When Christmas Lights Go Dim Pt. 1
More than de-LIGHT-ful it is that all the colors of Christmas lights are ablaze each time Christmas is celebrated around the world. No different this year December 25, 2020. Not even a PANDEMIC and over 330,000 dead Americans can dim the Christmas 🎆 lights 🌕🌕🌕. Truly an amazing phenomenon indeed!
Long ago there used to be an Airline Company called PanAmerican. Pan means it was a WORLD WIDE 🌎 AIRLINE ✈. Again this year, unlike any year I have ever known, we against all odds celebrated a miracle PanChristmas. He Who divided history in two, BC AND AD, is celebrated in the midst of global sorrow as if He was born 👤 today!
JOY TO THE WORLD 🌎, THE LORD HAS COME! From America to Africa 🌎, even the dark continent becomes the bright continent. The world 🌎 is lit up🌋 for the Christmas baby boy Jesus. A feast for the eyes ➿ for sure. What baby 🚼 ever captured the world’s heart ❤ like this athletic young’un?
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THE WORLD’S 🎇LIGHT
After all, baby 🚼 Jesus is the light 🌕 of the world 🔵! He eventually makes that bold and bright assertion in John 8:1,
“I AM THE LIGHT 🌕 OF THE WORLD.”
WOW! That is a fairly robust self- concept! Mother Mary no doubt picked up these things being asserted by her boy! How would you react if your son went around asserting that he is the FOUR WINDS 💨💨💨💨?
The LIGHT awareness is one thing, but the whole world 🌎 lit up 💥by one person is something else again! Perhaps it just an overactive ego!
Some people walk in and light up 💡 a room. No one has ever come and illuminated the whole earth 🌕🌎 and continues to do so 2000 plus years later! No one except Jesus. Like the wise men, millions follow the star 🌟to the manger today. It was His star that !It up the Bethlehem sky! It was HEAVEN’S WAY OF PAYING HOMAGE TO THE BABYLIGHT 🌕 OF THE WORLD!
At least He does not suffer from an IDENTITY CRISIS 🆔! He knows Who He is totally, unapologetically, unequivocally and unreservedly! Not the light 🌕 of Bethlehem, or the light 🌕 of Jerusalem! Not even the light 🌕 of the Roman Empire. Rather, He tells us that He is the LIGHT 🔥 OF THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD 🌎! The SUN 🌕 has nothing on the SON🙋!
What kind of grid must He be plugged into to pull that off? How would you like the electric bill 📜 of that for just one momth?
Of course we fail to realize that this is not CONSUMERS POWER, this is DIVINE POWER! He is the OMNIPOTENT GRID AS THE WORLD WIDE 🌏 LIGHT 🌝 SOURCE! Problem is that most of the world lives off His spiritual and moral grid.
The prophet Isaiah put it this way in Isaiah 9:2,
“THE PEOPLE THAT WALKED 👬 IN DARKNESS 🌑 HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT 🌕. ON THOSE LIVING IN THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 💀, A LIGHT HAS DAWNED 🌝.”
People walking simply refers to all of us going about our daily lives. WALKING IN DARKNESS 🌑 means people not able to see where they are going for time 🕑 or eternity⏩⏩⏩. Completely lost and directionless, people all around them are dropping dead in THE LAND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 💀.The wages of sin being collected on people day in and day out (Romans 6:23).
THEN INTO THAT DARK AND DEADLY DESPAIR, A GREAT LIGHT 🌕 SHINES IN HOPE, LOVE, AND FORGIVENESS!!! UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ❔❔❔❔❔ ARE ALL ANSWERED IN THE GLORIOUS GREAT LIGHT 🌕 OF BRAND NEW UNDERSTANDING. ALL DARKNESS GIVES WAY TO LIGHT 🌕!
As the song puts it so accurately,
“THE WHOLE WORLD LIES IN THE DARKNESS 🌑 OF SIN, THE LIGHT 🌕 OF THE WORLD IS JESUS!”
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THE LIGHTS GROW DIM
What better way to celebrate the Savior’s coming into the world than with the lights 💡💡💡💡💡of Christmas! Sin causes gross darkness, but salvation brings great light!
