My favorite is Christmas, by far.

When I was growing up in Philadelphia, my dad would buy a tree a week or so before Christmas, and leave it in the yard out back to be put up on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning, the smell of the tree (like the ones at Kroger) was wonderful. That and other Christmas memories, very pleasant memories, are long, long since past, but Christmas is still my favorite day of the year. I don’t like the greed on display, but I still love the spirit of giving, and the generosity that Christmas brings. And I love the fact that our Savior came into the world just because He loves us and wanted to provide a way to live forever with Him.

About thirty years ago I made a decision to make Jesus my Lord and Savior. I found a new appreciation for what our Father did, sending Jesus to be born. Paul wrote that the day is coming when, “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (letter to the Philippians 2:9-11). That illustrates the importance, the necessity, of Jesus being born.

His birth, and the town in which He would be born, were predicted centuries before the event. The fact that His mother would be a virgin was also predicted. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus. He is the reason for the Christmas season, and He is also the most important Person in history.

What about his family tree, is there one? Yes. There is a family tree in the first chapter of the book of Matthew showing the ancestors from Abraham, father of the Jewish people, to Jesus.

The world and all in it was created billions of years ago, but human life started in the Garden of Eden. How do I know? There’s another family tree in the third chapter of the Book of Luke from Jesus all the way back to Adam. That family tree proves that man was created (Genesis 2:7), and didn’t evolve from some lower life form. (Darwinism is not science, it’s an unproven theory. I believe it’s a fraud!)

I consider Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, as important as the other two of the three greatest days in the history of man. The three: The day He was born, the day He died, and the day He rose from the dead. Just like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, united as One, so Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter are three distinct events, all united, each vital to the other.

Without His birth, His death and resurrection couldn’t have happened.
Without His death, there’d be no forgiveness of sins.
Without being raised from the dead Paul said, “your faith is futile, you are still in your sins” (1st Corinthians 15:17).

You should read the 2nd chapter of Luke; it relates the story told by Charlie Brown in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Our Father didn’t care that His Son was born in a smelly stable, but He wanted us to know it was an unusual event, and had thousands of Angels announce to shepherds the wonder that had taken place (verses 13, 14).

Using the word “Merry” in Merry Christmas is fitting, because God tells us that “a merry heart does good like a medicine, but sadness and worry will make you sick” (Proverbs 17:22; that was written by King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, next to Jesus.)

I wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.

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December 7 just passed was Pearl Harbor day. It was my generation’s 9-11. We reacted to it a lot differently than people today. A song back then said, “Let’s remember Pearl Harbor as we go to meet the foe, let’s remember Pearl Harbor, as we did the Alamo”!

The day after Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt said we’d go on to total victory (he didn’t promise troop withdrawals). He led us to total victory. He didn’t forget Pearl Harbor, our 9-11.

Today, our leaders don’t believe in victory. They are forgetting the lessons of 9-11, giving terrorists rights that should be reserved for Americans.

PAUL SAID TO”EXPOSE THE WORKS OF DARKNESS” (Eph 5:11)
You can reach Mr. Murphy at willmurf1@yahoo.com
www.murphy-properties.com