Holiday Reality

It's the holiday season. That is to say, Christmas is fast approaching. Of course since this is a nation founded on the idea that everyone has the right to worship GOD, that is THE ONE TRUE GOD, we cannot say Christmas out loud. If we did we might offend some self appointed genius that chooses to demonstrate by proving he is incapable of seeing the blatantly obvious fact that GOD and ONLY GOD created and controls this world. Personally, not only do I mind offending such neanderthals, I rather enjoy it, but that’s a story for another time.
Christmas is not just the “Winter Holiday.” It is not a time or season that signals “peace on Earth” (God has never said He would give us peace and joy in this life). Society tells us this is a time of peace towards our fellow man. If that’s the case explain why people are dying in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Balkans, and the streets of our own nation, all due to war and hatred. Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Christ, God’s Son. A day to worship the only Son of God as He came to Earth in the body of man, and lived and worked as He faced the same temptations, the same trials and difficulties you and I do each and everyday. As staggering as this fact is, God in the form of man, it is not the key to why Christmas should be special to each and everyone of us. It has nothing to do with mangers, stables, wise men or shepherds. It is not about fancy wrapping paper, bows and ribbons, bells, jingling or otherwise. Its meaning is not found in reindeer with nasal deformities, or a fat old man wearing a garish red suit and has never existed except in the warped imaginations of mankind. It has nothing to do with getting that sweater, video game, ugly tie, or new set of roller blades you want for yourself or think aunt Martha would love to have. In fact, the magic of celebrating the birth of Jesus, the meaning of reverencing His coming to Earth, the very heart of why this day is special has nothing to do with the day itself.
Yes, Jesus was born of a virgin, born in a stable and laid in a manger, He was visited and worshipped by wise men (and still is) and shepherds. Herod did try and have him killed and He was taken into Egypt for safety and upon Herod’s death, His family returned to Israel and He was raised in Nazareth. His parents were forced to return to Jerusalem after a Passover visit and search frantically for their first born, as He remained behind confounding the temple “wise” and “learned” leaders. But still we have not arrived at that moment, that very special moment that makes Christmas worth celebrating, worth keeping in our hearts for the other 364 days of the year.
He once was a guest at a wedding in the village of Canan and turned plain water into the finest wine many of the other guest had ever tasted. He walked beside the Sea of Galilee and just by inviting them men left their families and livelihood to follow this stranger. By touch, by word, He healed the sick, the blind, the deaf, the demon possessed. By command people once dead were brought back to life. To say that this is amazing, is a substantial understatement, but even so, the magic, that special nature of Christmas doesn’t lie here either.
The act, the event, that makes Christmas so wondrously special actually occurred some thirty three years after the events in that cold stable. It began late one evening when a friend betrayed Jesus to the local religious authorities who were jealous of His popularity and fearful of His new and radical teachings. After His arrest Jesus was then tried before the nation’s highest religious court for a quick and illegal trial. After finding Him “guilty” they sent Him to the Romans, and managed to tell enough lies that He was sentenced to death. These lies were so pervasive, so numerous that Jesus’ own countrymen, who just the day before had listened to His every word, demanded His death as well. When given the opportunity to free Him rather than a known murderer, the masses cried out for His blood. It was at this time that the events that make Christmas so very, very special, began to take place.
Turned over to the jailers to be scourged, Jesus was beaten with a whip that had bone, rock, metal, anything that could rip flesh, until His back looked more like hamburger than human flesh. Then, weak and bleeding a cross was laid on His back and He was forced to walk through the city of Jerusalem. However, He was so much human that the beating and blood loss made Him to weak to carry His burden and another was forced into service to take it the rest of the way.
The destination was a hill called Golgotha, or “The place of the skull.” Here He was stripped of His clothing and laid on the cross He was too weak to carry. Once in position the Roman soldiers stretched one arm out along the cross member of this device of death and drove a railroad spike sized nail through his hand. After repeating this operation with the other hand one foot was placed on top of the other and a nail was hammered through and into the wood of the upright part of the cross. After it was hoisted into a standing position it was dropped into a hole with a sudden jerk when it hit bottom and then was braced so it would remain upright.
After hanging on this rough hewn cross for hours, hanging there in agony beyond any of our imaginations Jesus uttered three glorious words. “It is finished.” In these words lies the true meaning of Christmas. In these words lies the greatest event in all of human history. You see the thing that was finished was paying the debt each of us owed to God. Paid in full was the sin debt we accumulated in our lives. Jesus never sinned, you and I have. He shed His blood so you and I might live with God throughout all of eternity. We are incapable of paying the price to clear us of the sins we have committed but Jesus, God’s Son, has such love for us that He gave His life to pay what we could not. This is the magic, the glory of Christmas. It is not, and never has been in any celebration or ceremony man has created.
So remember, when you think of Christmas, when you think of all those special things that surround this unique holiday don’t forget that when He was on that cross, YOU were on His mind.
