It's that time of year again. December has come and with it all the joys of Christmas. But what is the real meaning of Christmas? Is it the gifts under the tree, the lights in the windows, the cards in the mail, turkey dinners with family and friends, snow in the yard, stockings hanging in the living room, and shouts of "Merry Christmas" to those who pass us in the streets? Is this really Christmas?
For many people, Christmas is a time of sorrow. They don't have the extra money to buy presents for their children, family, and friends. Many are saddened at Christmastime when they think of their loved ones who will not be able to come home for various reasons. Turkey dinners may be only a wish and not a reality for some.
Yet, Christmas can be a season of great joy. It is a time of God showing His great love for us. It can be a time of healing and renewed strength. You see, Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of the Christ child. God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to be born. His birth brought great joy to the world. Shepherds, wise men, and angels all shared in the excitement of knowing about this great event. They knew this was no ordinary baby. The prophets had told of His coming hundreds of years before. The star stopped over Bethlehem just to mark the way for those who were looking for this special child.
Luke 2:4-19 (NIV) says:
"So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."
Why did He come? Why did God send His son to this sometimes cruel and hard world? He sent Jesus to us so that one day, He would grow up to become a very important part of history. His story (history) is one of truth, love, and hope. It brought salvation to all of us. Without Jesus, we would all die in our sins.
Jesus was born so one day the price could be paid for the things we have done that are wrong. The Bible says that all have sinned. We are all born with a sin nature. We do things that do not please God. Through the sins of Adam and Eve, we have all inherited that sin nature. We need to have that removed. The only way is through Jesus. Jesus came so He could die on the cross for ALL of our sins. If we believe that Jesus died for our sins, we can ask Him to come into our hearts and forgive us. Then, we are clean and made whole. We can know that heaven is a place where we can go to when this life is over.
"But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." 1 John 1:9 (NLT)
We can truly be happy at Christmas! No matter what may be happening, we can know that we are His children. We then become sons and daughters of God. Heaven will be our home one day.
Look at Christmas in a new way this year. This is the year to invite Jesus into your heart. You will then have a "Merry Christmas." The joy and peace you will receive will last all year as you look to God for all your needs to be met.
Jesus Is The Reason For The Season! Rejoice!
Copyright © 2007 Martha Noebel. Used by permission.
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What Child Is This? The First Gift of Christmas
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54 Comments
7 days ago
William Moore
Christmas is a strange time of the year, it can be happy or sad, depending upon your outlook. If you've got a living family or friends to get together with, all is well. For many people, they're alienated from their families through distance, or by different lifestyles or peronalities and have few or no friends to celebrate with. For me personally, I'll be alone due to no local friends but I've been doing this for years so I'm ok with it. Every New Year, i make a resolution to meet new people for friendships and hopefully a stronger connection. As an openly gay man living in San Fancisco you'd think with all the gay men here it would be easy to meet other gay men. Truth is, so many gay men here have persoanlity issues: drama, flaky attitudes, disrespect for themselves and other gay men and frankly I'm not interested in connecting with fakes, flakes, liars, losers , been there and done that.
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7 days ago
Moderator
Thank you for sharing this with us, William Moore. We pray that you have a blessed Christmas. -CBNMark
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8 days ago
TobiasPlays - Games And More
Thanks for the info. Really helped answer my question. Now I know what Christmas is all about
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11 days ago
Decky Harris
The real meaning of Christmas is all about sharing and caring. When it comes to care, you need to show it directly. This time I hired a virtual assistant from Habiliss and gifted it to my husband who is super busy with his newly started business. An assistant for himself at an affordable price would make him easy to handle things and maintain a perfect balance. I would like you guys also to try this.
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42 days ago
Raed Noor
Never would the Messiah disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels near [to Him]. And whoever disdains His worship and is arrogant - He will gather them to Himself all together.
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346 days ago
Cynthia Gilbert
Jehovah’s Witnesses, do not participate in many holiday celebrations, such as: Christmas, which is, according to McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopoedia, “ … not of divine appointment, nor is it of New Testament origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the New Testament, or, indeed, from any other source.”
