Christmas Devotions:

CHRISTMAS Is  …… ?

  By  George Nielsen

Either Christmas is a bold-faced lie or it is ultimate truth

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.       Luke 1:34-35 (NKJV)

Christmas, for Mary, was about understanding that God’s ways are so much higher than our ways. Also, God’s ways will always reflect both His love and His holiness.    Christmas is a reminder to us – that God’s ways are always better than anything that we could ever think or imagine.

Christmas is the holiday season that the Christian Church uses to celebrate the birth of Jesus, although some believers, particularly among the Messianic Jewish community, continue the very ancient practice of celebrating Jesus’ birth at the Feast of Tabernacles, in early October.    Yes, there also is the commercialism of this season, with what secular people call “the Christmas spirit” that begins the day after Thanksgiving (or earlier) and compels us to shop, spend, and eat and, for some, to drink and party.     For the Christian, however, although the secular Christmas spirit exists, they don’t have to enter into it.   The Christian can focus on the spiritual Christmas spirit, celebrating Jesus’ birth – God with us.

Christmas is about an invasion!   Christmas (as a spiritual event) happens at the moment when heaven’s light invaded the darkness of our world!    This spiritual invasion also played out in the natural realm through the story of Mary, Joseph, her Baby conceived before they were married, the travel to Bethlehem, and the birth of Jesus.

Either Christmas is a bold-faced lie or it is the ultimate truth.    There is no middle ground.

Either Jesus, the Babe in the manger, born to the Virgin Mary, is a legend that should be placed in the same category as the legend of Santa Claus, with his elves and flying reindeer ... or it is absolute, divine and eternal Truth.

Christmas is about the Holy Spirit bringing peace and joy through this newborn child who would grow up and have a ministry of Redemption.   This is what we celebrate!  Jesus came to fulfill the promises God had made – for deliverance of mankind and of the planet earth from the authority and rule of the serpent, satan.    Furthermore, it is about the power of heaven’s reality invading one life – your own life.    Christmas commences the moment a person realizes the longing that has always existed to be overshadowed by God Almighty, and by the Power of God !

It happened for Mary – and it can happen for you!   Consider praying this prayer during this Christmas season:

“Holy Spirit — Overshadow me!  Overshadow my dreams, my preferences and opinions! Birth something new and something grand in me!   Create something powerful in me that will change this generation for the Kingdom of Christ!”  ** 

 ** Prayer is quoted from Joy! To Your World! A Countdown to Christmas, devotional, day 6.