(BLOGS will be continued next week.)
God has given his people the privilege of possessing and expressing the sole meaning of Christ's birth: he came as Savior. Indeed, God has granted his people the privilege of:
And only as his very own believers in Christ remain true to him will we successfully divest the season of its rampant:
II Corinthians 5:19. That meaning keeps on happening:
Christ-centered Blessings to you in this season!
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To get the Biblical Meaning of Christmas—the ONLY Meaning—read as starter scriptures Matthew 1:21, Luke 2:8-11, 21, 30, II Corinthians 5:16-21. For while the Results of Christmas are multiple, its Meaning is SINGULAR: God sent Jesus as Savior—his name synonymous with his mission. He came to:
• forgive • release • save • redeem believers in his Mission. And it also has Results, among the most splendid: God finds no fault in us; God grants daily blessings to us; God lives in us now through the Holy Spirit; and God promises our life continues forever in his New City. That all means we are now in Christ, and unafraid; in Christ and bold; in Christ and confident; in Christ and "more than conquerors" Romans 8:37-39. We can lift up our hearts and sing, and our voice and shout Parise to Him who rescues us from sin and our human frailties. We have a present JOY in Christ that will turn into a GLORY when history ends and eternity begins. Now...rest assured...the difference between Meaning and Result isn't merely a matter of semantics: each singing the same song, with different lyrics; saying the same truth in different words; looking at the same event from different angles, one word or lyric or angle equal to any other. Not at all. God sent Jesus as Savior of mankind. If we make any Result equal to its Meaning, we diminish the Purpose for which Jesus came. The longer we mistake the Results for the Meaning, the less obvious the Meaning will be and the more celebrated its Results will be, minus its Meaning. Surely we can see that in our society today! Through a series of illustrations, see the many ways people mistake Christmas as many things when it's really a Singular OTHER.
MOVIES, featuring Miracle on 34th Street. A little girl, played by Natalie Wood, met a bearded man, played by Edmund Gwenn, in Macy's Department store. He claimed to be Santa Claus. The movie saw Santa as the REASON people have hope and joy at Christmas time. San Diego U/T, 12/11/21. That was the Result of, not the Meaning of, Christmas. STORIES, highlighted by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. A miser turns philanthropist by receiving a delay in his death. While it's a feel-good story about the Season, people wrongly consider it the Meaning of Christmas when it's only the Result. OCCUPATIONS, as in the first Department store Santa. (Reminisce Magazine, Dec/Jan 2022, p. 20.) The owner of a dry goods' store loved dressing as Santa each Christmas season to greet kids in his store. They came from miles around to visit him. It didn't take long before other merchants hired their own store Santa. It didn't take cities long to welcome Santa to their town in every conceivable conveyance. All that represented the Result, not the Meaning, of Christmas. Skipping other illustrations, consider the story of a policeman. (Reminisce Dec. 2015/Jan. 2016, p. 11.) Responding to a Christmas Eve domestic violence call, he heard shouts as he approached the house. Entering, he saw items strewn over the floor, likely thrown by the parents at each other. What shocked him was the five-year old boy on a sofa: in a body cast from waist down, crying hard. The officer warned the parents that one would be jailed if any further fighting occurred. He also told them he would return to monitor them. As he drove away, anger at the parents dissolved in sympathy for the boy. He conscience demanded that he MUST do something for that little boy. He stopped at a nearby toy store, just as the owner was leaving. The officer explained the situation and said he wanted to buy a gift for the boy. In the store he saw a big Teddy Bear—just the thing, but obviously too expensive. He told the owner that he wanted that bear, but had only $4—not nearly enough. The man listened, smiled and replied that he had priced the bear for sale at $4, tax included. Each had something in his eyes as they completed the transaction. Returning to the house, he handed Teddy to the five-year old, who hugged it as a living thing. Because very likely, in their mutual rage, the parents had failed to hug him as a living person. The policeman concluded that the experience proved how the meaning of Christmas could change people's lives. Good as that feeling was, important as it was to the officer and store owner, it proved the Result, not the Meaning, of Christmas. Given these, and the many other examples, of the Result of Christmas, how can we be sure to KNOW the Meaning? The word CAUSALITY embodies the principle of CAUSE and EFFECT: every effect having a cause. Since nothing comes from nothing, and nothing ever could:
A Cause and Effect event occurred in Allied capitals in May and September, 1945. The end of WWII the Cause, wild partying the Effect. Traffic stopped flowing as thousands used the streets as impromptu stages, indiscriminately hugging, kissing, dancing and drinking:
One picture summarized all that emotional delirium: a sailor seized a nurse and bent her backwards in his arms while planting a kiss on her lips. That iconic picture became a celebrated iconic statuary in a downtown San Diego Park, along Harbor Drive, South of Broadway and the USS Carrier Midway. All of that ecstasy resulted from VICTORY in WWII. Which has a lesson for all Christians as we celebrate Christ's Birth December 25. |
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