Merry Me-mas!

It is the end of December again. Happens every year. A time of cheer and hope when people feel the Christmas Spirit, yet not sure why or what that is. It is easy to get confused because the Nativity story is edited on account of, "too much Jesus". It is also easy to understand why that is - the Gospel is offensive. It teaches that we are not able to save ourselves, we are not rulers of our universe, nor is the source of anything powerful or good coming from within us.
The Nativity story is not a holiday story, it is the Gospel story of the One who is ruler of the universe, the source of all power and good - the One and Only Savior. It is a story of hope and love but also of sin, punishment and even death. The Nativity story highlights Jesus Christ, Son of God and does not end with his birth.

¹The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark 1:1

³⁵And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. Luke 1:35

²⁹And behold, they (demons) cried out, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" Matthew 8:29

^{61 b}Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" ⁶²And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." Mark 14:61 b-62

⁹But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Hebrews 2:9

³¹ but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31


C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: " Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Revelation 1:18

⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4 & Isaiah 25:8

There is more to the story than the birth of a child - much more. I beg you, if you feel compelled to tell this story, tell the whole story and add nothing. The Holy Spirit has left this exhortation:

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, ¹⁹and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

²⁰He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. Revelation 22: 18-21