Thoughts to ponder this season

Greetings my friends and readers:

Let me pause just a bit for a reflection more than anything else.  Right now we are in the midst of the holiday season, leading to the climax of the celebration of the birth Jesus on the day traditionally set many centuries ago.  So let’s reflect on a few thoughts.

Sadly enough this is the season many who do not like the Christian faith love to trot out the pagan side of Christians, that the date and many of its customs were adopted from the pagans that surrounded the early church as it went from being a persecuted minority to the Roman empires state church.  I won’t dispute that nor defend the celebration.  Really, from the fourth century on the new “Universal,” or “Catholic” church adopted so much from the pagan world that the Apostles and early Christian wouldn’t recognize it as Christian if they were set right down in the middle of it today.  But that’s not the point.

The holiday was meant to focus people’s attention on our savior under the guise of celebrating his birth, which was no insignificant event because of what it led to.  Whatever day he was born Jesus came to this earth for a purpose, to make it possible for all of us, every one of us both the living and the dead to have the chance Adam took away from us to enjoy eternal life when he took the very first bite of the fruit from the forbidden tree (1 Tim. 2:3-6).

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1Cor. 15:22)

More than two thousand years after the event many of the devout are so focused on for all the wrong reasons this perfect man, miraculously conceived in a virgin for the purpose of standing in Adam’s stead gave up that life as a sacrifice to redeem us all and give us that chance for eternal life that Adam gave away.  What is more, he also purchased for some the unfathomable opportunity to be a nation of rulers and priests (Rev. 20: 4-6) who partake of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).  And as if that weren’t enough, by making that sacrifice he answered forever the charge Satan made to Eve that God acts out of improperly selfish motives for all of eternity (Gen. 3:4,5).  Yes, it is the end not the beginning which is really significant and on which we should focus our minds.

So as we go about our lives during this season, whether we celebrate the day or not, let’s ponder the real significances of the event being celebrated, the event which was just the start of the path to the best gift of all the inestimably precious gift of eternal life which will be laid out before all at its due time.