It's the holiday season. That is to say, Christmas is fast approaching. Of course since this is a nation founded on the idea that everyone has the right to worship GOD, that is THE ONE TRUE GOD, we cannot say Christmas out loud. If we did we might offend some self appointed genius that chooses to demonstrate by proving he is incapable of seeing the blatantly obvious fact that GOD and ONLY GOD created and controls this world. Personally, not only do I mind offending such neanderthals, I rather enjoy it, but that’s a story for another time.
Christmas is not just the “Winter Holiday.” It is not a time or season that signals “peace on Earth” (God has never said He would give us peace and joy in this life). Society tells us this is a time of peace towards our fellow man. If that’s the case explain why people are dying in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Balkans, and the streets of our own nation, all due to war and hatred. Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Christ, God’s Son. A day to worship the only Son of God as He came to Earth in the body of man, and lived and worked as He faced the same temptations, the same trials and difficulties you and I do each and everyday. As staggering as this fact is, God in the form of man, it is not the key to why Christmas should be special to each and everyone of us. It has nothing to do with mangers, stables, wise men or shepherds. It is not about fancy wrapping paper, bows and ribbons, bells, jingling or otherwise. Its meaning is not found in reindeer with nasal deformities, or a fat old man wearing a garish red suit and has never existed except in the warped imaginations of mankind. It has nothing to do with getting that sweater, video game, ugly tie, or new set of roller blades you want for yourself or think aunt Martha would love to have. In fact, the magic of celebrating the birth of Jesus, the meaning of reverencing His coming to Earth, the very heart of why this day is special has nothing to do with the day itself.
Yes, Jesus was born of a virgin, born in a stable and laid in a manger, He was visited and worshipped by wise men (and still is) and shepherds. Herod did try and have him killed and He was taken into Egypt for safety and upon Herod’s death, His family returned to Israel and He was raised in Nazareth. His parents were forced to return to Jerusalem after a Passover visit and search frantically for their first born, as He remained behind confounding the temple “wise” and “learned” leaders. But still we have not arrived at that moment, that very special moment that makes Christmas worth celebrating, worth keeping in our hearts for the other 364 days of the year.
He once was a guest at a wedding in the village of Canan and turned plain water into the finest wine many of the other guest had ever tasted. He walked beside the Sea of Galilee and just by inviting them men left their families and livelihood to follow this stranger. By touch, by word, He healed the sick, the blind, the deaf, the demon possessed. By command people once dead were brought back to life. To say that this is amazing, is a substantial understatement, but even so, the magic, that special nature of Christmas doesn’t lie here either.
The act, the event, that makes Christmas so wondrously special actually occurred some thirty three years after the events in that cold stable. It began late one evening when a friend betrayed Jesus to the local religious authorities who were jealous of His popularity and fearful of His new and radical teachings. After His arrest Jesus was then tried before the nation’s highest religious court for a quick and illegal trial. After finding Him “guilty” they sent Him to the Romans, and managed to tell enough lies that He was sentenced to death. These lies were so pervasive, so numerous that Jesus’ own countrymen, who just the day before had listened to His every word, demanded His death as well. When given the opportunity to free Him rather than a known murderer, the masses cried out for His blood. It was at this time that the events that make Christmas so very, very special, began to take place.
Turned over to the jailers to be scourged, Jesus was beaten with a whip that had bone, rock, metal, anything that could rip flesh, until His back looked more like hamburger than human flesh. Then, weak and bleeding a cross was laid on His back and He was forced to walk through the city of Jerusalem. However, He was so much human that the beating and blood loss made Him to weak to carry His burden and another was forced into service to take it the rest of the way.
The destination was a hill called Golgotha, or “The place of the skull.” Here He was stripped of His clothing and laid on the cross He was too weak to carry. Once in position the Roman soldiers stretched one arm out along the cross member of this device of death and drove a railroad spike sized nail through his hand. After repeating this operation with the other hand one foot was placed on top of the other and a nail was hammered through and into the wood of the upright part of the cross. After it was hoisted into a standing position it was dropped into a hole with a sudden jerk when it hit bottom and then was braced so it would remain upright.
After hanging on this rough hewn cross for hours, hanging there in agony beyond any of our imaginations Jesus uttered three glorious words. “It is finished.” In these words lies the true meaning of Christmas. In these words lies the greatest event in all of human history. You see the thing that was finished was paying the debt each of us owed to God. Paid in full was the sin debt we accumulated in our lives. Jesus never sinned, you and I have. He shed His blood so you and I might live with God throughout all of eternity. We are incapable of paying the price to clear us of the sins we have committed but Jesus, God’s Son, has such love for us that He gave His life to pay what we could not. This is the magic, the glory of Christmas. It is not, and never has been in any celebration or ceremony man has created.
So remember, when you think of Christmas, when you think of all those special things that surround this unique holiday don’t forget that when He was on that cross, YOU were on His mind.
posted by Air Force 68-73 at
3:04 AM
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