It is Christmas once again! A very exciting time of the year. We get and give presents to loved ones. We feel justified for buying that lovely jacket from Zara, that cute pair of shoes from Russell & Bromley and those 5 for £100 shirts from TM which we really don’t need. We queue up at NEXT from 3 am in the morning and shop till we drop, literally. It’s Christmas after all. We also justify our over eating. Stuffing our faces with all that food that on a ‘normal’ day we wouldn’t eat. But it is Christmas after all.

Christmas Sale

Gluttony...

There is a general cheer in the air and there are loads of lovely decorations everywhere. It’s Christmas after all. Therefore it becomes okay to eat three times the quantity of food that we usually would. It becomes okay to spend the money we are barely making and it becomes okay to have people over at ours discussing everything BUT the reason for the season, the ‘Christ’ in the Christmas. Christmas Day is the day taken to celebrate the birth of Christ, Jesus Christ. Why was he born? Why was he sent? What is to celebrate? It to these we now turn.

God's amazing plan for our redemption

Sweet Baby Jesus

God had a fab plan for mankind. He made these special little creatures Adam and Eve with the aim that they would dominate the earth, replenish the earth, subdue it and most importantly, make His praise glorious. That is, to worship Him and give Him all the honour. We were created to  be gods (before you cry ‘Temi, what arrant blasphemy!’, chill and open to Psalm 82:6: Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

God had a perfect picture that when He looked down from Heaven upon the earth, the people He saw would reflect everything that He represents. So basically, God had big plans for man. But man had to bungle that up, thanks to Eve and Adam. Now, instead of boldly being able to approach God anytime, anyhow, dressed or undressed, clean or unclean, during your period or even on menopause (you catch my drift), man now had to settle for some serious Rules and Regulations, some strict protocols had to be observed now. A look at Leviticus 22 will make the picture clearer.

Read it and be amazed at the precision and the intricacies and the way God pays so much attention to the detail He really did not care for before:

you shall offer of your own free will a male without blemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats. 20Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf. 21 And whoever offers a sacrifice of a peace offering to the LORD, to fulfill his vow, or a freewill offering from the cattle or the sheep,it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. 22 Those that are blindor broken ormaimed, or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to the LORD. 23 Either a bull or a lamb that has any limb too long or too short you may offer as a freewill offering, but for a vow it shall not be accepted.
24 ‘You shall not offer to the LORD what is bruised or crushed, or torn or cut; nor shall you makeany offering of them in your land. 25 Nor from a foreigner’s hand shall you offer any of these as the bread of your God, because their corruption is in them, and defects are in them. They shall not be accepted on your behalf.’”

Ever faithful God, who will never up and leave or forsake His own decided to look for a way out to redeem the situation and save the day. He did it through His Son JESUS CHRIST. There was no way round it. Jesus had to pay. He had to die because without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). At a later date, we will discuss at great length how the covenant of Abraham was sealed and how the covenant of Jesus was sealed too…with blood. Yep, blood is the strongest type of covenant and it was that variety that God decided to go for in order to redeem man from the curse of the law. Since God had laid down some basic rules, He Himself could not break His words and instead, He had to look for a way round it, yet still fulfilling all righteousness. So Jesus was sent in order to be the way round our destruction and death. He was sent to set us free from bondage and to give us a new lease of life.

Christmas should be about remembering this Great Plan, this Divine Orchestration, this Amazing Device. So that, my friend, is why I find it so irksome when I go into a store to get Christmas cards for friends and not a single one in the entire store has a picture of Jesus with some nice ‘Unto us a Son is born’ type of words. All I see is ‘Santa Baby’, ‘Have a snowy Christmas’ and all I hear is ‘can you come have mulled wine and minced pies at our for Christmas?’ or ‘We are going to the movies to see the latest Christmas release’ or ‘we are having a Christmas party but not once do we plan on talking about Christ because this is a non-religious/multi-religious workplace’.

Unto us a Son is born

This is to remind us all (myself inclusive) of why that day is celebrated. By the way, nowhere in the Bible are we asked to celebrate Christ’s birth anyways. I’m sure our all knowing God had an inkling into how things would become so sensationalised that he decided, ‘do you know what, my good children, if you wanna remember me, really and truly truly, take the Holy Communion’ (Luke 22:19). Christmas is therefore an earthly celebration. It has its roots traceable to pagans. The Holy Communion, however, is the true remembrance of Christ (I thank my Pastor for this revelation).

He was born, He died, He was buried and He rose again!

I won’t go as far as telling people not to have a good time this Christmas (not that you or even I myself would listen to that admonition) but all I ask is that aside of the singing of ‘Away in a Manger’ and ‘Hark the herald angels sing’, take time to really think about Christ and what His coming/birth signifies to you personally and take time out to thank Him for it and most importantly, live a life that makes His coming of worth to you. That, my friend, is true Christmas!

Seasons Greetings!

Temiville.xoxo