1 John 4:4\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0You, dear children,\u00a0are from God and have overcome them,\u00a0because the one who is in you\u00a0is greater than the one who is in the world.<\/i><\/p>\n
After accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord we attended a church in a very cool building.\u00a0 Not modern, but very cool, lots of hidden passages and rooms.\u00a0 Afterward it was found out that the building, long before the church was established, had been used by the KKK.\u00a0 The thought of the KKK meeting in the same building so many years before was quite repulsive.\u00a0 At first thought it would be easy to think how could a church gather to worship Jesus in a building where formerly evil would gather?\u00a0 After talking to elders and praying about it, I began to think that the comparison of the dark history of the building versus what it was now being used for was really quite delightful!\u00a0 It would have been best if the KKK had never existed anywhere, but it had.\u00a0 This building had been polluted by them.\u00a0 It can bring shivers to think of the evil spirits that once called this building home.\u00a0 Yet, in an open display of light overcoming darkness and love being greater than hate, the building became occupied by saints who loved Jesus Christ as their Savior. \u00a0The former evil use was replaced by the incomparable good of God. \u00a0Anyone who loves God will celebrate that what was once a place where evil was propagated had become a place where God\u2019s love was now present.\u00a0 The evil spirits gone.\u00a0 All people of every race had become welcome.\u00a0 What evil used for bad God now used for God.\u00a0 Yet another win for God!<\/span><\/p>\n All of us were sinners, all were enemies of God, but Jesus came from Heaven to miraculously be born of a virgin woman to save us (Romans 5:8, 10, Colossians 1:21<\/b>).\u00a0 He came knowing that He would be tortured and die an excruciating death.\u00a0 Knowing what He must go through He stepped down from His throne beside the Father and came to redeem what only He could redeem (Philippians 2:8-11<\/b>).\u00a0 He redeemed us.\u00a0 Our spirits were housed in a body of corrupted flesh that had become the seed of evil desires.\u00a0 Our spirits had become housed in body that was filled with, and lusted after evil desires (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:10-18<\/b>).\u00a0 They were trapped with no hope of escape.\u00a0 But God loved His creation too much to leave it in that situation.\u00a0 He knew that we could not save ourselves (Matthew 19:25-26<\/b>), so He Himself came to save, to suffer and die for us.\u00a0 He appeared in the form of man to eventually die a most horrible death.\u00a0 He redeemed our souls from a house of death (Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Corinthians 5:21<\/b>).\u00a0 When we became born from above (John 3:<\/b>3<\/strong>) by submitting to Jesus as Savior and Lord then our souls were freed from the curse brought on by Adam and Eve.\u00a0 He instantly freed our souls to be one with God (1 Corinthians 6:17<\/b>) and began cleaning up the temporary housing we lived in. In an open display of light overcoming darkness and love being greater than hate, we became occupied by the Holy Spirit of God.\u00a0 Our spirits became instantly cleaned, all our evil vanquished, and no stain of sin upon us (Isaiah 1:18<\/b>).\u00a0 As saints who love Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we have been washed clean.\u00a0 What was once a dirty soul housed in a dirty body was washed clean.\u00a0 The Light of the World had overcome the darkness of the world and the flesh.\u00a0 The love of God had overcome the one who hates us and who seeks to destroy us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The truth of the story is that God can change the use of any building, any day, and any person to use for His glory.\u00a0 Peter and the Apostles had to learn that lesson (Acts 10:1-45<\/b>).\u00a0 They learned that the once unclean pagan could be cleaned to be used of God and to be eternally united with God.\u00a0 The Lord called the murderous Saul to become Paul to become His apostle and to write most of the New Testament (Acts 9<\/b>).\u00a0 Let\u2019s remember that God can change anything, any building, any man or any date, to be used for His purpose.\u00a0 Who is any man to say, other than as God has said, what God will do or not do.\u00a0 He is sovereign and He answers to no man.\u00a0 So yes, December 25th<\/sup>\u00a0was a pagan holiday but now it is mostly known as the day that the birth of Jesus is celebrated.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that a glorious thing that a date that was used for evil is now a date to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world?\u00a0 Was Jesus born on that day, no He was not.\u00a0 Do we know for certain what day He was born?\u00a0 No we do not.\u00a0 So celebrating the birth of Jesus had its beginning by men who meant well but who unfortunately chose a pagan holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 Today many have an understandable distaste for that.\u00a0 However as Paul learned, and so stated, we believers should not let any person judge us what day we consider holy (Colossians 2:16-17<\/b>).\u00a0 To fight over such things is to disregard the highest laws of love (Mark 12:30-31<\/b>).\u00a0 The one who celebrates the Lord\u2019s birth on December 25th<\/sup>\u00a0should not judge the one who does not and the one who does not should not judge the one who does lest they violate the meaning of the teaching of\u00a0Romans 1:4<\/b>.\u00a0 If one decides to celebrate the birth of Jesus on another day that they deem more appropriate, God bless them as they celebrated.\u00a0 We understand that the point is not whether a believer celebrates the birth of Jesus on one day or another, but that the birth of Jesus is celebrated.\u00a0 And the followers of Jesus should not designate only one specific day of remembrance, but, of course, should celebrate the birth and death of Jesus every day.\u00a0 Besides how does it glorify the Lord to fight with one or another over such a thing?\u00a0 So Family and Friends, I wish to all of you, whether on the 25th<\/sup>\u00a0or another day or every day, Merry Christmas and God\u2019s favor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God<\/i>.<\/p>\n Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 John 4:4\u00a0–\u00a0You, dear children,\u00a0are from God and have overcome them,\u00a0because the one who is in you\u00a0is greater than the one who is in the world. After accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord we attended a church in a very cool building.\u00a0 Not modern, but very cool, lots of hidden passages and rooms.\u00a0 Afterward…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1863,129,2526,103,100,93,101,94,1874,1871,17,10],"class_list":["post-1983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-colossians","tag-corinthians","tag-ephesisans","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-philippians","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1984,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}