It's pretty easy to get caught up in the mayhem that is Christmas time.  But lest we forget – Christmas is about Christ.  Hense the "Christ" in "Christ-mas." 

 

Christ was born so that he could be tortured and killed for us. 

 

Does that sink in at all? 

 

Christ was born so that he could be tortured and killed for us. 

 

That's an amazing amount of love when you are the God of the universe and you choose to lower yourself to suffer and die at the hands of the same people you came to save. 

 

Remember, it wasn't our sin that brought Christ.  It was his love. 

It was Christ's love.
 
    LK 2:4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

...

  LK 23:32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals--one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

    LK 23:35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

    LK 23:36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

    LK 23:38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

    LK 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

    LK 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

    LK 23:42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. "

    LK 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

    LK 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

...

LK 24:1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

...

 REV 21:22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Merry CHRISTmas,

Conrad