I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on Earth, good-will to men

I thought how as the day had come,

The Belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along th’ unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:

“There is no peace on earth,” I said,

“For hate is strong and mocks the song

of peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Then ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day-

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime.

Of Peace on earth, good-will to men!

Henry W. Longfellow

It’s Christmas time. The season of perpetual hope. Yet, on December 2, terrorists killed 14 Americans and wounded 17. I didn’t want to talk about the San Bernardino massacre. It’s Christmas time. But we have to face such things. They are a reality in the world in which we live.

Matt Walsh wrote an excellent blog post about the hope we have in Jesus Christ. That God has intervened, already, for such a time as this. Jesus Christ already came down to earth as a baby. Grew up. Was persecuted by the Jews and finally crucified on the cross for our sins. He rose from the dead three days later. He then ascended into heaven. Jesus already paid the price for our sins. He already made a way for us. All of us. All of us are in need of a Savior. Jesus Christ is our Savior.

In the face of such evil acts, and because it is Christmas time, we should talk about hope. Hope is wonderful. Hope gives us reasons to live when faced with life’s troubles. It lifts us up. It helps us carry on. Hope has conquered tragedies, depression, every struggle men and women face. Without hope, what’s the point?

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines hope: “to cherish a desire with anticipation.” Part of hope, is anticipation. Ever watch your kids when they are anticipating something? We used to count the kids’ anticipation with the number of sleeps. Five more sleeps before your birthday. Three more sleeps before Christmas is here. You could look in your kids’ eyes and see the glimmer there, the anticipation, the hope. Their eyes would sparkle with so much hope.

I grew up celebrating Christmas. I loved to see the presents under the tree. I couldn’t wait to open them. I remember one Christmas when we got a package from my grandmother. Both my sister and I received the same gift from her. It was a small package. We shook it. We squeezed it. It was squishy at first squeeze, but you could feel something hard underneath the squishiness. My sister and I would pick up that package everyday before Christmas to squeeze it and guess what it was. Squishy and hard-what could it be? We had days and days to wait, before we could open up those gifts. The anticipation was soooo exciting. Whatever could it be? We had no idea what that gift could be. It stumped us. Of course on Christmas morning, we zoomed over to that gift and opened it first. Oh, that’s what it was. It was this cologne bottle, with a cute animal cover over it-squishy and hard! We never could have guessed. The best part of all of that, was the anticipation. The waiting and wondering was so exciting.

Christmas time is a great way to show kids what hope truly means. The hope for certain gifts. The hope and waiting until Christmas to open the gifts. Now that I am an adult, hope isn’t an abstract idea. It’s embedded in my brain through all those past Christmases I celebrated. I still love Christmas time. I love listening to the Christmas music. I love buying gifts for my family and wrapping them. I love all the celebrations and anticipation of Christmas day. Hope is the crux of all the celebrating. It means even more to me as an adult. The anticipation of the Messiah coming to this earth. He brought hope to all of mankind. He was the Savior of the World. I still look forward to Christmas, but now it so reminds me of my Savior. The greatest event in human history, the God of this universe, the great I Am coming to dwell among men! Hallelujah.

I love “Carol of the Bells,” and all the versions of it. That song seems to represent hope over any other Christmas song. When you listen to it, you hear the song get faster and faster. You can feel anticipation in that song. Something is coming and faster and faster it goes. It’s a great refection of the hope we celebrate at Christmas time.

Jesus Christ is our hope and salvation. He IS the reason we celebrate Christmas. As we look forward to Christmas, I have a sense of anticipation for the coming Messiah again. I hope for Him to come and take His children home. I long for it. Christmas only inspires me more as I anticipate Christ’s return. And oh how great it will be! Way better than a cologne bottle with a cute animal cover over it. Way, way better.

“After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him, Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11

There’s this cartoon I see on Facebook that cracks me up. It’s a picture of two kings talking to a third king. The one king says, “Right, we’ve picked up the gold and the myrrh…what on earth is THAT?!” He points to Frankenstein who is standing behind the third king. We don’t hear the word, frankincense a whole lot in this day and age, so the closest thing to it is Frankenstein. Now that, we know.

When I was a little kid I heard the Christmas story over and over again. I heard about the wise men coming to see Jesus and bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh. I never understood why those gifts. The only time I’ve ever heard of frankincense and myrrh IS through the Christmas story. Gold, I could understand, but what’s with frankincense and myrrh? What in the world is frankincense and myrrh? And why would those be considered gifts?

