It’s Christmas!

It all started 2000 years ago. A time when the Jews were under the rule of the mighty Romans. They were expecting a Savior, a Messiah, who would deliver them as their prophets had foretold long ago. God did answer their prayers! He sent His own Son, Jesus, to be born in this world! He was born not in a majestic palace like a Prince, but as a helpless babe in a manger.. He came to the earth not to free the Jews from the Romans but with a greater agenda: To deliver humanity from the clutches of sin.. He came as a light to the world which was stumbling in darkness.. As a ray of hope to this desperate world. We call that day Christmas!

Christmas is not just about gifts, cakes, music, decorations, Santa as portrayed nowadays, but it is about remembering the ultimate sacrifice that God made for His people so that we could have an eternal life. Christmas is not just a festivity, but realizing our identity that God gave us with the birth of the Christ Child this day. Christmas is not just about exchange of gifts, but pondering over our response to the Greatest Gift that God has bestowed on us this day. Its not just a season to be jolly, but remembering the reason for the season!

This Christmas season let us focus on celebrating the birth of Christ in our hearts and our homes. A Very Merry Christmas!

The Day of The Lord

It is just a parallel thought I have connecting what we see around us in Chennai over the last few days and what we are learning in the Book of Revelation in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). Starting from chapter 6, we see the enormous amount of destruction that the various angels bring about on the Earth. Wars, unrest, famines, plagues, death and a host of natural and supernatural disasters! (One interesting factor I noticed: there is no mention of destruction through rain or water. God remembers the covenant that He made with Noah, that He isn’t going to destroy the Earth with floods again! What a faithful God He is!) The amount of damage portrayed in these passages didn’t come to life to me before I realised what havoc these rains and floods have brought to Chennai.. Yet, what we see around us is nothing close to what is going to come on That Day! How scary!

Amidst such turmoil, we do hear news about people who are safe and secure, and the extra mile they go to help others in need. The world looks up to them as Guardians of Humanity. We also read in Revelation that those who are sealed by God are spared from all these destructions. Having this in mind, what is our part going to be in Guarding the Humanity? We should pray and get involved in bringing more people into the count of the “Sealed”. That would be the greatest help that we could offer to the people around us. After all, saving a soul is much nobler than saving lives.

Having said that, we don’t have much time to be still stuck in our comfort zone, judging others, fighting with our day to day sins. For we are called for a greater mission (Matthew 28:19, 20)! Let us earnestly seek God’s grace, wisdom and strength to stand up and win people for His name…