but that’s a whole other story there) but once our loved ones die we stop celebrating their birthday, we might still remember them, and we might be sad that they left us, but they don’t keep getting older because they’re body is no longer living.

I say that to say this, Jesus Christ is still alive, He’s eternal but for this example we are going to say every day Jesus gets a little older, His human form would roughly be 2022 years old this year and that’s something to celebrate, the wise men brought him gift’s because they heard the King has arrived, we also need to bring our gifts to him, you might say, well Jesus is God he don’t need anything, and yes that is true, but look at it this way. If you buy everything you want and need and still on your birthday your spouse goes out of their way to buy you something, you might not need it but still it’s a pleasure to receive a gift from them, and it’s so amazing to know that they love you enough to remember your birthday, and not just pick out something dumb and silly, but actually put hard work and time and money into it to make it special for you.

Don’t that feel good?

We are made in the image of God, the whole world as we know it revolves around Gods plan and how our minds work and the feelings we have and can feel, when God designed us, he wanted that feeling we can give him, he doesn’t need it, he doesn’t need anything, but he still longs for his bride to give something to him that would make him feel special.

Okay Joe, what the heck are you talking about, are you off in some lala land? Well maybe, But here’s the deal!

I’m celebrating the earthly birth of my savior Jesus Christ, and just so we are clear, Jesus Christ is Alive! Not only that but he actually does give out gifts and he is a hero of this whole world, he’s the creator, he’s our savior, he’s the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only one who died and then rose again from the dead on the third day, the only one that went back up to heaven to create a place for us that is beyond our wildest dreams that we can live with Him forever and ever in his perfect world! My question is, Do you know him?

There is only one thing God wants from us, do you know what that is?

Well if you don’t you’re not alone, people even asked the same question back when Jesus was here, so let me give you the same answer Jesus gave to them.

“This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:28-29

God gave us his only son as a free gift, by sacrificing Jesus himself, He gave us the free gift of salvation, you don’t earn it, you don’t work for it, you can't buy it, it’s free, I mean straight from the creator of the universe himself! How awesome is that? You can choose to tell him: “look I have everything I need, I don’t need your gift” he also gave us the free will to do that. But if that’s your attitude I would strongly urge you to WAKE UP! and change your mind today!

So think about this, if you gave your spouse something really special, for this example let’s say you spent 10 years preparing and planning something spectacular that no money can buy that only your spouse would appreciate, once you give it to your spouse for their birthday they looks at you and say “what am I supposed to do with that?” And puts it out of their mind.

How would that make you feel?

That’s what I thought!

Instead of making Jesus feel like crap and telling him he died in vein, let’s celebrate his miraculous birthday and all the wonderful blessings he gives to us each day, and most of all thank him for the most precious gift of salvation that we can have eternal life in the most amazing place imaginable with our loved ones in Christ, where their will be no dying no lying no sorrow or pain! All we need to do is come before Jesus with our hearts in our hands, giving them to Jesus and making his birthday more special each year!

Christmas Ritual

The whole Christmas ritual is way out of hand, I mean family’s try to by stuff last minute for someone they don’t even like, and about the time they wanted to buy something for someone they did like, well the store is out of them, back ordered for 2 weeks after the new year, then your stressed and pisssed all season long.

That’s not Christmas, we need to get back to the roots, we need to know why we celebrate something, we need to know the full reason behind our belief, most importantly we need to know we are nothing without Jesus and we need to remember him and talk with him every single day, and let Him build a relationship with us more and more getting stronger each day, and please never ever forget his birthday, or what he has done for us!

Celebrating Christmas

If you want to celebrate Christmas your way, do it, if you do not want to celebrate Christmas that’s your choice too, if you want a Christmas tree do it, if you don’t want to have a tree then don’t do it, if you want to have a fat man in a red suit sitting out on your roof do it, (you might need to call the roofers if he decides to do donuts up there lol) but if you want to tell your children that Santa is real, then d… (Haha, you thought I was gonna say do it, that was awesome) don’t ever lie to your kids, if you tell your children that Santa is real then they find out later he’s not, then what’s gonna happen when you say Jesus is real, are they going to believe you?

Why not tell your children the real meaning of Christmas and that Jesus is the one that gives free gifts, (and they will like this) you could be naughty or nice and Jesus will still offer his free gift, you can’t beat that!

Bottom line is this.

There are no rules once your under the blood of Jesus, stop telling people that Christmas is a sin to celebrate, stop condemning others before you even know what they did, if you are concerned about the way someone is doing something, talk to them and show Jesus to them and explain to them the truth if you know it, and stop pushing your rules and your man made standards on others, that you can’t keep yourself.

Jesus says this so clearly.

““Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden. “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”” Luke 11:46, 52

So I’ll leave you with this, Follow Jesus, and remember what he has done for you, and don’t ever forget that he is still alive, and is right now at this very moment, fiinishing up a place for you beyond your wildest dreams to live with him forever and ever, no not in a white box, but in the perfect heavenly earth!

Until next time and from now on, may the grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ be with you all! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

~Joe Lester~