DEAR News Of The Area,

CHRISTMAS is exciting.

End-of-year activities, Christmas decorations, the coming summer holidays, and planned family get-togethers fuel the feeling of anticipation.

Most of us know the Christmas story about baby Jesus in the manger, his parents Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men.

But in Australian shopping malls, and in our media, the Christmas story is massively overshadowed by Santa and his reindeers.

Busy as Christmas is, please pause for just a minute to consider the significance of Jesus’ birth, if indeed what the Bible says is true.

You may feel uncertain whether God exists, thinking that science has dispensed with the need for God.

In fact, the reverse is true!

The more astro-physicists probe space and time, the more certain it is that the universe had a beginning and therefore must have had a creator.

And the more molecular biologists research the cell and DNA, the clearer it is that there is a mind behind it all.

Not only that, but the universe is so finely tuned, that mathematically, the probability of humans happening by chance is practically zero.

The weight of scientific evidence is for the existence of God.

The Bible relates (accurately but not scientifically) how God created the universe and prepared this incredible planet earth so that we humans could flourish as his children. Although mankind has done great things, we have made a mess of this planet, of our relationships with each other and of our relationships with God.

We have made it a broken world.

Here is the huge significance of Jesus’ birth: God sent Jesus to reconcile us sinners to himself through his life on earth and his atoning death on the cross on our behalf.

In other words, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins – we are saved if we trust in Jesus. And God proved this by raising Jesus from the grave.

All the evidence indicates that this is true.

A loving relationship with God in this life and in eternity beyond, surpasses any Christmas present we could receive.

Regards,
Ross FERRIER,
Fingal Bay.