IT IS OK TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR
Matthew 1:18-25 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying 23 Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”
it is that time of year again. All over America, children are coming home from school and telling their parents that they were told that they could no longer say Merry Christmas to their teachers and classmates.
96% of all Americans celebrate Christmas. Yet, because of political correctness, the words Merry Christmas have become increasingly absent from our Christmas season traditions.
DON’T LET THE GRINCH STEAL CHRISTMAS
Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, recently announced that Liberty Counsel has launched its second, annual nationwide campaign to prevent blatant religious discrimination during the holidays. Liberty Counsel will bring lawsuits against any governmental agency that discriminates against the public displays of religious symbols or songs and has also announced that it will defend any governmental entity which abides by the Constitution and allows the equal expression of religious views.
Staver noted that publicly sponsored nativity scenes on public property are constitutional so long as there is a secular symbol of the holiday as part of the display. In other words, the government may publicly display Mary, Joseph and Jesus so long as part of the display includes a secular symbol of the holiday, such as Santa Claus. Students in public schools may sing Christian Christmas carols, such as "Silent Night, Holy Night", so long as they also sing secular songs, like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Staver noted, "We are resolved to stop the Grinch from stealing Christmas. Liberty Counsel will be a friend to those who try to exercise their constitutional liberties and a foe to those who attempt to oppress said liberties. This nation was founded by people who sought to freely exercise their religious liberties. We have no intention of letting these liberties fall by the wayside or be chilled every holiday season by uninformed or hostile government officials."
LIBERTY COUNSEL WILL REPRESENT YOU WITHOUT CHARGE.
You may contact Mat Staver at: mat@lc.org. The Liberty Counsel website is:
www.lc.org <http://www.lc.org/> .
REMEMBER “THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET”?
Macy’s Department Stores have removed all politically incorrect signs like “Merry Christmas” and replaced them with bland, non-religious, salutations like “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”.
As a result, major boycotts have begun. In a December 1 WorldNetDaily article, and I quote,
“Immortalized in a 1947 Christmas movie classic, ‘The Miracle on 34th Street’, Macy's is now the focus of a boycott campaign protesting the department-store chain's replacement of "Merry Christmas" with politically correct greetings.
A group called the Committee to Save Merry Christmas <http://www.savemerrychristmas.org/index.html> says Macy's and its umbrella Federated Department Stores have ignored several requests that "Merry Christmas" signs be returned and that its advertising acknowledge the time-honored phrase.
"It's the height of hypocrisy for a corporation to make tens of millions of dollars selling Christmas presents, yet coldly refuse to acknowledge Christmas," said the group's chairman, Manuel Zamorano, in a statement. "What's the holiday all about, anyway? Politically correct phases like 'Seasons Greetings' and 'Happy Holidays' are no substitute for the real thing."
NO CHRISTMAS MUSIC AT YOUR SCHOOL?
This annual blasphemous attack on Christmas went to another level last week at the Maplewood, N.J. Columbia High School when the brass ensemble asked if they would be allowed to play instrumental — not vocal — renditions of Christmas carols.
Based on a memo issued by the school's musical director, the 40-member brass band must confine its playlist at its winter concerts in December to such nonsectarian numbers as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland."
FLORIDA TOWN ATTACKS CHRISTMAS.
Over the past several years during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the Town of Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, has properly adorned the lampposts lining its main street with Jewish religious symbols of Menorahs and Stars of David and has allowed a Jewish synagogue to display its fourteen-foot Menorah in the most prominent public location at the entrance of Town. Yet every request by Sandra Snowden, a Christian resident, to display Nativity scenes purchased with her own money in a similar manner during the Christmas season, has been denied by Town officials. As a result the Thomas More Law Center has filed a federal lawsuit against the Town and its officials for their refusal to allow a Nativity to be displayed, while at the same time allowing the display of Jewish religious symbols in prominent locations throughout the Town. The lawsuit was filed Thursday after Snowden was denied permission for the second consecutive year to display a Christian Nativity.
A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO THE ACLU AND AU.
