Is Christmas still relevant today?

I love Christmas!

But I have a question.

What does Christmas really mean?

(Deep in thought……)

Christmas is about Santa Claus

It’s about giving and spending time with family. It’s about food (lots of it) haha

It’s also about the birth of Christ! For Christians this is the main purpose of Christmas.

It’s that time of the year we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.

But as I reflect on Christmas a few things come to mind:

The 2014 Isla Vista killings – where a man shot and killed six people and injured thirteen others before committing suicide! I can only imagine what the families are going through!

The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines earlier this year which resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives! Hundreds of families will spend Christmas alone!

The death and loss caused by ISIS. There are people still fleeing for their lives. There are people still losing loved ones. There are lots of people living in fear because of ISIS.

The kidnapping of 200 girls by the Boko Haram.

Women and girls who have been trafficked and haven’t been rescued!

The list goes on and on!

As I thought on this I thought to myself,

Surely Christmas is more than gifts, food, Santa Claus, and family? Those things are important but what does Christmas offer to the person who has lost everything?

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭10-11‬ NKJV)

We were lost doomed to die but Jesus came and changed that. He reversed our death sentence to one of life! When I think of Christmas, I think of the hope it brings!  A hope that the world desperately needs. A hope WE desperately need!!

Christmas offers hope for everyone! No matter how bad things are, no matter how hopeless they seem, there is hope! Don’t be discouraged, don’t lose heart. You have been given a second chance!

Christmas is a beacon of hope to all that need hope!

Bad things have happened and are still happening but the birth of Jesus Christ is the answer to the pain and the terror that has happened.

When you think of the birth of Jesus Christ, His death and what He accomplished should come to mind! You cannot separate those two powerful, world changing events!

He came to give us life, peace, joy, a reason to live again, hope and a whole lot more!

If you are in pain, if you are alone, if your future looks hopeless know this:

There is hope for you……

You have a second, third, fourth chance!

God cares for you and looks after you.

Christmas represents HOPE for everyone!

Merry Christmas to you all.

Rolain

The world will know the truth by faith….!!!

And what shall I say further? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, [Judg. 4:1-5; 6:1-8, 35; 11:1-12, 15; 13:1-16; I Sam. 1-30; II Sam. 1-24; I Kings 1-2; Acts 3:24.]

 Who by [the help of] faith subdued kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promised blessings, closed the mouths of lions, [Dan. 6.]

Extinguished the power of raging fire, escaped the devourings of the sword, out of frailty and weakness won strength and became stalwart, even mighty and resistless in battle, routing alien hosts. [Dan. 3.] (Hebrews 11:32-34 AMP)

In my previous post (you can read it here) I spoke about some of the insights I got about faith from reading Hebrews 11. This is part two of that post. In the first part I asked if we really understand what faith is. I concluded that we don’t and upon reading Hebrews 11 I realized how true that was. So let me move on.

In the scripture I just shared we see some pretty amazing things. Look at what faith did for the men and women of old:

– By faith they subdued kingdoms

– By faith they administered justice

– Obtained promised blessings

– Closed the mouth of lions

– Extinguished the power of raging fire and a host of other things……

By faith they administered justice! The principalities and powers in the time of the men and women of old worshipped idols, burnt their children in honor of them, and committed other atrocious things but by faith the men and women of God administered justice! They never stood by as the world committed unspeakable acts. God called men and women to speak out, and do something. They were the voice of Justice to the world at that time!  When their home was destroyed they looked to Him to repay them for what happened. By faith they administered justice!

Today there are things happening that need to be stopped. ISIS freely killing Christians in Iraq, trafficking is at its highest, Israel is at war and so on and so on. There is just so much injustice happening but by faith justice can be administered! How exactly, I don’t know! Maybe through prayer or maybe through speaking out I don’t know but if the men and women of old administered justice through faith so can we!

We see faith in action in a way we have never understood and have never tried ever. The men and women of old understood much more about faith. They were looking at a much bigger picture, and maybe it’s like that because someone never showed us and told us how to REALLY use our faith, I don’t know, but what I do know is our faith can do much more than heal the flu we had two days ago!! We can use it to affect change in the world. But realize something; the person making the change is God! We are the ones who come to Him in faith and He is the One who does the changing…..!

Faith was used to subdue kingdoms, obtain blessings (which I will talk about in more detail in an upcoming post), administer justice; close the mouth of lions………

It has been hard writing this post because Hebrews paints a very foreign picture of faith. It paints a different kind of faith, a faith that can subdue kingdoms, administer justice, close the mouth of lions; obtain promises and so much more. But what does that mean in our everyday life? If the faith we have been given is so powerful what does this mean for us?

It means we can make a difference. As we have faith in God we can make a difference in the affairs of earth. We don’t have to sit back discouraged and helpless. Our faith can make a difference in a broken world if we only believe in Him. Apart from faith we can do nothing. Apart from God we are powerless. As I think about the things the men and women of old did, they were on their own. They were alone most of the time, abandoned, cast out, persecuted, betrayed, unpopular, considered weird, uneducated, poor and so many other things but because of their faith in God they did amazing things, things that would impact the world forever!! May God give us understanding and may He open our eyes to see the truth. We have been called to do great things but that will only happen when we have faith in God. Trust that He can and WILL do great things through you!

Stay tuned for part three which will be coming soon……..

 

Rolain