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Christmas: Heaven's Open Door
"The virgin will be with child... she will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21 & 23 -NIV)
The virgin birth of Jesus on Christmas day was a true miracle, beyond doubt. And, thankfully, the miracle didn't end that day. It would continue throughout His entire life of over 30 years. His journey would be far from easy, fraught with adversity, the 'righteous' and the unrighteous, the sinner and the 'saint' persecuting him. Yet each moment of each day of Jesus' life on this earth proved to be in itself... a sinless miracle.
"And He [that same Jesus Himself] is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world." (1 John 2: 2 -AMP)
The Son of God would become, 'The Lamb of God', sent to fulfill... the will of God, and His strategic purpose for Christmas, to be born as one of us, live, walk and minister among us, and though innocent from any wrong doing, be tried, condemned, brutalized, crucified, and willingly die for the sins of the world, yours and mine included.
"Jesus said... 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.' " (John 11:25-26 -NKJV)
Death would have no power over Him for He would be miraculously resurrected, the victorious conqueror of sin, and death, inevitably dealing the devil and Hell their fatal demise.
"Then death and Hades (Hell) were thrown into the lake of fire... " (Rev 20:14 -NIV)
Because of that Christmas Child, and the life that followed, God now extends to all who will simply 'believe' the greatest Christmas gift ever given, a loving invitation... to receive not only forgiveness of sin and salvation, but, amazingly, adoption into His family... and, a 'mansion' home in Heaven-where we who have received His love will live with Him forever!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3: 16 -NIV)
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"If ever human love was tender, and self-sacrificing, and devoted; if ever it could bear and forebear; if ever it could suffer gladly for its loved ones; if ever it was willing to pour itself out in lavish abandonment for the comfort or pleasure of its objects; then infinitely more is Divine love tender, and self-sacrificing, and devoted, and glad to bear and forbear, and to suffer, and to lavish its best gifts and blessings upon objects of its love. Put together all the tenderest love you know of, the deepest you have ever felt, and the strongest that has ever been poured out upon you, and heap upon it all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world, and then multiply it by infinity, and you will begin, perhaps, to have some faint glimpse of what the love of God is." -H. W. Smith
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"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10: 9-10 -NKJV)
God has lovingly provided for everyone who will simply believe in the true purpose of Christmas and what Jesus did for us on His journey, a 'door' through which we may enter to live forever and ever in heaven someday. If you haven't done so already, why not join those of us who have. There's really no better time to do so than this Christmas season! The doors open... Come on in! Luke 1:37!
"See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut... " (Rev 3:8 -NIV) |
