{"id":3312,"date":"2021-12-08T11:28:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T17:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=3312"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:35:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T03:35:58","slug":"christmas-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=3312","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Last night, I took my wife on a Christmas date to see \u201cChristmas with the Chosen<\/a>.\u201d It was inspiring and wonderful, like Christmas is, especially for the chosen \u2014 those who have, or are given, eyes to see and ears to hear the story of the King. It\u2019s in theaters nationwide for three more days if you want to enjoy it there and show your support for The Chosen<\/em>. Soon it will be free on the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick sidebar is for those who haven\u2019t heard.\u00a0The Chosen<\/em>\u00a0is a wildly popular and highly acclaimed film series about the life of Jesus Christ. It\u2019s crowd-funded and has produced two seasons of eight episodes each, with something like 318 million views as of today in every country of the world. It\u2019s viewable free, thanks to supporters, on YouTube, FaceBook, and its own app. This film series is beautiful, fresh\u2014inspired, and inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a dark cloud seemingly descends on our country and world during these past two years, this film series is a good reminder that it was that way when the King came the first time, to humble parents and humble people, in a place we know as Bethlehem Judea, within tiny Israel. It\u2019s encouraging to remember also something the Scriptures say, \u201cBut as people sinned more and more, God\u2019s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God\u2019s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d (Romans 5:20-21 NLT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recently in conversation, a quote about Christmas came up, \u201cChristmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas\u201d (Calvin Coolidge). Indeed, everyone should cherish peace and goodwill. Certainly, everyone should be plenteous in mercy. And those things are rightly celebrated at Christmas. However, Christmas is a time and a season<\/em>, and perhaps a state of mind, to focus on the king whose advent makes these things possible on a wide scale in a dark world at spiritual war. Christmas is about Christ <\/em>more than about his rule and reign, his attributes, or even His kingdom. It\u2019s about the gem of creation \u2014 God becomes a man. A Son of Man to tell us about God, His kingdom, His rule, His purpose, His Person, and then to send us His power in the form of His Spirit to live this life and make peace, goodwill, and mercy possible on the earth and in our realm of family and friends. And to dwell with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some might ask, \u201cIsn\u2019t the point of Christmas love, peace, mercy, truth, good?\u201d I\u2019d say yes, of course, these are the things we celebrate which are made possible by the King and are descriptive of the King. But I would add that people think and act as if they can bring these qualities to bear on the earth on their own. History would demonstrate that we really can\u2019t in any widespread or lasting degree. We need a righteous, kind, powerful king to affect what we celebrate at Christmas and desire year-round and lifelong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christmas is a time and a season to be still, to be quiet, and focus on this gift from above \u2014 a baby, a gift of power and love. A king is born \u2014 beautiful, personal, good, enabling. He is mighty to reign and enforces justice in the middle of His enemies all around. His rule ensures the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth and goodwill to men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worship and give thanks \u2014 honor and celebrate the King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNow to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen\u201d (I Timothy 1:17 NASB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,Too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace\u201d (Micah 5:2-5a).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, I took my wife on a Christmas date to see \u201cChristmas with the Chosen.\u201d It was inspiring and wonderful, like Christmas is, especially for the chosen \u2014 those who have, or are given, eyes to see and ears to hear the story of the King. It\u2019s in theaters nationwide for three more days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,9,12,7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendoftheking","category-be-a-leader","category-be-a-man","category-bread-for-the-spirit","category-kingdom-events","category-understanding-our-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3312"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3320,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}