Dear readers,
I wish you a blessed Advent season. I have selected a statement from the Apostle Paul which I would like to share with you during this Advent season:
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. (Paul’s letter to Titus, 2, 11)
I know people who don't like the time before Christmas at all! Because Advent and the Christmas season for them simply means stress. The well-known Christmas rush: Buying gifts for the family, for relatives and friends. Because what would Christmas mean without presents? But for some people it is a time to worry. Do I have to work through another long wish list? And then being confronted with disappointed faces when I haven't bought the right gift, or perhaps not enough?
The reason why we give each other presents means love for others. We give a gift because we love the other person. We give a gift to make the other person happy. That is the real meaning! We want to present joy to another person whom we love.
Christmas however should be joy and not stress. Because God gives us humans great joy! When Christ was born, an angel said (Gospel of Luke chap. 2) "I bring you good news which will be great joy for all people."! Great joy! It was not God's plan to cause us stress at Christmas, on the contrary! We are to rejoice in the birth of the Messiah (Luke 2:11): "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
The birth of the Messiah Jesus represents God's grace for all human beings! God delights us with his grace. The Greek word for grace is "charis". And the word "charis" means kindness, benefit. Grace is the kindness of God. Jesus Christ is this kindness of God. He is this benevolence of God for us. At Christmas, God gives us his kind and beneficent grace in the person of his Son Jesus.
God´s joyful gift is healing. It heals the soul. It heals my relationship with God and my fellow men. This gift brings us salvation. Jesus Christ is our salvation! He wants to save every human being from the power of sin with his kind grace. He wants to save all of us from the dark power that clutches the soul of man as with an iron fist. Jesus Christ liberates our soul. Only Jesus Christ can free it. He liberates the hard and bitter heart. Only Jesus Christ frees the heart from contentiousness and discord. Only Jesus Christ frees from ugly and evil thoughts. He alone brings this healing grace. And this is the reason for great joy!
With his grace, God provides a present to every human being. It does not matter on which continent we live, whether we are poor or wealthy, what color of skin we may have. Jesus Christ is the gift of God to every human being on earth. To all people, God promises his grace. So that eternal joy can come into every heart.
I wish you that you can experience this joy! When the Lord Jesus Christ brings his joy and his peace into the heart of a person, then this is the greatest gift that one can receive during life. Let yourself be gifted with this grace (even if it may not be on your wish list yet!). You will not be disappointed! Ask God for this gift of joy!
Thank you for listening to me. God bless you during this Advent season. May He bless you with His healing grace. May He protect you in spirit, soul and body.
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