COMING EVENTS FOR
GOOD HOPE LUTHERAN CHURCH
To see what's coming up in the next few months Click:
NEW BIBLE STUDY FROM CROSSWAYS INTERNATIONAL
CHRISTMAS - THE REAL STORY
WHERE
Good Hope Lutheran Church
12030 Market Street
North Lima, Ohio
WHEN
Wednesdays, November 25 - December 23, 2009
TIME
6:30 - 8:00 am - 10:00 am - 12 Noon - 7:00 - 9:00 pm
COST $10.00
LEADER/FACILITATOR Rev. Ralph Edwards/Beth Stricko
To sign up for this Bible study, please call the church office at 330-549-2406. Please specify what time you would like to attend.
In Western society, the significance of Christmas is sometimes gutted of its true meaning. The commercial world has contributed to this, and many people have bought into it. The commercial world sets out to persuade people to buy things that few really need, with money they do not have, to give to people who already have more than enough. The result is that society sees Christmas as a time for gathering, giving, and receiving. Gifts not given to family are given to friends.
Within the church at large, some see Christmas merely as a time when people remember the birth of Baby Jesus, and the visits of shepherds and Wise Men. Hence, a week or two before Christmas, they enjoy watching children participate in a pageant in which they act out the events that supposedly took place in Bethlehem on that first Christmas so long ago.
However, Christmas is about more than the birth of a baby Child. Its truths challenge even the most adult minds. It is about God Himself breaking into creation and history in the flesh-and-blood Person of Jesus the Messiah. It is not about people giving gifts to each other. It is about God giving Himself unto death so that He might give His people abundant and eternal life. it is about God saving His people - not from the Romans, but from their sins, Matthew 1:21. The story is profound, grand, and glorious!
If we are to hear God's Christmas message fully, we must bear in mind that the Church Year begins with the four Sundays of Advent, and that they precede Christmas. The purpose of Advent (literally, "The Coming") is not to prepare us to celebrate the Savior's first coming. It is to prepare us for His second coming - or better, His final appearing. Its purpose is to remind us that He who once came as a Babe at Bethlehem will come again in glory on the Last Day to say "Finish!" to time, and to bid eternity begin. He who once came will come again, so be ready for His coming!
In this study, we shall analyze the big Christmas story. We shall probe the message it proclaimed to those who lived when it first happened, and the implications of that message for us today.