The Cross of Christmas

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’s birth on Christmas day, 25th December, (the real reason for the season), have you ever wondered why God had to send Jesus to earth to be born as a baby? 

Although the Nativity story is found in the Gospel books of Mathew and Luke, having recently studied the book of Hebrews, I was amazed to come across many verses pertaining to why Jesus was born. 

So, I thought I’d share them with you as you ponder and reflect on the celebration of the birth of our King and Savior, Jesus Christ…

1. Jesus was born so that He could become the son of God that would make us His children and God our Heavenly Father - Hebrews 1:5; 5:5
2. Jesus was born as a human of flesh and blood so that He would no longer be immortal but would be able to die so that His blood could be poured out for us. - Hebrews 2: 14
3. Jesus needed to be born, so He could die in order to destroy the devil through His death- Hebrews 2:14
4. Jesus needed to die to deliver and free us from sin and break the power of death and the devil - Hebrews 2:15
5. Jesus was born so He could become human like us and know how it feels to be tempted and suffer - Hebrews 2:18
6. Jesus was born to become the guarantee and mediator of a new covenant between ourselves and God - Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15
7. Jesus was born so He could have a body that could be sacrificed like an unblemished Lamb for our sins- Hebrews 10:5

When you add the Cross to Christmas, it gives meaning to the purpose of Jesus’s birth. Our wreaths of holly and berries symbolize a wreath for His death and represent the crown of thorns He had to wear and the berries, the drops of blood that dripped from His brow. 

The Christmas lights represent the light that Jesus brings to the darkness of the world, to our own darkness and how we should be reflecting His light to others. Whether you have a star or an Angel on top of your Christmas tree, both are symbols of God’s glory that ushered in the announcement of Jesus’s birth.  

The very tree represents the wood that was cut up to become the cross. The ornaments we put on our trees can represent things we should nail to the tree or they can also represent our blessings and inherited gifts we have through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  

Christmas offers us the hope of eternity in Heaven. The Old Testament’s sacrifices were just a parole but with the New Testament and Covenant, we are given a full pardon. Yes, the devil may still seem active in our lives, but he is like a dog that has been chained up to the stake of the Cross.  He can growl and bark, but he can no longer harm us, as long as we stay out of his reach. 

Christmas is God reaching out to us.  It is the celebration of His incarnation that He is Emmanuel and is always with us. It should not just be a holiday tradition, but become our response to God for sending Jesus to restore our relationship with Him.

Wishing you all a Blessed and meaningful Christmas!

Much love, 

Samantha

The Fragrance of the Thorns

I like to wear red on Good Friday to symbolize the blood that Jesus shed for me and the color of the love that fully paid the debt of my sins.  On this Good Friday, as I was taking my dog out for her early morning walk, I came across a thorn tree and pondered on how a rose, such a beautiful, fragrant flower, can yield such piercing, painful thorns. As a believer that there are no co-incidences when it comes to God’s creation, I think it was to remind us that there is always something good in everything that we might consider to be bad. 

When we reflect on the pain Jesus had to endure when the crown of thorns was pressed and pierced into His skill, so can imagine His red blood dripping down His face, and we can share in His agony on this very dreadful ‘bad’ day. What makes this painful Friday ‘good’ is what Jesus’s death did for us.  Were it not for Jesus’s unselfish sacrifice, our relationship with God could not have been restored.  Jesus died to pay the full price of our sins, to purchase our righteousness as a free gift of our salvation.    

The rose epitomizes that fact that there is goodness amidst the bad. In life there are things we deem to be pleasant (roses) but also the things we dislike and can harm us (thorns).  I love it that God gave roses such a beautiful scent, as a reminder to us that our pain produces a fragrance that will always turn bad things into good. And how fitting that a red rose has become the symbol of everlasting love. 

So to go back to Good Friday, what makes that Friday good is to see that day through the lens of what Jesus’s death achieved for our good, and the love with with He did it with.  Death was conquered on that day and through Jesus, our old nature can be crucified and put to death too.

Finding Jesus in the Christmas Tree

I was recently surprised to discover that a dear friend does not put up a tree at Christmas, believing it to have pagan roots. As a huge fan of the Christmas tree, it set me on a mission to find Christian meaning to this age-old tradition. It is my hope that this blog will give new meaning to this Christmas symbol and that you will see your tree in a new light.

