Christ is Still the Reason for the Season!

"Christ is Still the Reason for the Season!"

(God's Message of Hope and Salvation still Holds True)

By Glenn Peppers                                           

Greetings everyone! And as singer Andy Williams once sang in a song, may this be "The Happiest Day of the Year" for all for you! For on this day, many born again believers like myself use Christmas as a day to celebrate the birth and beginning life of Immanuel or as his name is pronounced in his native Aramaic, “Yeshua!” Who is Emmanuel (meaning God with us)! In the book of Matthew, the first chapter, starting at verse 20, an Angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, and bestowed upon him this message...

Matthew 1: 20-21-22-23

20 "But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."

21 "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

23 "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Immanuel, or Jesus Christ is that one the that Prophet spoke of!

A lot of folks celebrate this occasion and/or holiday season (as some call it), minusing Christ out of the Christmas Equation. When in fact Jesus is the very reason that there is a Christmas in the first place!  

The one day out of the year born again believers set aside to honor the birth of Jesus unto the world has become (in these last 80 to 100 years) a time of rush hour Black Friday's, and Nativity battles, and hustle and bustle commericality, along with Yule Tide Caroling, and folks decorating their houses and trees with fringe and garland, and lights; completely forgetting (excuse my cliché) “The REAL reason for the season!”

I love this time of the year with its gift giving, and "Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men" Message! In fact, this saying and act of gift giving is in actuality is a carry over from gift's given to the infant Jesus by the three wise men who traveled from the east, following a beaconing light or star right to where Jesus was born, and bestowed upon Him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Believe it or not, even this secular saying of, Peace on earth and goodwill towards men" reminds and encourages millions of people everywhere of that time when God sent his only begotten son from heaven to come here and walk this earth as a man, and to eventually die as a poor man on a tree for the sins of the world!... For our benefit, and our salvation! Restoring our original immortal place and standing with God, byway of Christ' washing away our original sins and indiscretions; natural and both individually committed sins done in this life. Therefore preparing us for life eternal once our walk on this earth is finished! 

So, no matter how you commemorate the welcoming of Jesus Christ to this world some 2000 years ago, in that cold manger when there was no more room at the inn. Always remember the REAL reason for the season! 

Some hoop and holler about the correct day and exact date of his birth; and that December 25th is not the actual day of his birth! I think people use this as a means to pick, argue and antagonize Believers with dogma, and contradiction in dealing with people who are Born Again! I’ve heard experts say that Christ was born somewhere in July! I’ve heard that it was closer to what we call on our calendar, January! For me it doesn’t matter! I’ve taken into account the fact that his mission on earth was completed just over 2000 years ago. And to say the least, an event that happened so long ago, in a land so far away could be reason enough to be confused when it comes to exact day, dates and times! 

Some or a lot of us don’t remember what it was we were doing, 20 years ago on such and such day. On such and such date! When so and so’s sister was born, or when so and so graduated from middle school to high school on such and day and date, after 30 years or more! Thank God for photos with dates on certain pictures of people places and events! Thank goodness for photo albums, yearbooks and all those loose photographs stored within those old family Bibles! You know how even events this recent can get clouded and lost to time and poor record keeping. Imagine trying to keep birth and death records over many millenniums! 

The fact that God put the redemption of humankind in motion so long ago, you can imagine what kind of changes have gone on in all that time! The Gospel being shared and spread out of northern Africa, through lower Europe, and interpreted into Greek out of its original Hebrew, then interpreted again by northern europeans, and shared again for hundreds and hundreds of years onto now. I would expect that exact day and dates for a lot of world changing events over time would become mudded and faded to age and time. 

Does anyone know what day and date, man discovered the wheel? Yet the wheel exist! Does anybody know exactly when and how the Pyramids were created, yet they stand! Has anyone pinpointed an exact day and time when the earths inner aquifers released simultaneously along with a great rain and deluge of water, from the skies when it was time Noah closed the Ark? What exact day was that?

What day and time was it when Noah set sail and prepared for this long stay and journey aboard this huge floating rescue vessel when the skies cut loose with rain from the clouds for the first time, causing a great flood over the entire earth? I wonder what day and date the moment all this occurred? It wasn’t as if Noah had no idea of what time of the day it was, or what day and date he was living this adventure. The bible tells us in Genesis this info:

“In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark.” Genesis 7:11-13

Noah also knew what day and date the and dove did not return to the ark after being released in search of dry land and returned not with anymore Olive Leaf branches. And soon the ark settled on a specific date in history relative to Noah’s years in age! 

“And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.” Genesis 8: 4!

Marking these days and dates were crucial in that they were on board a mighty ship and on a voyage that demanded this kind of records and time keeping, if not but for one’s sanity! Sometimes its not so much when exactly did certain things happen. It may be more important that the events happened at all! Plus with God there is the faith factor! There is the element of faith involved in all this as well! 

Ah yes, this world does always seeketh a sign for everything, doesn’t it! There are great authors, some actors, and politicians and statesmen, and even great great grand parents of ours who never knew the exact date that they were born, yet they lived, and here you and I stand because of it! 

Therefore I use December 25th as more of a day of Commemoration of Jesus’ birth onto the world! I celebrate this day for God gifted mankind with a blessed hope of eternal life! For me December 25th is a point of contact, and a time of Remembrance of how so long ago, despite how humankind has tried to alter, para-phrase out, make illegal, falsely manipulate people with, and even go so far as to try and change the meaning of the word over these past hundreds and hundreds of years. God’s original message of Hope and Salvation remains Unchanged!

God is still on the throne, and prayer still changes things! Setting aside Germany and the turn of the century America’s Coke Cola creation of Santa Claus and all the Yule Tide expressions of garnishments and adorning of lights and or candles to trees and such. The act of giving in this all so commercialized way worked its way into this culture, as if to squeeze or nudge out the original meaning or reason for Christmas! Well people I’m here to tell ya! 

Christmas is what it is and no more! A time Born Again Believers use to remember and Commemorate the Birth of He who was promised to the world as far back as the Old Testament in the book of Isiah! Well before the New Testament! If Gift giving is done, I suspect that this is of those individual’s personal choosing. Doing so in remembrance of the Three Wise Men giving gifts unto an infant Yeshua, after following a mysterious beaconing light which led them to the exact spot where this young child was being born in a manger! 

This is how I I’ve learned to ignore the commercialism, and the hustle and bustle of what Coke Cola and their slick advertisement ploys did almost 100 years ago, and still impacts our lives to this day! I say that the Coke Cola Santa Claus pitch could very well be the most successful advertising ad campaign in history. Introducing all the old world Santa Claus images and Lore into early american Christmas culture. Buffering non-believers rhetoric, while slowly over time, honing in, and trying to edge out Christmas’ original meaning! 

I guess people who do not believe in God or Christ always try to find a way to dismantle everything they can about the things of God! I’m thinking that that’s what the deal is on all that confusion foolishness that occurs around the time that we Believers Commemorate and acknowledge the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ come Easter time! 

I just wonder where all the distraction of some of those creepy Easter Bunny, and easter eggs came from!... I’ll just keep my faith in the Lord, as he asked us to do well before mankind started to try and change and manipulate the word of God!  

God bless you all, and dare I use the Yule Tide saying of Merry Christmas to you all! And no matter what...... Jesus is still the original reason for the season!

Glenn Peppers