I’ve always loved Christmas 🎀! THE CHRISTMAS TREE 🎄IN THE HOUSE ALL LIT UP AND DECORATED! THE EVERGREEN SMELL FRAGRANTLY 👃FILLED THE LIVING ROOM. THE MANTLE OVER THE FIREPLACE ALSO DECKED OUT WITH GREENERY 🎉 AND LIGHTS! OUTSIDE THE BUSHES WITH THEIR POWDER BLUE GLOW AT NIGHT 🌙! IT WAS A FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS WITH THE NEIGHBORS ADDING TO THE BEAUTY 🎇 OF IT ALL! AND OF COURSE, ALL THE PRESENTS UNDER THE TREE 🎁!
But of course the tree became dry and a fire hazard. The lights had to come down, even though us kids tried to convince our parents to keep everything up longer 🎇. We always pouted 😭 about the dimming and extinguishing of the lights. I think it was a psychological ploy to somehow extend ⏳Christmas vacation from school 🚙! It never worked! The tree 🌳 was dumped and the lights 📦 boxed for another year, and back to school we went.
Pastors know that post-Christmas is the time of the year for the greatest depression and suicide rates among humanity of all walks of life. The dimming of the lights is a PANDEMIC all of its own 😵!
When the Christmas lights grow dim, the darkness of godlessness and hopelessness swallows the human race 🗿! The 911 calls 🆘 jam the lines 🎧 at emergency centers. DRUNKENNESS 🍺 and suicide 💀 spike in the dark long winter months!
The Bible puts it this way in Isaiah 60:2,
“DARKNESS COVERS THE EARTH 🔳, AND GROSS DARKNESS 🌑 THE PEOPLE.”
Note, the earth is covered with darkness, but people with GROSS DARKNESS 🌑!! Sin came through man, and man got the worst of it! Absolutely blinded morally and spiritually. The DIRECT EFFECT OF SIN!
Have you ever been in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky? GROSS DARKNESS, you can’t see 👀your hand in front of your face! Man wandering around in pitch blackness 🌚 😀 🌑!
Have you ever been in the Serengeti in Africa? If you were to ask a naturalist as to what would be the most dangerous animal in the jungle, he would not say the lion 🐱 or the cape buffalo 🐃, but rather MAN!
When sin came into the world,
“ANIMALS CEASED TO BE ANIMALS AND BECAME PREDATORS – DARKNESS.”
When sin came into the world through man,
“MAN CEASED TO BE MAN AND BECAME A DEVIL – GROSS DARKNESS.”
JESUS looked at those who wanted to kill Him, and said in John 8 44,
“YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL.”
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THE True Light🌟
The Apostle John says something exclusively powerful about Jesus in John1:9,
“HE IS THE TRUE LIGHT 🌟THAT ENLIGHTENS EVERY MAN 🚹 THAT COMES INTO THE 🌎 WORLD.”
The entire text is breathtaking and eye popping 👀 when you honestly begin to break it down!
FIRST OF ALL, Jesus is not “A” true light. He is “THE” true light 🌇. This is huge!
That means that all other supposed light systems and philosophies in the world 🌎 are FALSE AND DARK! JESUS IS THE THE THE THE THE ONLY TRUE COSMIC LIGHT 🌅 OF TRUTH AND TRUE KNOWLEDGE!
That makes mankind 😵 irate. MAN by nature detests the DEFINITE ARTICLE. “THE” IS THE DEFINITE ARTICLE THAT LEADS TO THE “THEE” WHICH THE BIBLE USES FOR GOD!
THE and THEE! Just one letter short! In other words, THE DEFINITE ARTICLE THAT LEADS TO THE ABSOLUTE THEE 🔘.
Man by nature hates DEFINITES AND ABSOLUTES. That is exactly why we read in Romans 7:8 that,
“MAN 🚹 IS AT ENMITY WITH GOD.”
What sense does that make? We are to love God with all our heart 💟! (Matthew 22:37) But by nature man DOES not have a heart of love for God!
THAT IS, MAN HATES 👎 GOD FOR HIS GODNESS, that is, FOR HIS ABSOLUTENESS, FOR HIS DEFINITIVENESS, FOR HIS EXCLUSIVENESS, FOR HIS ONLINESS.”
Man salivates over the indefinite article “A,” for then he feels less boxed and hemmed in. He then has the power 🅿 of choice © to suit himself.
“THE” is a MUST 💓, while “A” is a MAYBE 💔! “THE” leaves it all up to God 👆, while “A” leaves it all up to man 👉!
ILLUSTRATION
As in the case of mothers 👪 and babies 🚼 and abortion 🔪. Women of the indefinite article far more prefer to talk about A FETUS in their wombs, and not get specific about THE MALE OR THE FEMALE GENDER IN THEIR BELLIES. A BLOB 🆎 RATHER THAN THE BABY 🚼.
While God in total antithesis talks not in vague GENERALITIES, but in Crystal Clear SPECIFICS. God is DEFINITIVELY AND EXCLUSIVELY THE ONLY GOD, and not A GOD IN A PANTHEON 🔠 OF GODS.
JESUS IS DEFINITIVELY AND EXCLUSIVELY THE ONLY TRUE LIGHT 🌕, AND NOT A LIGHT IN A PANORAMA OF LIGHTS 💡💡💡💡!
GOD IS THE GOD OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE – THE, NOT THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE – A.
Jesus says about Himself in John 14:6,
“I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME!”
LISTEN, TO 🆔 JESUS, YOU HAVE TO HAVE A ONE TRACK MIND ⛔! HE IS NOT A WAY, A TRUTH, A LIFE. HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE! That means apart from Him there is no way, no truth, no life! Totally cuts down on the choices doesn’t it?
You may not go your way 🔀, but only His way ⏫. We must live His way. We must think His way. We must love His way. We must forgive His way! We must sacrifice His way. We must follow His way. It is all His way or the highway. There is only one way to Heaven, and that Way is Jesus!
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Someone submits, “You know, there were so many different colored lights on the tree 🎄, and they all GAVE A SPECIAL GLOW! Each one was as special as the other. Depending of course on your color preference 🔵🔴🔘🌕🍚🔵. It really is a very subjective thing, and we really have to respect the multi-colored choices of life.”
He goes on, “Likewise there are so many religions in the world 🌎, and they all have “A” measure of light to shed on reality.” So we are told by the professors of Comparative Religions in our mushy and sloppy colleges and universities.
“A” in this modern religious philosophy stands for ALTERNATIVES and not for ABSOLUTES, for ASSORTMENTS and not for ALONE as in only.
That is the philosophy of the day, that we can learn something from every religion that will shed some light 🌕 on our path of life. Whether BUDDHISM 😄, or HINDUISM 😃, or MOHAMMEDISM 😁, or SHINTOISM 😆, or CATHOLICISM 😊, or CHRISTIANITY 😇, or JUDAISM 😆, certainly there is A RAY OF LIGHT 🎇 in each one that is of benefit to mankind!
NO, NO, NO, says Jesus in John 8:12,
“I AM NOT A LIGHT, I AM THE LIGHT.”
NO, NO. NO says John in John 1:9,
“JESUS IS NOT A TRUE LIGHT, JESUS IS THE TRUE LIGHT.”
That means:
“APART FROM JESUS, THERE IS NO TRUE LIGHT OF UNDERSTANDING🌟 IN THE WORLD, ONLY THE STUPIDITY OF UTTER DARKNESS 🌑.”
If you will,
“APART FROM JESUS, MAN IS ABLE TO SEE 👀 NOTHING AS IT REALLY IS, INCLUDING GOD AND HIMSELF, LIFE, THE WORLD, TIME, ETERNITY, HEAVEN, HELL! ”
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ILLUSTRATION
In short, remember this if you remember anything,
“THERE IS NO ‘A TRUTH’ APART FROM ‘THE TRUTH.’ ‘A TRUTH’ IS TRUE ONLY BECAUSE IT IS ROOTED IN ‘THE TRUTH'”
My precious Ruthie 👸 is my wife of 60 years! That is ‘A TRUTH,’ but only because that truth is rooted in Jesus Who is ‘THE TRUTH.’ THE TRUTH MADE HER 🌷! THE TRUTH SAVED HER 🌹! THE TRUTH DESIGNED HER 🌸! THE TRUTH GAVE 🌺HER TO ME AS MY HELP MEET 🌼! SHE LIGHTS 🌅 UP MY LIFE BECAUSE SHE CAME FROM THE TRUE LIGHT!
Where there is one truth, there are always many consistent truths that are like a ⛅ fragrant 🌺, aromatic 🍥garden 🌻! They grow and aromatise life together!