President Thomas Jefferson, author of the phrase "Separation of church and state," asked Congress to ratify a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians, which they did on December 3, 1803. It stated:
"And whereas the greater part of the said tribe have been baptized and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually, for seven years, one hundred dollars toward the support of a priest of that religion, who will engage to perform for said tribe the duties of his office, and also to instruct as many of their children as possible, in the rudiments of literature."
The treaty, signed by Jefferson, concluded: "The United States will further give the sum of three hundred dollars to assist the said tribe in the erection of a church."
WHO IS THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS?
1. He had a supernatural entrance into the world.
We know from the Old Testament that many details of His coming were predicted hundreds of years before His birth. The prophet Isaiah predicted He would be born of a virgin, and another prophet named Micah identified His birthplace as Bethlehem. The great creeds of the church use this sentence to describe His birth: "Conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." Although we often speak of the "virgin birth," the real miracle took place nine months before Bethlehem when the Holy Spirit over-shadowed Mary and created within her womb the divine-human person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that He was born of a virgin means He had an earthly mother but no earthly father. No one else has ever been born in this manner.
2. He was God in human flesh.
Christians use the word Incarnation to describe this truth. It means that when Christ was conceived in Mary, God the Son took on human flesh. Though He was God, He added humanity without subtracting from His deity. He was not half-God and half-man but fully God and fully man, two natures united in one person. He was fully human in every respect, yet without sin.
3. He is the standard of absolute righteousness.
When Jesus Christ walked on the earth, He was perfectly righteous. This speaks to two sides of His character. On the negative side, He never sinned in thought, word, or deed. He is the only "Perfect 10" who ever lived. On the positive side, this means He perfectly fulfilled God's Law. He lived a life of perfect holiness, perfect purity, perfect kindness, perfect truth, and perfect goodness. Just as the first Adam sinned and all humanity fell with him, even so Christ came as the "last Adam" who through His obedience to God won salvation for all those who follow Him. He succeeded where we failed, and He obeyed where we rebelled. By His perfect life, He fulfilled everything that God required of us.
4. He did things only God can do.
He made amazing claims and then backed them up with amazing deeds. He repeatedly claimed equality with God. He said that He was one with the Father and that to see Him was to see the Father. He spoke with divine authority: I am the living water, I am the light of the world; I am the way, the truth, and the life. He even claimed the ability to raise Himself from the dead. People who are only vaguely familiar with Jesus tend to underestimate this part of His teaching. As C.S. Lewis remarked, a person who talked like Jesus talked, if He wasn't who He said He was, wouldn't be a good teacher. You can't have Jesus without dealing with His claims of deity.
5. He died as a sacrifice for our sins.
The story of His earthly life ends this way. Though innocent of all wrongdoing, He was crucified as a common criminal. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, three times declared, "I find no fault in him." The Bible says he died as the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, the good for the bad. He died as our substitute, standing in our place, taking our punishment, bearing our sins in His own body. With His own blood He paid the full price for our disobedience. In so doing He completely satisfied God's righteous demands and enabled God to be merciful to sinners who come to Him in Jesus' name. Through His death we are set free from the penalty of sin forever.
6. He proved His claims by rising from the dead.
Early on the first Easter Sunday morning, when Mary and the other women came to the tomb, they planned to anoint His dead body. But instead they found the soldiers unconscious on the ground, the seal broken, the stone rolled away, and angels guarding the entrance. The angels announced that Jesus had risen from the dead. The women were confused and frightened and reported to the men that the tomb was empty. Later that day, and many times over the next forty days, Jesus appeared in bodily form to His disciples as well as to over five hundred other people. Then He ascended into heaven where He now sits at the Father's right hand.
The resurrection of Jesus is vitally important because it proves that He really is the Son of God and that everything He said is true. No one else has ever come back from the dead never to die again. This means that in the most profound sense Jesus Christ is alive today. And that's why you can know Him personally. Because He is alive, He gives eternal life to those who trust in Him. And because He conquered death, those who trust in Him need not fear death, for they have assurance that they will go to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus when they die.
7. He will one day return to the earth.
With this final fact, we move from the distant past to the not-so-distant future. There is yet one more event in the "career" of Jesus Christ. One day He will return to the earth. He promised to return-"I will come again" -and He will keep that promise.
sermons.trbc.org/20041205.html