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Pastor James McDonald is one of my all time favorite Pastors to listen to. He has a church in Elgin, IL called Harvest Bible Chapel. No coincidence that I like him, I'm from around there! Hope you like him too...check out http://walkintheword.com/

Light Up the Night

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." - John 3:19-21

One of the favorite traditions of the Christmas season is to turn on the Christmas tree lights and light up the night. Who doesn't love decorating the Christmas tree, then turning out all the other lights in the room to enjoy the ambience of the twinkling lights? Even a single candle burns brightly against the backdrop of darkness.

This tradition is well suited to the real celebration of the season. John 3:19 says that when Jesus Christ was born, the light came into the world. In fact, more than two hundred times in the Bible, God is described as light. Figuratively and literally, whenever God appears, light appears. It happened in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, and it will happen at the end of time; the book of Revelation tells us that in hell there will only be darkness and in heaven there will only be light.

Have you ever been in some pitch-black place when you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face? That's what life is like without Jesus. You can't fully appreciate the light until you feel the weight of the darkness.

If you feel lost, alone, and trapped - searching but not finding - Jesus Christ is the light.

If you feel cruelly crushed under the wrongs done to you, Jesus Christ is the light.

If you feel perplexed by an issue or circumstance that you can't figure out, Jesus Christ is the light.

Maybe loneliness, despair, and confusion describe you. If you want to know the way out, you first have to admit that you’re in darkness. You may not be ready to die, but you're also not fully living. You don't see any purpose to life, and you don't see any hope worth trusting. But all that can change right now.

Like any other genuine follower of Christ, nothing made sense to me either before I turned to Jesus. I couldn't sort out anything in this mixed-up world. But since receiving Jesus as my Savior, I understand what's going on. Although life still isn't perfect, and never will be until eternity, I realize what my own sin does to my life. Suddenly Christmas is so much more than a stale exchange of gifts and some silly guy in a red suit. At Christmas those of us who know Him celebrate the forgiveness of sin that can be found only in Jesus, the gift of Christmas.