Bible Verse of the Day Friday December 1st 2023

Romans 15:12 And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him, the Gentiles will hope."

As we begin our Advent Christmas season, we'll look at what Paul wrote to the Church at Rome. He is paraphrasing here from Isaiah's writing, from which there are numerous prophecies of the coming of the promised Messiah (Isaiah 11:10). The verse in Isaiah 11:10 says that the Messiah will "stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him." Paul was reminding all whose eyes fall on this writing that salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike was not an afterthought for God; it was the plan from the beginning. The genealogical line of Jesus was through King David, the son of Jesse. However, no matter how Jewish the biological line of Jesus was through His earthly descendants, the Old Testament prophecies from Isaiah and the other prophets promised that He would save all nations, kindreds, and tongues. While King David brought to the Nation of Israel significant influence and infamy, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus conveyed His grace into the hearts of millions of people, Jews, and Gentiles alike. 

The Jewish nation turned against Jesus because collectively, they did not believe that He was the true promised Messiah. In this day and age, most people saved and lost alike celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world. However, there is extraordinarily little in the modern celebration of Christmas that reflects the birth, life, death on the Cross of Calvary and Christ Jesus's Resurrection. There is a movement among some in our western society to morph the traditional Christmas celebration into "the holidays." We have even seen some business places selling Christmas trees, completely removing the glorious name of Christ Jesus, selling Xmas trees. Instead of "Merry Christmas," people greet one another with the term Happy Holidays to remove Christ's name from Christmas. 

As Christians, we see this as a war on Christmas perpetrated by those that want all people to celebrate Christmas their way. However, when we as Christians insist that all people celebrate Christmas as the Birth of our Savior instead of a commercial holiday, we are doing the same thing. As Christians, we should keep in our minds that Christmas is not a biblically mandated holiday, and no one is under any obligation to celebrate it as such. Those that choose to celebrate the "Holidays" instead of "Christmas" have every right to celebrate as they see fit. We should not attempt to force the Christmas celebration on the lost of the world any more than we force the Gospel of Christ Jesus on those that do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. 

If we try to force the Christmas celebration on anyone that chooses to celebrate the Holidays, we will make it more difficult for the next soul winner that has a chance to witness to that person. If we show kindness and grace during this season, and all year long, that person might just come to us and want to know more about Jesus.