In our continued discussion of the symbolism in the Christmas season, we should discuss those three gifts given to the baby Jesus Christ. When I finally heard an explanation for those three gifts, it made SO much sense. And if you haven’t heard it before, I’ll tell you.

I always understood the gold. We give gold now as gifts in the form of jewelry. But the gold has a symbolic meaning. It’s not just a valuable gift, which I thought, and the only gift that makes sense. Gold symbolizes Jesus’ kingship. Gold represents power and glory because of it’s high value. When the wise men came to give Jesus’ gold, they were acknowledging His role as King.

Now frankincense, not Frankenstein, but frankincense. What in the world is frankincense? Frankincense was and is an “aromatic resin.” It was used by the priests in the Hebrew temple. They burned it as incense. It represented several things in the temple: “Divine name” and “emblem of prayer.”  So why give a child some frankincense? Because this baby was going to grow up to be our great High Priest. He was going to be the ultimate priest. We would need no other after Jesus Christ. The frankincense represented Jesus Christ as the future great High Priest.

Now we come to myrrh. Myrrh, when you say it out loud it kind of sounds gloomy and serious. It’s even spelled funny. So what’s up with myrrh? When you find out the meaning of myrrh, and you are Mary, you would probably not get too excited about the myrrh. You see myrrh was used as an embalming spice. Eeew. I know right. At your next baby shower, try showing up with some myrrh for the new baby and see how well that goes. But that is what they used it for. You know dead bodies can be really smelly, so you have to wrap them up in something in order to keep the smell down. And in fact that’s what they did with Jesus when He died. They wrapped His body in cloths and myrrh.

“Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds of weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.” John 19:39-40

Myrrh seems like the weirdest of all the gifts, but it might be the most meaningful. Myrrh was used as embalming spice. The wise men brought myrrh to Jesus Christ because He was going to die. He was to be the Savior of the world and the only way to do that was to die for the sins of the world. He was going to take our place upon the cross for our sins.

These wise men really did know who Jesus Christ was. Perhaps that’s why the Bible calls them wise men. Not wise guys, but wise men. They brought the gold, frankincense and myrrh to present to the baby Jesus Christ. They acknowledged that he was to be a king-gold, a priest-frankincense, and to die-myrrh.  The Christmas story is laden with rich symbolism. Again, as we celebrate this beautiful Christmas season remember the gold, frankincense and myrrh. Remember the wise men who knew exactly who Jesus Christ was.

I remember when my first was born. They put her into this sterilized bassinet on top of a white gauze pad. The nurses wore sterilized gloves to touch her and hold her. Everything around my baby was pristine and sterilized. She came out pink and tiny with a little bald head. (I have an affinity for little bald babies). My baby was born in a pristine, sterilized hospital room with extra doctors standing at the wait, because she had pooped in utero.

It’s Christmas time. Time to reflect upon the reason for the season. And that reason, of course, is Jesus Christ. Christmas is our celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. So significant was His birth that much of the whole world celebrates Him two thousand years later. We celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. The birth of the great I Am, come to this earth to be born as a baby. To grow up in this world for the sole purpose of sacrificing Himself for the sins of the whole world.

The Bible is rich with symbolism. The whole Old Testament is full of symbolism of Jesus Christ. It is often said that the Old Testament is Jesus Christ concealed, and the New Testament is Jesus Christ revealed. God loves symbolism to point to His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ birth is no exception.

Look where He was born. It was not a sterilized hospital like my daughter. It wasn’t a home like most births were back then. It wasn’t even a hotel room. No, Jesus was born in a barn where they kept the animals. Dirty, stinky farm animals surrounded Jesus Christ when He was born. The hospital where my daughter was born would have had a conniption fit if some lady’s little dog would have escaped her purse and dared to strut the hospital’s labor and delivery ward. It would have been pandemonium.

Jesus was surrounded by barn yard animals. Imagine the smell. Imagine the filth. No sterilized pads to place the baby on. No nurses with sterilized gloves. When Jesus is born He is placed in a manger. I often have a romantic view of what a manger is. I think of beautiful Christmas cards or Nativity scenes in which baby Jesus lies in a nice wooden manger.

A manger isn’t a cute little wooden bed to lay babies in. A manger is a feeding trough. A place to put the hay for the cows and donkeys to eat from. A place where the animals stand over and slobber down on the hay they devour. It is a useful tool to keep animals fed and happy. It wasn’t a new manger. It was well used by many an animal to eat from.

