[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Sunday, December 15 2013 and a Listening Suggestion

[Paul]

Hello and good day to all my readers out there in cyberspace.  Sorry to be late, but as the old saying goes, "Better late than never." I hope that you all are doing well, no matter the time of day it is in your local area.

Dr. Ralph Montanus (1919-1986) was the founder in 1947 of the Gospel Association For the Blind and editor of its official publication, "The Gospel Messenger." From the archives of this magazine we present his article simply entitled "Christmas," rendered as follows:

While the subject of Christmas may be controversial due to the fact that it is so highly commercialized, and to a very large extent even paganized, nevertheless this season of the year affords to every Christian a very wonderful opportunity to speak to others about the Christ who left heaven and came into this world to seek and to save poor, lost sinners.

I am fully aware that the term Christmas," indicates a Roman tradition because, to evangelical Christians, the "Mass" is completely foreign to Scripture.  Yet, in spite of this, we are all aware of the fact that one day Christ left Heaven with its riches and came down to this sin-cursed world through the miraculous virgin birth.

It was Christ's advent into the world that changed the course of human history.  When we endeavor to fathom out the mysteries involved in the virgin birth, it becomes too much for our mortal minds to comprehend.  Just think of it! The Great Creator came wrapped up in human form.

The Word of God definitely declares that, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).  In the 14th verse of the same chapter, we are told that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Indeed, the Bible declares in I Timothy 3:16, "Great is the mystery of godliness:  God was manifest in the flesh."

When God was unable to reveal His love and forgiveness to the creatures whom He created due to their inability to comprehend Him, He identified Himself with them by becoming like the human beings whom He created.  We could never know and understand God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Lord Jesus is the perfect revelation of God.  That is why He said to Philip when Philip asked to see the Father, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).  In other words, when you see Jesus, you see God.

Friend, what does Christmas mean to you? Is it a pagan holiday, a time of feasting and reveling and a day to exchange gifts? Or does it speak to your heart of the event known as the Incarnation of God into the world in the person of Jesus Christ? Perhaps as at no other time (except Easter) will the claims of Christ be more vividly presented to the world than right now during this Christmas season.  Therefore, my dear reader, do you know Him as the Christ of tradition, a Being completely foreign to the day that is supposed to be set aside in order to commemorate His birth, or do you know Him as your personal Lord and Savior?

We are told that, in many parts of the earth, the festivities of Christmas are carried on with absolutely no thought of the person whose name the day bears.  Oh, may God help us to make Christ known to others by word and deed this Christmas season! I do want each and every one of you reading these lines to have a joyous, happy, blessed Christmas with the full assurance of the knowledge of His salvation.

Remember, the priceless gift of eternal life is offered to men everywhere in the Person and through the work of Jesus Christ, the great Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23).

And there you have today's article which, although more than 27 years old, hopefully was a blessing to you.

This week on the radio program "Moody Presents," the host, the president of the Moody Bible Institute, had a very interesting sermon, Part one of two, concerning physical as well as spiritual blindness, based of course on the well-known passage in John 9.  If you haven't heard it or it isn't aired on your local Christian radio station in your area, go to http://www.moodypresents.org.  I hope that this also is a blessing.  Don't know if the site is accessible or not, but try and find out.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought article for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul