How familiar do the following advertising slogans sound to you?

“Love yourself this Christmas” , “Where the heart of Christmas is”,  or what about “The Magic of Christmas”

If you were to pop into any shopping centre today the first thing you would notice is the large Christmas tree in the centre court, followed closely behind with children’s activities focused on Santa Clause and all the goodies he has to bring.

But you will be hard-pressed to find any kind of real reference to  Jesus and what truly should  be remembered on Christmas day.  Sure you might find references to Him, or about Him, but it will be purely commercially motivated. I am amazed at how easily stores have the ability to somehow take Santa, Reindeers and the nativity story and just roll it all into one, as if Santa was right there with Jesus when he was born!

If you had no clue about what was really going on, you could easily assume that Jesus was actually delivered to Mary by Santa himself!

To so many of us, Christmas is a story about peace, traditions, family, and good feelings . It is about making wrongs right, and giving leftover food to the poor.

But how wrong we are.

Romans 3:10-11 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” But there is hope, because as 1 Timothy 1:15 informs us, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, which means that Christmas is not about gifts and shopping specials and all that is worthy of spending money on, but rather that it is a date set apart to remember the day God stepped into our world to rescue us from our own sinful ways and give us eternal life if we believe in Him.

Jesus himself reinforced this for us when He said “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.“

It is this Jesus that we should remember and share with those around us as we celebrate Christmas this year. For on Christmas day a King entered this world.

A king who the bible says is the King of Righteousness and the King of Glory.

He is the king of Ages, the King of Heaven, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords...

He is the greatest phenomenon that has ever graced our planet! He is God’s son and the sinners Saviour. He is the center piece of civilization and the miracle of the Ages; most importantly, He is the only one qualified to be the all sufficient Saviour!

It is this King who we should celebrate on Christmas day.

This same King has died on the cross for you, so that you may receive the greatest gift of all, the gift of eternal life.

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