12/17/2013
Christmas as defined in the dictionary is, "the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on December 25 in the Western Church." Although the official date of Jesus' birth is a highly debated topic, most Christians today still celebrate His birth on Dec. 25. A date that originated as a pagan holiday. The roots of which many of our culture's Christmas traditions such as putting up and
decorating Christmas trees originated.
With all of the secularism around this holiday with Santa Claus, elves, trees, ornaments, etc. I wanted to put together a little booklet that describes the true meaning of Christmas for Christians celebrating the Savior's birth as told in Luke 2 in the Bible.
This booklet has coloring pages for children to go along with the story from Luke 2 with words directly quoted from the Bible. I also added a little of Matthew's account of Jesus' birth from Matt. 2:1-2, 9-11 to include the Magi's visit. The birth of Jesus is important to Christians because we believe that Jesus is God the Son and that He came into this world and lived a perfect life (which none of us are able to do) and then died on the cross taking our sins upon Himself to pay the price for our sins. In turn He made a way for us to have eternal life by believing in Him for our salvation. John 14:6 says, "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Sometimes people say to me, "Well, I'm a good person so if God is good He will let me into Heaven" yet they do not believe Jesus is the only way. I ask them if they have ever told a lie before. Have they ever taken something that didn't belong to them? God's standard of living according to the 10 commandments says we should not lie or steal. I don't know anyone who hasn't told a lie just once in their life. Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." This to me means we are all in need of a Savior. If God is a good judge won't He forgive us and let us in? Think about it this way, if you steal a car and have to face a "good" judge is he going to just let you go without a fine or jail time because you are sorry? Probably not! Now what if that judge says you can go free if you pay a $100,000 fine? Great, but you don't have $100,000! Well, what if someone walks into the courthouse and says, "I want to pay this man's fine" and he writes a check for $100,000 and hands it to the judge? Are you free to go now? Yes! This is what I believe Jesus has done for us. He paid the penalty for our sins by living a perfect life and dying in our place so that now we can have eternal life if we put our faith in Jesus and repent (turn from) our sins. Isn't that exciting! This is why we celebrate Jesus' birth. I hope you all
have a wonderful Christmas!
