We send out fun emails and fill up your in-boxes throughout the year with
smiles and laughs (or groans). Each weekend the topic is more pointed. And
on Christmas Day, what would you expect? More laughs?
‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY . . . but not everyone is jolly this time of the
year.
The holiday season, with its busy schedule of activities, can become
emotionally demanding and stressful. Some people during this season of the
year even suffer from bouts of discouragement and depression. Whether the
‘holiday blues’ are a problem for you or not, I wonder if you would take a
moment to consider God’s message of “good tidings of great joy which shall
be to all people.”
When you and I were born, we came into this world with nothing, except for
the natural abilities, tendencies, and character traits that God gave us
through our parents. But spiritually speaking, you and I came into this
world (like all the rest of mankind) with an infinite hole in our souls – a
spiritual hole that craves to be filled. Each of us has attempted to fill
this void with the things we see around us, and some of us have discovered
the absolute futility of such an effort.
During the holiday season, many people try to escape the harsh reality of
their own spiritual emptiness through an assortment of ‘artificial fillers’.
So they ‘deck the halls with boughs of holly’ and ‘don their gay apparel’
and try to create for themselves illusions of happiness. But these illusions
can never satisfy the emptiness of our souls. True joy and meaning in life
cannot be found at a shopping mall, at a Christmas party, or under the
mistletoe. The so-called ‘holiday spirit’ will never compensate for
spiritual bankruptcy!
Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the prophet Isaiah
foretold His coming with these words; “For unto us a Child is born, unto us
a Son is given… and His name shall be called the wonderful Counselor, the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
The supernatural, virgin birth of the Christ child changed the course of
human history like no other event. Jesus Christ was holy God in human flesh.
Amazing indeed, was the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ!
Perhaps you are wondering how it is possible for God to become a man. True
faith believes the biblical testimony that nothing is too hard for God, and
that with God all things are possible God’s works and ways are far greater
than our loftiest dreams and imaginations. Most amazing of all is the reason
why God became a man. The Bible teaches that Christ became a man so that He
might suffer the sorrows, pains, and the penalty of death that our sins
deserved.
It is important for you to know that Jesus Christ, as the “Wonderful
Counselor,” is intimately familiar with your past and present circumstances.
He knows what you have gone through, and what you are going through now. He
knows your struggles, your heartaches, your needs… and He knows your
emptiness. The Lord Jesus Christ is also “the mighty God,” who has all
authority and power to save “His people from their sins.” The biblical
truth, is that there is no problem too difficult for the Savior to handle,
and no sins too numerous or so horrible that He cannot forgive.
Real fulfillment in life cannot be found in either the pursuit of pleasure
or the possession of things. Satisfaction in this life can only be
experienced by those who have come to God with their sins and their
emptiness, and by faith, have received Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is
the reason that Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead, that He might save
us from our own ways and rule as “the Prince of Peace” in our hearts. His
sufferings and death on the cross nearly two thousand years ago, is the only
means by which sinners like you and I can ever find true acceptance with
God.
There may not be, ‘Joy to the World’ or ‘Peace on Earth’ today, but there is
fullness of joy and real peace in the hearts of all who turn from their sins
unto the Savior. Heaven and earth cannot contain the infinite Creator, yet
He desires to fill the empty human soul.
My dear friend, do you long to know the fullness of God? Then turn from sin
in repentance, put your faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ and He will save and
satisfy your soul. Then you too will know the fullness and the joy of being
right with God!
1 John 1:4 … “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”