An interesting side point about the Christmas holiday is that shepherds were in the fields at night at the time of Jesus’ birth. The book Daily Life in the Time of Jesus states: “The flocks . . . Passed the winter under cover; and from this alone it may be seen that the traditional date for Christmas, in the winter, is unlikely to be right since the Gospel says that the shepherds were in the fields.” (New York 1962) Henri Daniel-Rops, p. 228.
Also, note what The Encyclopedia Americana informs us: “The reason for establishing December 25 as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan* festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the ‘rebirth of the sun’ …The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture and to the renewed power of the sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan* celebration.” (1977), Vol. 6, p.666.
You may wonder, is there any objection to sharing in celebrations that may have unchristian roots as long as it is not done
for religious reasons? Ephesians 5:10,11 says, “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord; and quit sharing with
them in the unfruitful works that belong to the darkness, but rather, even be reproving them.” Also note 2 Corinthians
6:14-18, “What fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness?”
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377 days ago
Mona Octavri
“Give Thanks To Our Lord Jesus Christ “
...Give thanks in all circumstances…. for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you….
(Colossians 3:17)
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377 days ago
Mona Octavri
"We Are Grateful for God’s Love"
...Give thanks to the Lord...for he is good...his love endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34).
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378 days ago
Gary
Yes, Jesus needs to be the reason for the season praised and glorified by all Christians without all the heathen (pagan) rituals such as the Christmas Tree (Jeremiah 10:1-4), Santa Claus, Yule Log, etc. Christians need to always seek the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts but, it is still the truth. So please make sure you are celebrating Christmas for the right reason, the birth of our Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST !! Regard the day unto the LORD. (Romans 14:6)
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378 days ago
ElleniK
Thank you Martha for this devotion, Christmas the celebration of the gift of God the birth of Jesus God's only son our savior. He came to this world to pay the price of our sin. by believing in him we can have eternal life. Thank you father for the great gift and the light who light up our darkness. Isaiah 9) the people walking in darkness have seen great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Eternity. If God wouldn't send his son, if Jesus wouldn't died for our sin, we would die in our sins and we would go to hell forever the place nobody should go. Thank you Almighty God for your great love and mercy, thank you Jesus my savior who set me free from the power of darkness and sins. Bless this Christmas time for each one of us. Help us to focus on the meaning of Christmas. Light up our hearts. Also reveal your self to thiose who are in darkness they can see your great light, peace and joy the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Bless be your name forever amen.
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378 days ago
Betty Mitchell
Yes what child is this our savior Jesus Christ is bon as a baby in a manger doing the month of Dec 25-2016 Alleluia how about that you saint of the most high child of God our savior Jesus who love us so much who chosen to be bon in the world for us so we can have eternal life with him one day amen. From: sister Betty Mitchell, 12-15-2016 may our good Lord God savior Jesus blessed you and smile on you amen.
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382 days ago
? 5Kley.BeauPhineas
yo what be the meaning da christmas G
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382 days ago
? 5Kley.BeauPhineas
yo was up G
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383 days ago
Louie DImacali
thanks you for this article please allow me use some of the content of this post thank you so much
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386 days ago
Luke Henry
This is the reason for Christmas God bless you all
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387 days ago
Chloe Wright
Is Jesus real
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387 days ago
david brick
Yes Chloe, Jesus IS real! Thank God that He is real because this world, this life, can be a pretty hard and hopeless place sometimes. I know in my life that Jesus has given me purpose for now, and confidence for the future. The more I read and study the Bible, the more I am certain it is true and reliable. God bless you this Christmas season!
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381 days ago
lee
yes
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6 days ago
Clarissa
Yes Jesus is real Please join a church in your area to learn about this wonderful God that we serve,and I promise that you will never be disappointed The end time is near Cloe and Jesus is coming back soon
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392 days ago
sherri jones
I am truly thankful for the best GIFT ever. Jesus came to this world for me and so I could have a life with my Father. He came so that I would live again. I can never leave out the valuable reason for this season. Jesus is it! He's everything to me and I thank God for allowing Jesus to pay the ransom for my sins. He brought God's word to life so I'd know how to live in this dark world. He also teach me more than I knew before. I praise God for sending His only Son for me so I could also become a daughter of His. Who would have known something so tiny as a baby would grow up one day into a powerful teacher and our SAVIOUR. I understand fully about gifts brought unto Jesus and the praise but, people tend to take what happened and put gift paper and a bow on the meaning. It's not about carnal gifts, it's about spiritual gifts. The meaning has been left out of so many homes today so, all some want to think about is tradition. It's really disturbing. I hope that one day everybody wakes up and realize that if Jesus wasn't born.. We would not have life nor be reconciled back to God. Because of God allowing this beautiful baby coming here to save us.. We can be saved.
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6 days ago
Andrew Ola
God bless you, Sherri.
Merry Christmas all
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735 days ago
TreyMcNabb
Some of us are single, disabled, and hurting from unanswered prayers of longing for love. Some of us are in living situations that we did not choose unable to make changes that could benefit our health and well-being due to financial reasons or the unyielding habits of "loved ones." I am having a miserable Christmas. However, I am still thankful for the meal I will get, the presents I am giving including some portraits taken of me a few years ago that I thought I had lost, and especially for Jesus coming into this world and my life.
God bless and hope your Christmas is better than mine,
Trey
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731 days ago
Moderator
Thanks for commenting, Trey. Happy Holidays!
CBNMary
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6 days ago
Andrew Ola
Mr Moderator,
It is not 'Happy Holidays'; it is merry christmas. I thought this was a Christian blog?.
What exactly is going on?
I know you may not publish my comments, but it goes to show how far we have gone as Christian who cannot stand by their faith.
Thanks and Merry Christmas
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2 days ago
Moderator
Merry Christmas to you too, Andrew Ola. -CBNMark
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736 days ago
Benjamin Okumu
This is quite enriching spiritually and helps to shade light on the true meaning of celebrating Christmas. The point here is not the date when Jesus was born but the fact that He was born and the reason as to why He was born and that is to shade light on a dark world.
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731 days ago
Moderator
Very well put, Benjamin!
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736 days ago
Dibya Ranjan Dandia
Why Christian people worship hole night on 24 the december what is reason behind it
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735 days ago
Manish Patel
Dear I m not a Christain and don't know more about Christianity but this might be the fact the ALMIGHTY LORD is going to take birth so they are welcoming him and also praying for mother Mary for the pain she took.
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731 days ago
Moderator
Thank you for your input, Manish!
CBNMary
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732 days ago
Moderator
As Christians, we worship and praise God for sending our Savior, Jesus Christ, to the world. We love worshipping God all year round. Thanks for reaching out to us. Blessings!
CBNMary
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737 days ago
samaraweera3
where can i find Jesus was born in December 25th or December , in Bible or any
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736 days ago
Asami Takahashi
Actually there is no date in the said birth of jesus in the bible christians just believe it was december because of the brightest star
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731 days ago
Moderator
Thanks for posting, Asami!
CBNMary
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378 days ago
bettymi86375594
Hi Samara Weera Bible Luke 2 chapter 1- 33 verbs. speak about our savior Jesus birth amen.
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737 days ago
K. Mueller
This has shown me the true meaning of Christmas forever!
Sidney, age 8
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737 days ago
Moderator
Awesome! We're excited to hear this good news. Merry Christmas!
CBNMary
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737 days ago
Keisha Thomas
Thank you this told me a lot about Christmas and I read it to my baby
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741 days ago
Vincent M Cornelius II
So what exactly is Christmas? What's with Santa, the tree, the lights, the gifts, etc.?
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748 days ago
RevBirriel
It is true that everything sounds so beautiful and warm, but let us get historically educated on the true origin of what it is celebrated as Christmas. I guarantee you it will change the way you look at this celebration.
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751 days ago
Lamonsjl
Thank you for such a well written, well explained article about Christmas. It is so important for us to keep the true meaning of Jesus' birth in focus and reinforce it to all. God bless you all!
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751 days ago
Moderator
We're glad you enjoyed the article. Jesus is the reason for the season! Bless you, Lamonsjl!
CBNMary
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