Christmas is a word on people’s lips from as early as the start of the 4th term of the year. It is a time for generous gift giving, family gatherings, scrumptious feasts and all sorts of indulgences.
And after all that preparation, it’s over in a day.
How was your Christmas??? For some, it’s a day filled with joy and laughter, for others it’s a matter of stained family formalities and for still for others it is a time fraught with loneliness and heartache.
But the truth is, whatever it is for each of us, it remains to be a wonderful celebration. One which has been observed for over 2000 years.
A tangible and outward display of God persistent pursuit of us.
The Christ Story is the greatest Christmas story of all
The Christmas story is miraculous and gracious and humbling and awe-inspiring.
In fact, no modern day, happy Christmassy story can come anywhere close to THE Christmas story Miraculous: An innocent virgin supernaturally conceives
Gracious: The good news is brought individually to the couple by two majestic angels
Humbling: The baby boy is born in a stable and laid to sleep in a manger
Awe-Inspiring: Kings and shepherds come from far and wide, following a ‘mystical’ star which led them directly to Gods precious son.
Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the new born King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim
‘Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark the Herald angels sing
“Glory to the new born King!”
Christ by highest heaven adored
Christ the everlasting Lord
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
And God, consistent with His character continues to pursue us today! An ordinary man, whose name we will all recognize, had his own very real and tangible experience of God’s determined pursuit.
The man is CS Lewis. A brilliant man, a professor of English Literature at Oxford University and a boldly professed atheist.
He was brought up with an insipid Christian faith and as he matured, his hunger for knowledge propelled him down the path of rationalist and idealist atheism. This was the belief by which he chose to live and breathe.
However, God continued to unrelentingly pursue him until finally he experienced Gods compelling embrace and his awe-inspiring beauty and joy. CS Lewis actually describes God a lion who goes in search of man, hunts him down and embraces him.
His moment of conversion was beautifully simple – He reflects on sitting alone in his
room, diligently focusing on his work, yet every time his mind lifted for just a moment, he could sense the unrelenting approach of God who so earnestly desired to meet with him. And so his greatest fear had come to pass and finally he gave in to the pursuit and admitted that God is God.
There and then, he knelt and prayed. And his life was changed forever.
A Believer is someone who believes in God
A Christian is someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God. That he died on the cross and rose again so that we may be forgiven and live in a real relationship with God.
An Agnostic is someone who neither believes or disbelieves in the existence of God
And an Atheist disbelieves in God.
You are either one thing or the other.
CS Lewis went from the very worst position, in terms of believing, to an out and out Christian, because God showed up and invaded his life. God pursued him through His love and finally Lewis responded.
This encounter gave him an awesome understanding of Gods ‘God-ness’ and mans ‘man-ness’. Yet still, his brilliant mind was forever seeking to better understand, to better know and to better tell about Gods love and forgiveness.
In 1952, he wrote his highly acclaimed book, ‘Mere Christianity’ which was still voted one the most influential books amongst evangelicals in 2006. This is an excellent read for those who would like to solidify their understanding of Christianity in terms of God’s love and continual pursuit for our souls …. even to the extent of sending his son into the world to redeem man to himself.
Such a perfect and powerful love that is found no-where else on earth.
