Who Is He, This Jesus?

As the year runs to a close, we are presently just a week away from the 25th of December. This is the day when most Christians the world over celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the originator of their faith. As Reinhard Bonnke said, those who complain that the 25th of December is originally the date of a pagan festival miss the point. The birth of Jesus can be celebrated on any day and if we decide to celebrate his birth on the 25th which is a pagan festival, it doesn't matter as long as we know what and who we are celebrating. So my question to you is, do you know whose birth you are celebrating?

Let me help you a little here. Even though we commemorate the birth of God in the form of a child, he is no longer a child. He is the Lion of the tribe of the tribe of Judah. Referencing the uproar that accompanied Fox anchor Megyn Kelly saying Jesus was white, might I point out to you that he is not some tribal or ethnic warlord. He is the King of Israel and indeed the whole earth. He is the Prince of Peace who told us he has left us peace in this turbulent, ever changing world. He is not some ordinary man who said nice things that sounded good. He is the Word of God. He is the Truth. He is not one of the ways that lead to God. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is not a person who would see another hurt or in pain and not do anything. He is the Healer and the Comforter. He is not some man who gave his opinion about how we were to live our lives. He is the Righteous Judge. He is not some man whose words change with any change in Western culture or whose opinion changes with the changes in other men's opinion. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. In fact, he doesn't change. He is constant, unfailing. His love is forevermore. His love for us does not depend on our love for him. He loved us even before we were men. In this sad and dreary world, he is our Joy. He is not some man whose words we take with a pinch of salt. He cannot lie, will not lie. His promises are Yes and Amen.

I could go on and on about the person whose birth we will celebrate in a week's time. But I could go on and on and still not be able to fully exhaust or describe all His attributes or do Him justice. But as we prepare for Christmas, I would like us to remember that the essence of Christmas is not about eating, drinking, shopping or giving gifts but about a God who loved us so much that he didn't want us to continue to wallow in sin. He looked for messengers to send to us but none was worthy or capable. So he came Himself and took on the form of man and was born as a baby. He gave us the best gift anyone could give. He lived amongst us for thirty three and a half years, telling us about the Kingdom of God and giving us an example to follow. When he was going, he told us he would come back for us one day.  All he asks is that we have faith in Him and trust Him. Will we all do that?

The Government

God is awesome.

I was recently thinking about how great God is. And how caring he is. In spite of how great and awesome he is, he still cares about the small details of our lives. Here is God, he creates this great world, he creates birds, cattle, the waters, plants, everything. And then he puts us, the zenith of creation into an already created world. We don’t have to worry about anything because everything we need is already provided for.

Even after the fall of Adam and his presence has gone far away, he still looks for a way to get close to us. He looks for a way to get us to look to him for all we need. He couldn’t find anyone capable enough to send to point us back to him. So he came himself in the form of a man. He came and instituted a government where he set himself up as king and based on his work on the cross, we became his heirs to the vast riches of his kingdom. Even though our old enemy has set up a parallel kingdom that sets out to deceive us parading as the truth, causing us grief and pain, the king assures us that if we trust in him and hold on to him to the end, we win. He assures us that there is nothing we can do or so that could make him love us more or less. He tells us that we don’t have to work to earn salvation. In fact, we can’t earn it. We can never deserve it but he has freely given it to us as a gift. He tells us that we shouldn’t work to be saved but we work because we are saved. He then tells us to get moving and go out into the world and bring other people into this kingdom.

Isn’t he awesome? 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal