Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To the Editor:
I, like many people in Elizabethton, like to see the Christmas lights at Golf Course Acres and at the Bristol race track. This year for the first time in almost 800 years we get to see a planetary alignment in the sky of Jupiter and Saturn that some say reminds them of the original Christmas star on December 21, 2020 according to www.christianheadlines.com
These planetary alignments often cause increased earthquakes. We also have a comet this month on December 14, 2020, called Erasmus which means love. We are having signs in the Heaven which the Bible says means Jesus is returning soon. The most popular Christmas tradition is the giving and receiving of gifts. Through the hundreds of years of gift exchanges there is one that qualifies as the most unique and important gift that has ever been given! As a matter of fact, it’s the only reason we have this Christmas season. This most important and unique gift is the gift of salvation through Jesus! The Bible says, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” After following the star the wise men when they found Jesus they “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” and fell down on their faces before Jesus and worshiped Him. The wisest and most appropriate reaction to being in the presence of the King of Kings!
A great gift to give children or anyone else is a real Bible, as it can change their life. Other books inform, only the real Bible transforms. I say real Bible as today many books have been published that are called Bibles that aren’t. A paraphrase like “The Living Bible” or a bad paraphrase like “The Message” aren’t Bibles. To be a Bible it must be an accurate word-for-word translation like the King James Version. Bible scholars say God chose the Bible’s words, and not just its ideas and meanings, in a very purposeful way. The Bible’s very message is altered and diminished when people paraphrase and tinker and tamper with the words. The Bible should be interpreted literally not symbolically or spiritually. Jesus literally fulfilled 108 prophecies in his first coming. In Matthew 4, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Jesus said clearly every word. As Psalm 30 says, “Every word of God is (pure) flawless.” God has given us truth in every word of the Bible and the truth can’t be improved on! At Christmas a great way to celebrate the Word (Jesus) becoming flesh is to give the word, read the word and believe the word!
Some Christians don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s become so commercialized and not focused on Jesus. We are seeing people rushing to and fro as never before to get gifts which is also a sign Jesus is coming. Paul tells Christians in 1 Corinthians to not have conflicts about minor issues and to use every opportunity to tell different people about Jesus. Christmas is the perfect opportunity to tell people about Jesus. Christians should make Christmas more spiritual and meaningful by reading the Bible, attending church and thanking God the father for sending Jesus to be the savior of the world. The best gift is to read the Christmas story from the Bible to your children on Christmas. Also read from the Bible daily to them and take them to church. The best gift you can give friends and family is write a few sentences testimony of how Jesus has changed you and what Jesus means to you and post it on Facebook. These are some ways to honor Jesus and make Christmas about more than gifts and more than about you! You can’t buy the peace and hope Jesus gives. Even Dr. Seuss, “The Grinch,” said correctly, “Maybe Christmas he thought doesn’t come from a store maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more!”
A wonderful show with a Biblical focus for kids is, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” One Christian said look for the climactic scene when Linus shares “What Christmas is all about,” Linus drops his security blanket for the first time, when he utters the words, “fear not.” Only the birth of Jesus gives us hope and peace and separates us from our fears. The Bible tells us nothing can separate Christians from the love of Jesus. Not even COVID-19 or the soon coming seven-year tribulation when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. This could be the last Christmas before the rapture of Christians. Max Lucado said, “when Jesus was born, so was our hope.” The Bible says those whose hope is in Jesus will be blessed. While Christians look back and remember with joy the birth of Jesus, Christians are “looking for that blessed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ!” Jesus’ birth was and is “tidings of great joy.” Another “tidings of great joy” is soon coming when Jesus says to his Christian family, “come up here!”

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton