{"id":5229,"date":"2019-12-22T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T15:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5229"},"modified":"2019-09-30T20:54:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T01:54:17","slug":"choose-to-celebrate-the-birth-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5229","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Celebrate the Birth of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Choices change lives\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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People\nkeep or observe Christmas for a few reasons. For adults, it\u2019s a time for\nfamilies to get together. For parents, it\u2019s a time to give gifts to their\nchildren. For children, it\u2019s time to get presents. For Christians, it\u2019s all of\nthese plus a time to celebrate the birth of Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The birth\nof Christ is very significant. Yet, long before His birth there was something\nwonderful \u2013 the promise of His coming and the promise of redemption for mankind\nwhich was all foretold in Scripture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm\n130:7-8 told us, \u201cO Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is\nunfailing love and with Him is full redemption. He Himself will redeem Israel\nfrom all their sins.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah\n23:4-6 said a day was coming when God would raise up a king who would reign\nwisely and do what was right. His name would be \u201cThe Lord Our Righteousness.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah\n9:6-7 told us, \u201cUnto us a child will be born, to us a Son is given, and the government\nwill be on His shoulders. He will be called: Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,\nEverlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah\n11:2-5 said the Spirit of the Lord would rest on Him, and the spirit of wisdom,\nunderstanding, counsel, power, knowledge, fear of the Lord. He would not judge\nby what He saw or heard but with righteousness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 300\nprophecies were fulfilled through the birth of Jesus, His life, His ministry, His\ndeath and resurrection. Not just the promise of Christ\u2019s coming was revealed in\nScripture, but the details of how it would take place. This miraculous event\nwas not some afterthought, but totally planned by God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would\nbe from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10\/Luke 3:3), a descendant of Abraham\n(Genesis 12:3\/Matthew 1:1), Isaac (Genesis 17:19\/Luke 3:24), Jacob (Numbers\n24:17\/Matthew 1:2), Jesse (Isaiah 11:10\/Romans 15:12), and David (Jeremiah\n23:5-6\/Matthew 1:1).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would\nbe born of a woman (Genesis 3:15\/Galatians 4:4), a virgin (Isaiah 7:11\/Luke 1:26-31),\nin Bethlehem (Micah 5:2\/Luke 2:4-7), worshipped by shepherds (Psalm 72:9\/Luke\n2:8-15), and honored by kings (Psalm 72:10,17\/Isaiah 60:3\/Matthew 2:1-11). The\nslaughter of children (Jeremiah 31:15\/Matthew 2:16-18) and flight to Egypt\n(Hosea 11:1\/Matthew 2:14-15) were foretold as well. The list goes on and on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ\u2019s\nbirth was significant! It was so significant that the world splits history, calendars,\nand timelines into two segments: BC which means before Christ and AD which\nmeans \u201cin the year of our Lord\u201d indicating after Christ was born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To show\nthe significance of Christ being born, an angel was sent by God on the night of\nHis birth to announce His arrival (Luke 2:10-11). \u201cDo not be afraid, I bring\nyou good tidings of joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you\nthis day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.\u201d Sounds like a reason\nto celebrate to me! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ is\nthe Savior for all, so I don\u2019t worry too much about those who keep Christmas\nwithout focusing on Christ. They may not even know Christ yet. However, they\nare actually celebrating a holiday about Christ\u2019s birth. They may\ntry to say that\u2019s not what they are celebrating, but how can they get around\nit? Christmas literally means Christ\u2019s Mass. So, ironically, whether people\nwant it to or not, it commemorates and celebrates Christ\u2019s birth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider\nthis\u2026<\/strong> The true gift of Christmas won\u2019t be found under a tree, but in the\npresence of Jesus in our lives. That\u2019s why, as we celebrate, we thank God for\nthis indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15). This gift of Christ was sent not to\ncondemn us, but to redeem us (John 3:17). His name is Emmanuel which means God\nwith us. We never have to be afraid or feel alone again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One final thought\u2026<\/strong> Christ is our good tidings of joy, sent for all people \u2013 from the poorest shepherd to the richest Magi! To me, that\u2019s something to celebrate! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Choices change lives\u2026 By Barbara Dahlgren People keep or observe Christmas for a few reasons. For adults, it\u2019s a time for families to get together. For parents, it\u2019s a time to give gifts to their children. For children, it\u2019s time … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}