Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, hope you have family around you, plenty to eat and maybe something fun in your stocking., (If you've been good) most of all the love of Jesus Christ in your heart. This is the season to celebrate his birth. If you believe otherwise, God bless you, I know and understand what you are saying. However, the Christmas Carols are so beautiful and powerful they bring tears to my eyes and when people celebrate they are bringing Christ to the forefront of people's minds that may not have him there otherwise. Some people will accept Christmas Carols and Christmas Stories when they will not listen to preaching. If they won't let you in otherwise this may be the way to get someone to listen.

John 8:32

I ran across this in my daily readings and found it interesting. Thought I might share it.

Printer version   John 8:32 (32) And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  King James Version     Freedom is what Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are ultimately about. God's freeing Israel from bondage in Egypt is the object lesson that we are to apply spiritually. truth and freedom go hand and hand. This is why the Christian world is in the condition it is in. The vast majority of Christians do not really mark the death of Jesus Christ in the way that God commands us to observe it. They may be very much aware of it, and it is a large part of their teaching: They understand that Christ died for our sins. But they miss its full importance, its full impact because they do not observe the Passover. Thus the lesson is missed. Truth and freedom go hand in hand, but truth will produce freedom only as it is used. That ought to be self-evident. We can know something is true, but if we fail to use it, what good is it? Its value is worthless unless it is used. Freedom and truth come to those who press on. Freedom, the kind of freedom that God is involved in bringing us into, comes progressively, not all at once. These are lessons from the Days of Unleavened Bread. It took the Israelites seven days to get to and across the Red Sea. It took them another forty years to get into their own land, into their inheritance, the Promised Land. Their freedom was progressive. There was a time when it began, but if they had never continued on the way, they would never have had their own land, never have had their inheritance, never have been free. This is a large part of the object lesson: We have to continue. If we continue, then we will truly be a disciple. We will understand the truth, and we will become free. The truth of God shows us the real values of life because it shows us what we are to give our life to. John W. Ritenbaugh