The whole story of Christmas is meaningless, weird or even ridiculous until God opens your eyes\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a God-hating anti-christian, I still remember Christmas as just a time where obligation led to getting drunk with family (instead of friends).\u00a0<\/p>\n
I may have been able to tell you it was something to do with \u2018Jesus\u2019 or some old religious fable, but that was about it. Imagine my surprise when God opened my eyes to the fact that:\u00a0<\/p>\n
– He existed
– I was not the \u2018good person\u2019 I thought I was
– I was actually guilty of A LOT of things He had banned (sin)
– He sent Jesus to pay the penalty for my sin so I could be free (!)
– Heaven & Hell were real<\/p>\n
Now, I see Christmas *very* differently\u2026<\/p>\n
A time where we remember some highly educated and distinguished men were supernaturally guided to the manager-side of God’s forecast King. Giving Him symbolic gifts (Gold for a King, Frankincense for a Priest and Myrrh for one destined to die), they did what many did: they worshipped Him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You should too!\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t want to – that\u2019s fine, it just indicates that you are still on the un-enlightened side of the fence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My prayer for you this Christmas season is that you would be willing for God to open your eyes to His Truth. Speaking from experience, it changes *everything*.<\/p>\n
Knowing who God actually is, knowing the love He has for you, knowing who He made you to be, knowing that your soul is secure for eternity, knowing there is purpose and meaning in every single second of your history, knowing that God is in control and always will be…<\/p>\n
OF COURSE you will want to worship Him! OF COURSE you will want to sing\u2026
Angels we have heard on high
O Holy Night
The first Noel\u2026\u00a0
Joy to the world!\u00a0
Come let us adore Him\u2026 \u00a0
Glory to God in the highest!\u00a0<\/p>\n
#thankYouJesus #neverthesame #life #christmas\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The whole story of Christmas is meaningless, weird or even ridiculous until God opens your eyes\u2026\u00a0 As a God-hating anti-christian, I still remember Christmas as just a time where obligation led to getting drunk with family (instead of friends).\u00a0 I may have been able to tell you it was something to do with \u2018Jesus\u2019 or some old religious fable, but that was about it. Imagine my surprise when God opened my eyes to the fact that:\u00a0 – He existed– I was not the \u2018good person\u2019 I thought I was– I was actually guilty of A LOT of things He had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[206,18],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-nativities","category-for-thought","tag-christmas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Jesus-is-the-Reason-for-the-Season-.jpg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasDCW-zq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}