People often say the birth place of Jesus was so humble as He was humble. And yes, that’s true, but I think there is a bigger picture here.

Why a feeding trough? After Jesus was born He is placed in a feeding trough? Jesus is placed in a manger that normally feeds barn animals. I believe this is more symbolism God is using. Think of communion. When we take communion the Bible says:

“and when He had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘Take eat, this is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me,’ 1 Corinthians 11:24

Jesus was placed in a manger to show that He is born for us to spiritually feast upon. His body was going to be the sacrifice for our sins. Just like the food that was placed in the manger the animals needed to live off of. Jesus body was to be the body sacrificed for us that we may be made to live.

Wow! Right from the get go, we are given a picture of who Jesus Christ was and what His purpose was. He told us,

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Jesus wasn’t laid in a pristine bassinet, he was laid in a feeding trough, “I am the bread of life.” He was laid in that manger, helpless, unable to fight back, unable to defend Himself in any way, because we are the farm animals who need Him to live.

As we go through this beautiful Christmas season, remember Jesus Christ. Remember that He was placed in a feeding trough for you. God had His purpose for Him, He was to be the bread of Life, the Savior of the World. Take eat, this is MY body.

We are coming off the serious terrorists attacks on Paris. As it stands now, I read that 158 people were killed and countless others were wounded at 3 different locations. This was a coordinated effort to wreak havoc on innocent people. One wonders, why? Why all the terror and violence? Why all the death and mayhem?

Two things are at play here. Both reasons come from the Bible. The first is the descendants of Ishmael. If you don’t know, Ishmael was the illegitimate son of Abraham (father of the Jews). Quick overview of the story. Abraham was promised by God that he would have a son. Abraham was old, as well as his wife Sarah. They weren’t getting any younger. As time kept marching on, Sarah took matters into her own hands and told Abraham to go sleep with Hagar. Being a man, Abraham obliged his wife and slept with Hagar. Hagar got pregnant (these things happen). Hagar named her son Ishmael. Both Hagar and Ishmael continued to live with Abraham. A few years later, Sarah get’s pregnant. She gives birth to the promised son, Isaac. Sarah sees Ishmael mocking her own son. So Sarah wants her outta there, yesterday!!! She tells Abraham to kick Hagar to the curb, so to speak. He doesn’t want to, but he asks God what to do. God tells him to listen to his wife. This isn’t the first time Sarah wants Hagar out of there. When Hagar first got pregnant, she ran away because Sarah didn’t treat her right. The angel of the Lord met her and told her something very interesting.

The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” Genesis 16:11-12

 “And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.” Genesis 21:13

So the Bible tells us that Ishmael’s descendants will be against everyone and everyone against him. His descendants will be middle eastern and not Jewish. So now we have these terrorists who wreck havoc on everyone around them “His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him…” The Bible predicted this. The Bible is 100% accurate.

The other issue at play here is WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS. We are seeing history made right before our very eyes. In the seven year tribulation, it all becomes about Israel again. The church has been raptured out, and now God turns His eyes back on Israel. Everyone’s eyes will be on Israel. Israel is the key player in the 7 year tribulation. Israel’s enemies, the descendants of Ishmael, make an alliance with another country to wipe Israel off the face of the map. God intervenes, and their plans are thwarted.

This dynamic of Israel and Ishmael’s descendants against them is a key in the end times. It was predicted in the Bible. Also, this lack of peace everywhere, terrorism reigning around us, the Bible predicts this state of the world as a sign of the times, a sign of the end of the world. The world becomes so chaotic, it will crave a new world leader who will promise peace. This new world leader will be the antichrist. A satanic leader who will dominate the world and give a false peace for a short time. All this, is in the Bible.

So what do you do with this information? It’s not too late, if you haven’t done so, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Then, when the world seems to be shredding apart at the seams, you will have peace and a promise of everlasting life. And even if you are a church goer, examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian. Going to Bible study doesn’t make you a Christian. God doesn’t have grandchildren. You can’t say, that you are saved because your parents were Christians. Things are getting closer and closer to the end. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. The Bible predicted these terrorist attacks, “His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him…” The Bible is 100% accurate. It’s not too late.

The terrorist attacks will continue. They will happen more frequently. Again, this is a set up for the very last days, when the world will crave for someone to step in and establish order and peace. If you haven’t done so, get the peace that surpasses all understanding. John 3:16.