They turned into a small baby Folk Fest named Jacob. Jacob had now not been plenty inquisitive about Christmas-too young to remember the previous Christmas and now not comprehending what it would mean this year. Not tons fascinated, that is, until his parents began to string lights down the fence and across the house’s access region. “Oh, Mommy, Mommy!” he exclaimed, “Let me help make Christmas!” amassing all of the rest of the lights in his arms, he ran to his room and began to string them anywhere till his room resembled something like the Griswald’s house inside the film Christmas Vacation.
Small as he was, he grasped a vital reality. Christmas is all about the lights- the Light of the angels bursting through a cold, darkish sky to sing the music of heaven to terrified shepherds who could not consider something like this taking place earlier than, nor realize what is taking place now. The Light of a star acting inside the sky to stressful magi who had in no way visible whatever like it before and could not recognize a king who turned into a solid. The Light of the World, delivered in a stable to a scared teen, supported her concerned husband’s aid.
Light gets our interest. On that first Christmas, the real Light entered the arena, the mild that shines in the darkness, but the night has not triumphed over it. The Light comes once more these days for us. It comes into our lives. It is right here enlightening our lives. Do we see the Light of Life as the shepherds did, or will we see it as a disturbance that unsettles us, makes us uneasy, and brings a wave of guilt but would not lead us to repentance? Because of the Babe, born on the primary Christmas, our lives are lit up with the Grace of God, the affection of God, the forgiveness of God, the strength of God, and the peace of God.
John’s Gospel has purposes:
1. To introduce his readers to Jesus, and
2. To set up who He is and what He did, all with their only aim to embrace Christ’s saving work.
God came to us in Christ. When hostility and enmity exist, we can destroy the silence due to Christ and provide what God has offered America- a Word of grace. The authentic mild came on the primary Christmas- the Light that shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not yet overcome it. Light equals existence. The Light of Christ has come into our lives. Do we see it as a disturbance, or will we see it because of the Light of existence, just like the shepherds did? This Light brings peace, comfort, reconciliation, and joy.
There is a tale about brothers Tom and John, whose father had died. He had willed the farm to the two of them to keep his sons collectively. It had not labored that manner. John married and lived in a small city with his family. Tom, who remained single, lived alone in the vintage farmhouse. “John is always preoccupied with his family,” Tom notion. “I do more than my percentage of the work.” He started to resent his brother. “Tom is always so grouchy,” concept John. “He is jealous of my spouse and kids.”
A wall of resentment was constructed between them. They might infrequently communicate with each other differently. They attended the same little church in town and sat on contrary facets of the nave in the Christmas Eve carrier course. John was troubled because they had infrequently mentioned each other’s presence as they sat in church. On the way home, John told his spouse, “Tom is alone and has no one to share Christmas. I recognize he might not come right here. Maybe we can take a warm dinner to him.” His spouse organized a delicious meal, placed it into a sleigh, and started from the small metropolis to the farmhouse in the United States.
Meanwhile, sitting alone, Tom said, “Life is too quick for this. John is my only brother, and he has it hard along with his wife and circle of relatives. I will load my wagon with wood for the hearth and presents for the children.” So he loaded his wagon and drove in the direction of the metropolis.
Down in the valley between the farm and the metropolis, they met. They were silent for a second, then embraced with shouts of “Merry Christmas!!!!” The reconciliation occurred at that second, and the true mind of Christmas changed into vivid with a glow that would be visible for miles around.
Christ the Light changed into the international. The international was made with the aid of Him, but the world did now not know Him. In the Bible, “flesh” regularly means “the whole person.” Human nature is awesome and becomes independent from God; human nature has weak points and susceptibility to sin. The rejecter’s loss is the believer’s benefit. The way has been opened for God’s purpose to be fulfilled in us. Christ’s Grace is inexhaustible. The goal of the Light is to make us His kids. He is God over us, and He is our recommendation. He pleads our case because He loves us.
Jesus revealed His love for us through the best act of self-sacrifice a man ought to carry out. He gave His lifestyles for us. God became one of us. Christ has identified with us and wants to permit us to live fulfilled lives. The church owes its lifestyles to the Word of promise and is nourished and preserved with the same Word’s aid. If the soul has the Word, it’s miles rich and lacks nothing of peace, righteousness, salvation, pleasure, and liberty. Advent’s temper leads us to a mature, clear-sighted, steadfast faith. The real meaning of Christmas lies in the aggregate of magical ceremonies and the message that God has damaged our human selfishness.
John’s Gospel adds an attitude wherein the reader is led back to Creation to look even inside the resurrection light. John constantly factors us in on Jesus and His mission. John’s existence is directed toward Jesus and the provision of His kingdom. We should permit the Cross of EVERYTHING that is blocking off God’s direction to us. To have dating with Christ is to have a relationship of openness to God and proportion to His everlasting lifestyle. The International can not recognize the mildness and darkness. However, the night of our universe has been scattered. The mild one suffered the night of death and hell in our place. The Crucifixion did now not extinguish the gentle because Jesus is Lord of Death and Lord of Life. We aren’t in darkness anymore. We have “visible the mild.” God’s phrase has created us and bound us collectively.
