Category: Heart of Christmas

The Christmas Tree Tradition To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. —Revelation 2:7b This Christmas season, as in those gone by, it is commonplace to hear...

Can Santa Claus Be Saved? The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” —Luke 1:35 Believe it or not, even...

What Child Is This? When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear...

Did the Christ of Christmas Claim to Be God? I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! —Revelation 1:17b–18a When Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi, He asked His...

One Person—Two Natures In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came...

Immanuel In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. —Colossians 2:9 The reason we rejoice at Christmas is that the Baby born to Mary and Joseph on the first Advent was no ordinary child. As Matthew records,...

Tidings of Comfort and Joy For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the...

Census Considerations In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to...

Genealogies of the Babe of Bethlehem A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. —Matthew 1:1 Despite the wealth of evidence that supports the historical reliability of the Gospels, some...

In the Fullness of Time But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. — Galatians 4:4–5 Jesus Christ, the antitype...

A Pagan Festival? Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality,...