The True Meaning of Christmas

“Mary will give birth to a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus (The Lord is Salvation) for He will save His people from their sins. All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet Isaiah – behold the virgin shall be with child and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His Name Immanuel, which means, God with us.” (Matthew 1:21-23 Amplified Bible).

Welcome back dear student, firstly I wish you a Peaceful and Happy Christmas, full of God’s Joy and the comfort of His Love. I invite you to join with us at our Christmas services – on Sunday next December 21 st at 11am, and also for our special ‘Candlelight Carols’ next Tuesday night, December 23 rd at 7.30pm. We will have worship songs, followed by a message of Hope, prayer, and refreshments on Sunday; with Tuesday evening’s service focusing on Christmas Carols by candlelight with hot chocolate and cookies. If you’ve never been to a Bible meeting, we would love to welcome you to fellowship with us dear friend.

It’s heartening to see many people earnestly seeking a relationship with God through His Word, for He is our only Hope. Everything may fall asunder in the world, but the Word of God will never fail (Psalm 91). He is Faithful. What a privilege to worship Him and celebrate the birth of God’s Gift of Love, Jesus. Christmas means nothing without Christ. For some people, it’s a time to endure – there are lots of reasons - sadness or grief, family dysfunction or illnesses, crippling anxiety, or worrying financial problems. It can be grating on a person’s nerves being asked at every corner ‘are you all ready for Christmas?’, if all you want to do is pull the duvet over your head, and wake up when it’s over. If you are feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone friend.

Yes, Christmas is a time of celebrations and joy remembering the birth of our Saviour, but no one knows pain like the Lord Jesus does. He has been there, done that, and bought the tee shirt! (Isaiah 53:3-10). He understands all the

emotions, the tragedies, the trauma, and feels it with you (Hebrews 4:14-16). But Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. This means that we have Hope from our faith in Him, that He will breathe Life into the darkest places in our hearts. No-one is beyond redemption. No situation is too far gone that the Lord Jesus cannot bring good out from it. There’s a joy so much greater than gifts and non-stop partying. Peace that cannot be found anywhere else - in a meaningful relationship with the Prince of Peace, Jesus. The thing that turns a lot of people off Christmas is the commercialism – pumping the population to spend, spend, spend!

Everything the world promotes Christmas as being is to excess. But the true meaning of Christmas is the selfless Love of God’s Son the Lord Jesus, laying down His divinity, being born as a helpless child, then growing up and dying for the sins of every human being, taking our place, so that we could receive God’s gift of Salvation through believing in Him (John 3:16). Did you ever receive a really generous gift and feel that your gift back was nowhere as good? Yet all Jesus is looking for - is for us to Believe! Brandon Lake’s beautiful worship song ‘Gratitude’ describes it perfectly… “so I throw up my hands and praise You again and again, cause all that I have is a Hallelujah...Hallelujah! And I know it’s not much - I’ve nothing else fit for a King - except for a heart singing, Hallelujah…Hallelujah!” God bless you.