God’s immensity is constantly flooding us with Grace. Our religious blindness cannot power us far from God’s Grace. Our sinful nature’s fundamental result is blindness to reality, reality, the character of sin, and the necessity of a Saviour. The Saviour of humankind has been given to us. The Word is immersed in each factor of our lives-from empty troubles at work, to temptation, to amusing-time partying, to betrayal, to pleasure, to grief, to laughter, to pain. We draw Grace from God’s entire assets—an inexhaustible warehouse. From his fullness, we’ve all obtained Grace upon Grace. Grace and reality got here through Jesus Christ.
The different Gospels depict the dignity of God coming upon Jesus during the transfiguration, but John sees God’s consideration in all Jesus says and does. In John’s thoughts, the Crucifixion is the hour for Jesus to be glorified.
If we say we’ve got a fellowship with God, we partake of his divine nature. If we say we haven’t committed any sin, we misinform ourselves. If we’ve got a fellowship with God, we should be like Him and make room in our lives and hearts for others AND Jesus. Christmas may be a time for sheer pleasure. Still, it may additionally be a time of exceptional pain and sorrow, particularly for the ones who’ve misplaced a cherished one, who are in poor fitness, who have lost their job, or who’ve suffered different styles of losses. God gave us the desire within the proper story of Christmas-desire inside the baby, our redeemer, Jesus Christ. The Light of the World brings a wish to the world. God lives here within us. If God keeps his guarantees, is it because he wants to, or is it due to his nature? He won’t do something other than what He has completed via Christ and is now doing honestly because he can not do anything else.
I read a news tale the alternative day about a pass underway to make Jesus Christ the honorary king of Poland. On that first Christmas over 2,000 years ago, he got here to earth to create His earthly country and draw us into his heavenly country by spreading the Good News of the Word and salvation, especially to the bad, the hungry. The oppressed in the sector, specifically in countries that include China, Kenya, Iran, Nigeria, India, and Iraq. Even in these darkest corners of the arena, the Light shines so brightly that it pierces the innermost, darkest corners of the guy’s soul and opens his heart to the pleasure of the Christmas season.
Pope Benedict enchanted the negative, the exploited, and all folks suffering in his Christmas Day message this year. He said (quote):
The humanity of the twenty-first century seems like a sure and self-sufficient grasp of its destiny, and it is an avid proponent of uncontested triumphs, yet this is not the case. People hold to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of masses and rampant consumerism. Some humans continue to be enslaved, exploited, and stripped of their dignity; others are victims of racial and spiritual hatred, hampered using intolerance and discrimination. Others see their very own bodies and people of pricey ones, specifically their kids, maimed by using weaponry, with the aid of terrorism, and by using all kinds of violence at a time while all and sundry invokes and acclaims development. It is for this reason that Jesus Christ is reborn. He is aware of that, and even these days, we want him. Despite humanity’s many advances, the guy has always been identical: freedom poised among exact and evil, between existence and loss of Life. (End quote)
Even a small mild can dispel first-rate darkness—even a tiny candle can force darkness out of a massive room. Light and darkness are opposites, but they may not be opposites of the same energy. Light is stronger than darkness; darkness can not be successful in opposition to it…Similarly, darkness can’t conquer people who walk within the Light. To witness for Christ regularly provokes the forces of darkness to violence, and Christian witnesses frequently turn out to be martyrs—a reality as genuine nowadays in many parts of the sector as it ever becomes within the Roman global of Christ’s time. Much of the world today continues to be in rebellion. It still prefers darkness to Light because its deeds are evil. That is authentic of all and sundry at sure points in our lives.
This identical Light pierces the darkest corners of our reality of sins and disasters. This comparable Light motivates us more than guilt. No quantity of exact works can erase the guilt and stain of failure and evil from our beyond. We have the very actual Spirit of the Living God whose ministry inside the world is to show us our want for a Saviour. This identical Saviour took our hassle of sin and nailed it to the Cross. While the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, He then leads us to Christ, giving us the gift of faith that we would receive the Grace of God. Christ’s forgiveness causes us to emerge as new humans. Then, gracefully, we caulk in the latest works that replace the antique words, and word encompasses each word and deed. It is not us doing it through God. It is God dwelling His Life through us. It is Immanuel; God is with us. We are called to proclaim the righteousness of God to have a good time, the gift of existence. We make God regarded internationally through our witness to God’s love. We stand at the strength of God’s love and embrace the ones God sends us.
At this joyous Christmas time, we can not even attempt to understand the Word. All we can do is stand in awe and marvel beside the crib, seeing in and via the child “the honor of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and fact.” The mild is visible in the Child and in all who are struck with the aid of the mind that comes from the Child.
