Award Winning GENESIS SCHOOL OF MUSIC

➡️I love Christmas!  I love the lights, the decorations, the music, the gifts –  I love everything about Christmas.  But my favorite thing about Christmas is just being with my family. One of my favorite memories as a child growing up was on Christmas Eve when my mom would light the candles and my dad would read the story of Christmas – and the whole world seemed to just stop in that moment, and it was just us.  It’s the same today. I love being with my wife and three kids on Christmas Eve, just being together, and reading the Christmas story. 

My all-time favorite part of the Christmas story comes from Matthew chapter 1.  It’s the story of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus; he was having a hard time when he found out his future wife, Mary, was pregnant…and he wasn’t the father. In the middle of that struggle, the Bible said that an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and changed everything by saying, in verses 21-23, “She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet (thousands of years before this), ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.’”  I love that!

Here’s THREE THINGS I want to challenge you with when it comes to the Bible and Christmas – and #3 will probably surprise you:

1…THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS IS TRUE.  

There really was a family, a baby, wisemen, shepherds – it all really happened.  I think sometimes in our western mindset, we can get the story of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the wisemen, and the shepherds mixed up with the stories of Santa Claus, Mrs Claus, Frosty, Rudolph and the 7 flying reindeer.  The story of Jesus is not a 30 minute kids cartoon at Christmas, it is absolutely true. Thousands of years before Jesus was born, prophets in the Old Testament were speaking and writing of a young child that would be born in Bethlehem – giving specific details of his birth, his family, his life. And every detail came true.

Revelation 21:5 says, “These words are trustworthy and true”. 

Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God proves true”. 

Psalm 119:142 says, “God’s righteousness is righteous forever, and his word is true.”

We know the story of Christmas is true, because every word in the Bible is absolutely true.

2…THE PERSON OF CHRISTMAS IS FOR EVERYONE — Jesus, the reason we celebrate Christmas, is for everyone…and he’s with everyone. 

In Luke 2:6, it says, “While Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her first born, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger.”

It’s interesting how Jesus, according to Philippians 2, was equal to God, he was God; he could have been born anywhere in the world – in a castle, in the temple, in a rich man’s home, or at least in a better community.  But God chose a manger, in the tiny town of Bethlehem, the most humblest place he could’ve possibly been born, because at the manger, everyone had access to Jesus – the rich, the poor; the wise men, the shepherds; even the little animals were welcome at the manger…because Jesus is for everyone.  He’s for you, and according to Matthew 1:23, he’s with you.  He’s Emmanuel, “God is with us”

He’s with my mom, a widow who lives alone; he’s with my daughter, who’s away living in the university town of Tuscaloosa; he’s with you and your family, no matter who you are, where you’ve been or what you’ve done.  God is always for us…and God is always with us. 

The story of Christmas is true, the person of Christmas is for everyone BUT…

3…THE PEACE OF CHRISTMAS ISN’T FOR EVERYONE.  I’ve heard my whole life at Christmas where the angels would sing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all men”.  However, when the angels came to the shepherds, this is what they actually said, in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom God is pleased.”  There was peace in the manger – but there probably wasn’t peace in the castle of Herod, who was furious that a new born king had been born.  There was peace with Mary and Joseph, but there might not have been peace in the crowded inn, the one that had no room for Jesus.  The peace of Christmas is connected to the person of Christmas.  Like the small plaque that hung on our wall as a child, “Know Jesus, know peace.  No Jesus, no peace.”  This really contradicts what I just said – God is for us, and he is with us – IF we let him in.  

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus is talking, and he says, “I stand at your door and knock.  If you will open your door, I will come in…and we will have fellowship.”  So how do you ‘open your door and let Jesus in’?  Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that he died on the cross and yet God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  

If you do that, God will be for you, He will be with you; you will then, and only then, know the TRUTH of Christmas, the PERSON of Christmas, and the PEACE of Christmas.  How do I know?  It’s in the Bible and the Bible is always right!”

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