It is true that the origins of a cut down, decorated tree may have its root in paganism, as can be read in Jeremiah 10:1-5. In later years, pagans would also bring fir trees into their homes at Yuletide because it represented everlasting life and fertility.  However, history tells us that it was an 8th-century English missionary in Germany that first introduced the tree as a symbol of remembrance of Christ’s birth. Author Henry Van Dyke recounted these events in his fictionalized short story “The First Christmas Tree.”

Considering that the curse was introduced through a tree in the Garden of Eden, I believe it is quite fitting that our redemption is signified through the Tree of Life, Jesus, who is our Vine and as Christians, we are His branches.  Conifers, like the Pine tree are also evergreen, which represents the everlasting life we get through Christ. The Cross that Jesus was crucified to was also made of wood from a tree. And lastly, its triangular shape represents the trinity, which makes this tree the perfect representative, especially when we consider the many tree references there are in the Bible.

As Christians, we get to choose whether to put a star or an angel on the top of our tree, both of which heralded the announcement and place of where Jesus was born. It is also fitting that the fir tree mentioned in Isaiah 41:19; and 60:13 draws attention to the future glory of the temple in Jerusalem that would be built with its noble wood.

The bright twinkling lights on the Christmas tree is a metaphor for the light of Christ, who illuminates the darkness with His hope and salvation.  The soft glow is also a reminder to us to shine the light of Jesus to others. 

Each ornament can be carefully chosen to represent something to do with Jesus, His birth, the characters of the Nativity scene, or even something to represent the many gifts God has given us. Each ornament then becomes a small piece of the Christmas story and of our faith and blessings, woven into each branch. These symbols can remind us of the sacredness of the season and our love for God, who gave us the greatest gift of His son. Having replaced many of my ornaments over the year with ones with more meaning, I can honestly say that this does make a difference. Even a snowman can remind us that Jesus has washed us clean as white as snow!

Putting up the tree together as a family can become a sacred ceremony instead of just a holiday tradition. Finding Jesus in the tree helps us connect with the spiritual essence of this special season and the reason we celebrate it.  As a family, it is a special time where we can feel the presence of Jesus, through the joy, love and peace we experience, whilst singing along to Christmas Carols.

In a world filled with the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations, finding Jesus offers a moment of respite and spiritual connection. It is a reminder that amidst the festivities, the heart of Christmas lies in the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To me, Christmas is not just one day, but a season and spirit of goodwill and joy as we gather in love to remember and celebrate the birth of our King!

Lastly, the gifts under the tree that we get to give and receive from our loved ones is a reminder that it is Jesus’s birthday!  Yet, it is His presence that is more important that the presents, for they represent the many gifts we receive spiritually.  It also teaches us to be generous and meaningful givers.

This year, let us find a deeper connection to our faith by seeking the presence of Jesus in the heart of our Christmas decorations, traditions and celebrations.

Wishing you and your family a meaningful and tree-mendous Christ-mas and a faith-filled festive season!

Communion and Baptism in the Cross of Easter

God has laid on my heart the symbolism of Communion and Baptism in reference to Easter’s message of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, which I wanted to share with you.

We know from scripture that the wine taken at communion symbolises Jesus’s blood, which was shed for us all at the Cross of Calvary.  Wine, in essence, is the blood of many grapes.  The power that unites those grapes was extracted in the wine press of the Cross.

We also know that the bread is a symbol of His flesh, which was broken and beaten, which is why we break the bread. When you think of how bread is made, it is just many grains of flour that are brought together by water.  With us representing the body of Christ, we too are brought together by the waters of baptism, and baked in the fire of the Holy Spirit. 

When we take Communion, we remember what Jesus did for us on the Cross and identify with the pain and suffering He experienced, by taking the bread of life, His body, that saved us from our sin, and drinking the redemption wine, His blood, that was poured out that washed us clean. Therefore, Easter is the perfect time to take Communion, to remember what Jesus did on the Cross. 

Looking back at Jesus’s crucifixion, I often wondered why Jesus refused the first wine but accepted the second. I was interested to learn that the first wine had been mixed with myrrh or gall, a narcotic that is often given to those being crucified to help numb the pain. Yet, Jesus chose to fully experience the pain, as we painfully witnessed through the accuracy in the Passion movie. 

It was only when Jesus said He was thirsty, that He accepted the soured wine or vinegar, which was a common drink in those days to alleviate thirst.  In a way, by quenching His thirst, Jesus was actually prolonging the pain. He drank the wine of His Father’s wrath down to its very last dregs, and He did so for us—that we might enjoy the new wine of His Father’s love, and live redeemed forever in the glorious presence of the one who took no shortcuts in saving us.