Likewise, where there is one untruth, there will always be many other consistent untruths that are like a swarm of hornets 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝that sting and kill!! PRE – NUPTUALS 🐝, SEPARATIONS 🐝, DIVORCES 🐝, EXTRA MARITAL AFFAIRS 🐝, WIFE SWAPPING 🐝, X-RATED MOVIES🐝, POLYGAMY🐝, COMMON LAW MARRIAGE🐝, CONTRACTS 🐝, 50-50 ARRANGEMENT 🐝.
ILLUSTRATION
There is no ‘AN UNTRUTH🌑’ (DARKNESS) apart from him who is ‘THE UNTRUTH 🌚!’ (John 8:44).
PLATO in His philosophy taught that the souls of good and virtuous men 👤👤👤, after they died, are turned into ANGELS OR GOOD DEMONS. They then fly around the world helping men and defending them from evil and mishaps. That is where the invocation of saints and angels came from in Catholicism!
His student Origen was implanted with Plato’s seeds and led early Christians astray with his mentor’s falsehoods.
Listen:
“EVERY A-TRUTH IS THE PRODUCT OF ‘THE TRUTH,’ AND EVERY ‘AN UNTRUTH’ IS THE PRODUCT OF ‘THE UNTRUTH.'”
Small wonder when America was still a Christian nation, that witnesses in the courtrooms had to raise their right ✋hands and swear,
“TO TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP ME GOD (THE TRUTH).”
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The TRUE Light 🌟
Of course, all of the Christmas lights were beautiful lights. THEY were eye candy 🍬at best. Very pleasant and appealing, as they not only dazzled our sight, but lifted our spirit as well.
They also have a very hypnotic effect that makes people actually believe that Santa 🎅 Claus and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer 🔴 actually do exist.
Santa of course is all decked out in red 🔴, while Rudolph’s nose even lights up bright red 🔴. Rudolph of course communicates with Santa Claus, and today Rudolph has an advertising contract with Mercedes Benz driven by Saint Knick. So the myth grows more absurd every year!
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It is far more than coincidental that the dominant color in the Bible is RED 🔴, and the dominant color of the world’s Christmas is RED 🔴.
It was the BLOODY RED 🔴 SACRIFICES OF ABEL’S WORSHIP THAT MADE HIM AND THEM ACCEPTABLE TO GOD.
It was the BLOODY RED 🔴 DOOR POSTS PAINTED WITH THE BLOOD OF LAMBS THAT DELIVERED THE ISRAELITES FROM THEIR EGYPTIAN HOUSE OF BONDAGE!
It was the PARTING OF THE RED SEA 🔴, NOT A BLUE 🔵 OR AQUA 🔘 OR BLACK 🌑 SEA, THAT LED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TO SAFETY FROM A DROWNED EGYPTIAN ARMY.
It was the BRIGHT RED 🔴 CORD HANGING FROM RAHAB’S WINDOW THAT SAVED THE PROSTITUTE AND HER FAMILY WHEN THE WALLS OF
JERICHO CAME TUMBLING DOWN.
It was the precious BLOOD 🔴 of Jesus poured out on the CROSS ON THE HILL OF GOLGATHA THAT WASHES US CLEAN FROM ALL OUR SINS.
In the world’s Christmas, SANTA CLAUS 🎅, the old bearded RED 🔴 AND WHITE 🍚 “FATHER CHRISTMAS” as he is called, is the world’s replacement of God the Father, the TRUE ANCIENT OF DAYS, WHO SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD 🌎 TO SAVE US FROM OUR SINS.
In the world’s Christmas it is none other than RUDOLPH the RED NOSE REINDEER 🔴 WHO LEADS THE 9 REINDEER THROUGH THE SKIES TO GIVE GIFTS TO GOOD PEOPLE, AND WHO REPLACES JESUS CHRIST WHO COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN TO SHED HIS BLOOD 🔴 FOR BAD PEOPLE.
There you have it! The FALSE GOSPEL LIGHT OF FATHER CHRISTMAS AND HIS RED NOSE 🔴DEER, HAS REPLACED THE TRUE GOSPEL LIGHT OF FATHER GOD AND HIS DEAR SON SENT TO DIE 🔴 FOR SINNERS.
In the world’s Christmas, a reindeer replaces the Lamb of God!
False light and TRUE LIGHT! Dead red 🔴 and LIVING RED 🔴, FOR ETERNAL LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS!
Part 2 Coming Soon
