Have Yourself a Merry Christmas

By Benjamin H. Liles

          It's Christmas day here, going on about 9pm. So, here in a few short hours it won't be Christmas anymore. I could do a longer post tonight on Christmas, why we call it Christmas and all, but I'll save that for another time. Instead I wanted to give a sweet and lovely message of Christmas to everyone!

          As I want to keep it short and all I simply want to say Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope everyone so far this year has had a great and surprising year. Now, I know not everyone has good times. I know I don't either. My faith in God, personally speaking, overrides anything that happens in my life. I experience a lot of the same things as everyone else does: sadness, shame, regret, bitterness, anger and all.
          To me, however, Christ trumps it all. He conquered the death and the grave on my behalf; on your behalf. So I figure why be upset over spilled milk, pretty much, when He's done so much more? He came in our likeness, human flesh, giving up His crown--his right to rule--to live life as one of us. He suffered the slings and insults as we have never have. When scripture says, "He is a man of sorrows bruised for iniquity; the chastisement of our peace was upon him," it means His own people, the Jews, rejected him.
          I want you to think on this a moment. If you were without a father in your life, God wants to be your Father. If you were without a mother, God wants to be your Mother. He guides, He heals. AS He said countless times to His prophets, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you," He means it. But it means we have our part to play as well. We have to stoke the fire of faith in our hearts.
          So, tonight, think of what Christ was born into, without ever once committing a single sin, He suffered on our part so we could experience and live our lives with God, the Father. We have no need for a mediator but for Jesus. We don't need a human agent to stand in our stead with the Lord of Heaven and Earth. He came, He saw, and He conquered.
          Whatever you are facing, God loves you. Come as you are to Him. Spend your Christmas with God. Let Him heal you of any hurt, sickness, disease, anything and everything. Lay it all down with Him, as He laid down His Son, who also laid His life down for us. He loved you enough to go to the cross. We ought to do the same with our hurts, our shame, and take up a new life in Him, regardless how hard it is.
          Merry Christmas to you all! May His light and love be yours! May His heart be your heart! And may His love be your love. Sleep well tonight, where ever you are, and may His peace be yours as well. God bless you all from Texas. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.