Inspirational Views

By Otniel Tamindael

Christmas is not just a date on the calendar. It is the day to celebrate an event that triggered joyous singing in heaven, an event that gave the stars in the night sky a new brilliance.

As we come to Christmas this year, we again read the words the Prophet Isaiah spoke 800 years before the birth of Christ: “The people that walked in the darkness have seen a great light….. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

“In that passage the prophet had his first glimpse of Christmas,” Pastor Richard Lolowang said in his Christmas message in Bekasi on Wednesday night.

He said it was the promise of the coming of Christ and the light that was to dawn on the world, and that it heralded the entry of God into human history – it is heaven descending to earth.

It is as though a trumpeter had taken his stand upon the turrets of time and announced to a despairing, hopeless, and frustrated world the coming of the Prince of Peace.

That child was given a name – a name that blossoms on the pages of history like the flowers of a thousand springtimes; a name that echoes down the corridors of time like the music of a thousand choirs in one grand anthem; a name that is greater, grander, more glorious and more meaningful than all the names of the world put together.

And we can sing together with the choruses of old: “All hail the power of Jesus’ name/Let angels prostrate fall/Bring forth the royal diadem/And crown Him Lord of all.”

Yet Christmas means different things to different people. To merchants and traders at market places, Christmas is merely a means to make more money.

They compete with each other in their preparation for the celebration of the occasion. Some of them do not believe in Christ, they may even hate Him. But Christmas has become big business for them.

According to the Reverend Billy Graham, people are more concerned about their profit from Christmas than about the Prophet from Bethlehem. The clinking sound of money is sweeter to some than the announcement of Jesus` birth by the angels to the shepherds.

“Some try to find a merry Christmas in what they call entertainment and fun. Instead of imbibing the spirit of Christmas, they choose to imbibe spirits at Christmas. For many people the holiday is an opportunity to celebrate in the wrong way,” the 91-year old noted American preacher said.

We cannot have a merry Christmas or a happy new year when we have become slaves to the passions and vices that hound us.

These things – materialism, money, artificial pleasure – are crowding Christ out of Christmas for multitudes. They are so busy with a thousand and one other things that they have no time to consider the message of the Baby of Bethlehem.

At this Christmas season, despite the affluent society that surrounds us, there are many who find life a burden. Purpose and zest have fled, hearths ache with emptiness and even the joys of this happy season leave many of us lonely and wistful.

In its real sense of the word, Christmas means the Lord Jesus Christ stands at to door of our heart and knocks, saying: “If you will open the door, I will come in to you and sup with you, and you with me.” In other words, Jesus wants to have Christmas with us.

Christmas means that “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Christmas means that Immanuel has come – that “the people in the darkness have seen a great light” and that he walks with us through the shadows.

It means that our sordid, failure-fraught past can be wiped out by his sacrifice on the cross and that we can become members of God`s family, heirs of God and citizen of heaven.

Christmas means that he comes into the night of our suffering and sorrow, saying: “I am with you. Let me share your burdens.”

The Good News is that at last the Savior had come to save men and women for sin: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”.

Christ was the central theme of that first Christmas. The star, the song, the gifts, the kneeling, the joy, the hope, the excitement -all were because of Him.

Graham said God`s star promised peace to the world if we will believe and trust Him. But having rejected Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, we have no peace in the world. Too often our synthetic stars bring only fear, anxiety and war.

He admitted to have talked with many leaders, and one thing that most of them have in common was pessimism, and the tensions, conflicts and seemingly insoluble problems of this world tend to make them cynical and doubtful.

Graham said that when people willfully reject the Prince of Peace, they pay a terrible price.

“A secular and materialistic society that has rejected the Prince of Peace yields to pessimism and despair. The blighting cynicism that has come as a result of our rejection of God is reflected in our literature, our art, our films, our television programs and even our pulpits,” he said.

But at this Christmas season, in spite of all the pessimism andcynicism, in spite of all the headlines about murders, assassinations, riots, demonstrations and war, Jesus Christ is alive to conquer despair, to impart hope, to forgive sins and to take away our loneliness. He is alive to reconcile us to God.

(Courtesy of PNA/Antara)

 

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