Welcome!
I'm so very glad you are here! I hope
you are enjoying this festive, holiday season. :o) This
is one of my very favorite times of the year. We
celebrate Christmas. We put up lots of bright, cheery,
twinkle lights around the windows and eve of our house, we
play joyous Christmas songs practically non-stop, we go to our community's
Christmas celebrations, we buy and wrap gifts for each
other and for others, and we bake delicious Christmas cookies to
feast upon! But, when you look past the pretty decorations, the
beautiful songs, the feasting and the festivities, what is
Christmas, anyway?
When we celebrate
Christmas, we're celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus
Christ? He is God's own Son who came here to Earth, and he started
by being born as a baby to a young, virgin woman,
named Mary. (Luke 1:26 - 38, Holy
Bible)
You may ask,
"But, why is His birth so important?" Because, when God first
created people, Adam and Eve, they sinned (Genesis 3:1 - 6, Holy Bible).
In other words, they deliberately did what God told them
not to do (Genesis 2:16 - 17). You may say, "Yeah,
yeah, they bit the apple, but so what?" Well, where God is,
in Heaven, there is only light and beauty and truth. God
is pure without sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they disobeyed
God. God hates sin; it's ugly and impure. No one
who sins can get into Heaven. "But, wait a minute;
what does this have to do with Jesus Christ?" You see,
as God's own Son, Jesus Christ is without sin. He was born
here to be a sacrifice for our sin - to take away our sin
(Romans 6:23, Holy Bible). "I don't sin." Everybody
sins (Romans 5:12) every day, and only someone without any sin
was good enough to be the sacrifice, or payment, for our
sin.
"Wait a minute,
in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, it says that to have
their sins forgiven by God, people had to kill their sacrifices,
and blood had to be spilled in order for God to forgive them
of their sins (Leviticus 6:1 - 7, Leviticus 7:1 - 2, Holy Bible).
And, they had to do this a lot more than once." Yes,
that's true, but Jesus, being the actual Son of God - being
God Himself, was/is without any sin. So, Jesus Christ was the
perfect sacrifice for our sins, so God would forgive us. So, after
He grew up, and finished teaching people about God's Love for all
of us, Jesus Christ, God's own Son, was crucified on a
cross (Matthew 27:26 - 54), as was the tradition of the rulers,
the Romans, of His day (on Earth). Huge nails, spikes, were
pounded into his wrists and His feet, as He was nailed
to the cross. He suffered unbearable pain, and separation from
His Father, for us. After three days, Jesus came alive, in
His body, and came out of the grave. Not long after,
He went back to Heaven to be with His
Father.
"What does
this have to do with me?" When you die, do you want to
go to a place of everlasting life, light, and beauty, or do
you want to go to a place of everlasting death, darkness, and punishment
(2 Peter 2:4 - 9, Holy Bible)? It's so easy to get into
Heaven! All you have to do, is to accept God's very own,
special gift to you: salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Admit to God that you've sinned; tell Him
you believe that Jesus Christ is His only Son and that you
believe that Jesus Christ was born here to a virgin, died on
the cross for all our sins, and came alive again (rose from
the grave); ask God to forgive you of all of your sins.
That's it! It's that
simple!
"Wait a minute!
I thought I had to do good deeds and go to church every Sunday
and act really holy to get into Heaven." Nope. God says,
in His Word to us - the Holy Bible, to ".....Believe in the Lord
Jesus, and you shall be saved....." -Acts
16:31
"But,
I've done some awesomely bad things - things that I can't
even tell my best friend about. God wouldn't want me."
All sin is bad in God's Eyes, whether you've lied,
cheated, stolen, murdered, raped, or committed adultery; it's ALL bad.
And, yes, God loves and wants you. None
of us can save ourselves. That's why Jesus came
to this earth and did what He did for all of
us.
"So
that's what Christmas is all about." Yep. Merry
Christmas. ;o)
All of my
Christmas pages are in my Advent Calendar. If you came here via "The First Noel" or "Joyful Journey's Christmas Inspirations" webrings, they're on my advent calendar page. :o)
Enjoy!
Please join my web ring, the
Happy
New Year! Web Ring! Want to see
my
New Year's
page?
The beautiful music you hear is "Silent Night,"
from Laura's Midi
Heaven.
This page was begun on December 5, 1998.
It was updated on September 17, 2005.
My
TSF Spirit
Page
