You know, this year I noticed more and more people using "happy holidays" instead of Merry Christmas and that even greeting cards are echoing that. I had a harder time finding a card that reflected what we're celebrating. I mean, without Jesus Christ, what's the point in celebrating "Christmas" at all? Without Christ, none of it makes sense. I don't know why I'm more sensitive to society's exclusion of Him this year than I was last year, but it may be simply that it's more widespread than it was last year and that I care more than I did before.
I've just been thinking is all. I've been listening to Alistair Begg of Truth for Life in the mornings for a while now. This week he's been expounding the "Who is Jesus?" idea and I've gotten all excited again. It's like Christmas takes on a new light when you know the truth of why we celebrate it. I mean, without the Christ of Christmas, without his being fully divine and fully man, there would be no point celebrating at all. I mean, why would we celebrate his birth (or his death/resurrection for that matter) if he wasn't God? I mean, really - think about it a little more. Why would some Jewish peasant from Nazareth who died on a cross matter at all some 20 centuries after he died? Why would we study the Bible? Why would we gather to sit and listen to anyone who was talking about the Bible, about Jesus? Take the divinity out of Christ and Christianity is meaningless - it ends up just being some dumb legalistic moralistic mumbo-jumbo that has absolutely no lasting effect or benefit to anyone.
Well, there are really only three things Jesus could've been - One: he was a loony, a wack-job. But the evidence doesn't support that conclusion. Two: he was a bad man, a liar - the evidence doesn't support this idea either, or Thirdly: he was God. I mean, what'd he say about himself? What did other's say about him? Don't take my word for any of this. Check it out for yourself. My suggestion would be to start in the book of John - it's pretty easy to read for those of us who have no concept of what it means to be a Jew. The New International Version is a good version to check out if you're new to the Bible. Even in the biblical book of John, you'll see that there are multiple indirect claims that He was God that Jesus didn't dispute (note that the prophets, when called something they weren't, could deny it), several direct claims of other people about who Jesus was and then there were the claims he made about who he knew he was.
I'd love to go into all of this here, but think it'd be better for you to go do some digging. I'm going to start doing some digging of my own and put this stuff to memory. It flabbergasts me how packed the Bible is of good stuff. Every time you read it, it says something different.
If you wanna know what's riled me up, check out the free downloads of "Who is Jesus?" at Truth for Life.
Merry Christmas!
I've just been thinking is all. I've been listening to Alistair Begg of Truth for Life in the mornings for a while now. This week he's been expounding the "Who is Jesus?" idea and I've gotten all excited again. It's like Christmas takes on a new light when you know the truth of why we celebrate it. I mean, without the Christ of Christmas, without his being fully divine and fully man, there would be no point celebrating at all. I mean, why would we celebrate his birth (or his death/resurrection for that matter) if he wasn't God? I mean, really - think about it a little more. Why would some Jewish peasant from Nazareth who died on a cross matter at all some 20 centuries after he died? Why would we study the Bible? Why would we gather to sit and listen to anyone who was talking about the Bible, about Jesus? Take the divinity out of Christ and Christianity is meaningless - it ends up just being some dumb legalistic moralistic mumbo-jumbo that has absolutely no lasting effect or benefit to anyone.
Well, there are really only three things Jesus could've been - One: he was a loony, a wack-job. But the evidence doesn't support that conclusion. Two: he was a bad man, a liar - the evidence doesn't support this idea either, or Thirdly: he was God. I mean, what'd he say about himself? What did other's say about him? Don't take my word for any of this. Check it out for yourself. My suggestion would be to start in the book of John - it's pretty easy to read for those of us who have no concept of what it means to be a Jew. The New International Version is a good version to check out if you're new to the Bible. Even in the biblical book of John, you'll see that there are multiple indirect claims that He was God that Jesus didn't dispute (note that the prophets, when called something they weren't, could deny it), several direct claims of other people about who Jesus was and then there were the claims he made about who he knew he was.
I'd love to go into all of this here, but think it'd be better for you to go do some digging. I'm going to start doing some digging of my own and put this stuff to memory. It flabbergasts me how packed the Bible is of good stuff. Every time you read it, it says something different.
If you wanna know what's riled me up, check out the free downloads of "Who is Jesus?" at Truth for Life.
Merry Christmas!
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