The Christmas season has once again rushed upon us and it is time to pause and ponder just why there is a Christmas anyway. The trend of the world in which we live is to consider it just another holiday. Most of the greeting cards say “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings,” but for me this is not just a holiday. This is the celebration of the coming of a Saviour and his name is Jesus the Christ. Christmas includes the name – Christ, whose birth we celebrate. Therefore to me it is time to wish you all a very “Merry Christmas.”
John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.” If you stop and consider all the preparations that God made for the birth of His Son Jesus you will begin to realize just how much he loves mankind. The Old Testament gives numerous prophecies about the coming of a Saviour or The Messiah. Things like where he would be born and that a virgin would conceive and his name would be called Jesus.
Galatians 4:4 tells us that this birth took place “when the time was right.” I was reading from Galatians chapter 4 the other day in the New Living Translation and I was challenged by what I read. It says: “Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”
Jesus was born at exactly the right time in history. His coming to earth from heaven was to provide a saviour for mankind. The provision is still the same today as it was when Jesus came. We still need a saviour and God invites all mankind to believe that the saviour has come. I personally believe that Jesus is the saviour who came to redeem fallen mankind. His invitation is still the same as it was when Jesus came. It is “whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope that you will personally know that God loves you and that Jesus came to this earth to redeem you and bring you into right relationship with God.
Rev. Dan Thompson, Pastor
Spring Bay Pentecostal Church
