Christmas: The Greatest Rescue Effort the World Has Ever Seen! by Dr. Joseph Chavady

We have seen quite a few natural disasters lately: earthquakes, floods, Tsunamis and volcano eruptions literally fill the news. Every time our hearts are touched by the sight of so many shattered lives. We wish we could be there with an infinite supply of food, medications and money and restore to the people all they have lost. But we often forget that we live our lives in the midst of a disaster of truly global proportions; a disaster that threatens every single human life and that will take the highest toll imaginable from its victims.

In The Beginning
In the beginning ... everything was perfect. Life was good, pure and just, and man lived to glorify God. Then came the Fall of Man. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered every human heart (Rom 6:23, 3:23). As a result every man became corrupted and unfit to live in the presence of God. Death entered our lives in the form of poverty, pain, war and bondage, and from then on every life was headed for the worst scenario possible: eternal separation from God, the Second Death. This is the disaster that has been taking place for thousands of years, with countless people being lost forever every single day.

Man-made Solutions
Even though many people simply look away and deny what is happening, there are also those who try to find human solutions. They realize they are sinful and headed for hell, and try to compensate by doing good deeds. One man may give away lots of money, while another subjects himself to strict rules and rituals or hopes to ‘pay’ for sin by religiously going to church. But being religious and doing good can never make up for the sins we commit against God, for “all our righteousness acts are like filthy rags” (Isa 64:6b).

God’s Solution Is Christmas
Though the global disaster is completely man’s doing and though no man deserves to be rescued, God decided to send us the most powerful Rescuer ever, His very own Son Jesus Christ. And that is what we celebrate on Christmas: the first step in His worldwide Rescue Plan. He sent His Son to be born on earth so that He could die in our place and pay the price for every sin committed. He did this because He loves us deeply and longs to restore every person back to Him. Through His death Jesus broke the power of death over our lives. And all those who believe in Him and surrender again to His authority are completely forgiven and saved from hell. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the father but through me” (John 14:6).

Grab the Hand of the Rescuer!
Have you surrendered your life fully to Christ? In order to be ‘rescued’ we need to invite Him to be the Lord (or boss) of our lives and then live according to His will alone. Just like a seed can only come to life if it dies in the ground, so we need to ‘kill’ our tendency to live for ourselves by putting God’s will above our own will every day of our lives. It is then that God starts to bring a completely new life into our heart, with new understanding, new desires and a completely new purpose. As we fully surrender to Him, He will bring forth great joy and victory, abundance and blessings for our life. This world will be shaken and will be destroyed by fire, but our inheritance in Christ cannot be shaken and it is secured for us in Christ. May this Christmas be a time that we truly understand the depth of his love for us!

God’s Solution Is Christmas

Forgive me for being a little naive but my question is, If God's answer to mankind's problems is Christmas which we celebrate to the fullest every year, don't you think all of these disasters, sickness, disease, wars, murder, greed etc..
would have ended already? but we rather see an increase in these disasters year after year.

How do we explain this to new converts like myself?

"..don't you think all of these disasters, sickness, disease, wars, murder, greed etc..
would have ended already?"

Not at all.

Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

It's necessary for sin to abound or grace won't abound. That is why Paul said right after that, "shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?". God forbid was his answer because we which are alive from the dead are free from the law of sin and death.

However, the world is not free from this law of sin and death, it's abiding in death now. As sin saturates the world, so grace is even more being saturated and the love of God is extending His arm to save even to the uttermost.

The way we see the world and the way God sees it, are two different opposites. We see it and we complain, God sees it and He loves.

Let me give you example.

The other day there was a long post given by an Indonesion fellow who was answering questions that Frank gave to which I obliged in answering too. But no where in that man's answers did he mention the name of Jesus. When I read it, I wanted to find out where he was coming from, and asked in the next post, "What is God's name?". As soon as I submitted that, Frank submitted his reply to this asian man and gave a far more reaching reply than I did.

I was the Law demanding what he believed.

Frank was Grace offering this man Jesus Christ.

I quickly ran back into the thread and erased my short post and simply put, "Praise God", I was humbled.

It's easy to gripe, it's easy to demand, but the message still rings out, "For God so loved the world that He gave".

The problems of this world, the sins the horrible things that men do will never go away until they die and be reborn in Christ.

God's solution is Jesus. God took an pagan holiday and turned into a worldwide celebration of the birth of His Son. Who cares of it's origin, we know better and serve Christ even on this day.

Paul even said about the giving of the thanks for meat offered in sacrifices to idols, eat it and don't ask questions. Things that pertain to this, the less we know the better.

Sorry Greg, I haven't read your original post, I am responding to the one after.