Hey everybody, time for a quick coffee break.
And today's coffee break is actually going to be our Christmas message for this year
as well.
So let's turn our history book, so back to the year of 1914, when something absolutely
amazing happened, something tremendous.
It was a miracle.
And it became known as the Christmas truce.
And it's a testimony of the power and love of God.
You see, early December that year, the Pope had asked everyone for a ceasefire for Christmas.
After all, the world was at war.
Now officially, he was ignored.
The war was going to carry on business as usual.
That was the official, right?
However, on Christmas Eve that year, a miracle began to emerge and it covered a large portion
of the Western Front.
German soldiers laid down their weapons and they walked out into no man's land.
Some of them singing Christmas carols and doing their best to say, Merry Christmas.
Now initially, the British troops that were there, they were like, no, this is a trap,
we're not going to fall for it.
They were very much on guard, but they were curious, so they watched.
And it didn't take long for them to realize that their enemy was unarmed and was trying
to meet them in jest.
So they met them halfway across one of the deadliest landscapes ever to have been fought
on on the face of the earth.
Across the Western Front, soldiers could be heard singing Christmas carols, instruments
could be heard playing, even a soccer game broke out.
A soccer game, or depending on where you live, football, right?
But a football game.
And for Christmas, there was peace, joy, and love for many exhausted and tired war fighters.
Many of them wrote home.
Still a shock over the whole thing, disbelief, right?
And even just talking about it, it sounds very unbelievable, doesn't it?
A German lieutenant stated, quote, How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was, the English
officers felt the same way about it.
Thus Christmas, the celebration of love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends
for a time.
Mortal enemies became friends.
You know, there is only one person that has that kind of power.
Only one.
God.
God who put his love and joy into the hearts of his children.
No man on the planet could have pulled that off without the Holy Spirit.
It was love, plain and simple, God's love for each and every one of us.
And it shows that he's still with us.
He's still with us.
And as we celebrate his birth, we need to reflect on his life.
We need to reflect on his death, resurrection, and the ascension.
Jesus came to set us free so we could live in fellowship with him.
And how do we honor him?
And all those who have gone on to be with him?
Well, by following his example.
See what we need to do is we need to ask Jesus into our hearts and live a life of reaching
out to others in his love.
Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20, the Bible says, then Jesus came to them and said, all
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you to the very end of the age.
In this Christmas season, renew your answer to the great commission, because God didn't
say come to me.
Rather, he says, I am with you every step of the way.
And it only takes a mustard grain of faith.
And that, that is the least we could do in return for the great love and sacrifice that
he's given us.
From all of us here to all of you out there, Merry Christmas.