After the recent baptism of a dear friend’s daughter, I was reminded of the spiritual significance of this event in that you are exchanging your old worn and weak wineskin for a new stretchable and strong one so that we can fully receive the pouring of the new spiritual wine of Christ. You are laying down the old you and taking on a newness in the spirit. In a sense, what Baptism symbolises is the crucifying of your flesh and the resurrection of the new you, full of the Holy Spirit’s power and effectiveness to keep you walking in that newness, and daily reminding yourself that your flesh and the old you are dead.  Baptism is a declaration to Satan and the world that you are now committed to being all in with Christ.

As I remember back to my own Baptism; I was so excited to be given the opportunity to have it done in the Jordon River. Yet, a few weeks before the departure of our trip to the Holy Land I felt God telling me not to wait and to have it done sooner at the Baptist Church I was attending at the time, which I did. I strongly believe that being Baptised before going, prepared me spiritually for the powerful encounter I had with God, and had I not obeyed Him, I would have had a more glorious setting of a baptism, but without the lasting and powerful effect. 

If you have never been Baptised with the full immersion of water, may I urge you to take this next step of faith in your walk with God? If it was important enough for Jesus to do and because He tells us to, this is an act of obedience where we get to publicly declare the decision made in our hearts to follow Jesus.  From my experience, it is where you receive the victory in truly becoming an overcoming Christian to live with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit, and there is no better time to be baptised than at Easter.

The Passover Blood of the Cross

The Church I belong to (Life Changer’s – Century City) has been studying the Exodus story in their series ‘Move Again’, and I’ve come to see how the final plague of the Passover night was a foreshadow of Jesus on the Cross at the time we celebrate as Easter.

The Passover is a beautiful illustration of the gospel. It’s a story of redemption and deliverance from bondage. It’s a story of faith in the grace of God and it’s a story of victory. The tenth plague was God’s wrath on sin, idolatry, pride, false religion, cruelty, and so much more. The Angel of death would sweep through the land of Egypt and lay waste in one of the most heart-wrenching ways of killing every first-born. But, as always, God made a way.

God instructed Moses for the people to put the blood of a sacrificed, innocent lamb upon their doorposts, which would rescue and save them from death. When the angel of death saw the blood covering the doorposts, he passed over them, sparing them from death. However, it was not the blood itself that protected them, but what the blood represented, as a sign of a covenant.

When you think of the action of those people who painted their doorposts with the blood from a basin, using the leaves from a branch of a hyssop tree, they were performing the sign of a cross. The blood from the top crossbeam would have dripped down the center, and painting the blood from the left -side post to the right-side post, would have completed the sign of the cross.

In the Old Testament, blood was used to seal covenants and to create an inseparable bond of relationship, a blood link between two parties. The sacrificing of an animal without blemish and the sprinkling of its blood was also used to consecrate, to purify and to atone for the sins of the people.

The night of the Passover gives us a picture of what Jesus did when He shed His innocent blood to save us from our sin and give us eternal life. It is Jesus’s blood that covers our sins, like it did on those doorposts, so that when God looks at those who believe and have placed their faith in Jesus, He sees His child because of our precious blood covering and passes over us, sparing us from the penalty of our sin and giving us eternal life.

Jesus hung on crossbeams and bled for all of us. His blood covers anyone who surrenders to put their faith in Him. We don’t have to be innocent or perfect, because Jesus was on our behalf. Those rescued from Egypt were imperfect people, and so are we and just like those who God rescued from Egypt, we have to follow Him out of slavery. God didn’t deliver Israel so they could stay put in bondage.

Jesus came to sacrifice His life to rescue and save ours. He was perfect, without sin, and through His sacrifice, He offers deliverance from the power of sin in our lives. Jesus was our Passover Lamb.

When we plead the blood of Jesus over our lives or over our situations, we are not doing a ‘Harry Potter’ like incantation of breaking a curse, but we are acknowledging and standing on the promises of the power of what His blood signifies, and celebrating our inheritance of what His blood has given us.

So as you partake of Communion this Easter, consider this verse:-

1 Corinthians 10: 16-18 “The cup of blessing that we bless—isn’t it a sharing of Christ’s blood? The bread which we break—isn’t it a sharing of Christ’s body? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body—for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider physical Israel. Those who eat the sacrifices—aren’t they partners in the altar?

 Wishing you and your family a blessed, holy and meaningful Easter!