To all my readers and all followers of Jesus of Nazareth, firstborn over all creation, head of the church, Son of God and son of man, king of kings, lord of lords, prince of peace, light of the world, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.
I love Christmas, just the central idea; a promise made eons ago comes to fruition, that God would send us a savior. The plot point of Christmas in the overall story of our salvation is not one to be overlooked. Our lord and savior came to us with incredibly humble beginnings - born to peasants in a stable. So humble that even today unbelievers mistakenly call Mary an "unwed mother" (when we look at Luke 2:5 properly translated we find that when Christ was born Joseph and Mary were married). But that's ok, not a lot of people are going to truly understand. Jesus was very plain about the fact that believers are different than unbelievers and are divinely inspired:
65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. (John 6:65-66)
So often when we consider our sinful nature we rightfully humble ourselves often to the point of tears. Yet we forget that not only is our faith a gift of God, we forget that we have been chosen, set apart by God to do His work, to spread the Gospel to all the nations. And that is a very special thing:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)So royal priests, citizens of a holy nation - let's celebrate the anniversary of Christ's first advent the old fashioned way: by spreading the Gospel
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