Christmas 2008 (an open letter)

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas to all of you! Our family wishes you and your family a great holiday season! It’s a good time of year to reflect on life, to consider all of God’s blessings and to keep in touch! This Christmas we made some minor changes. We didn’t make Christmas cards and we’re emailing this Christmas letter instead. Also, no pine tree, we decided to decorate our palm tree instead. The most important thing for us is not to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas, the joy of Christ’s birth!

The Righteousness Root

In our Sunday studies through the Bible we have been continuing through the Hebrews letter, a great letter for understanding the roots of “the olive tree” described in Romans 11 to which gentile Christian believers have been grafted. We saw how Jesus, the Messiah, exceeded the priestly requirements as our Great High Priest, He Himself becoming the very sacrifice He offered for us, as prophesied in the Ketuvim, Isaiah 53.10, where it is written "Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin."

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, was the one holiday where basically one person did everything, the high priest. Though it was his personal responsibility, the details of this busy day were studied by all, both young and old in the Jewish community. On that most holy day, the most holy man entered the most holy place to perform the most holy duties. But he himself was imperfect and needed to repent and confess his own sins first before representing the people before God. Jesus, however, did not need to repent of anything, for he was sinless. It is remarkable to see how Jesus fulfilled so many of the details ascribed to the sacrificial system, details of the ceremonies etc. as described in the Tanakh, known to Christians as the Old Testament. The Tanakh consists of three sections: Firstly, the, Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible, then the Nevi’im, 8 books which includes the 12 minor prophets as 1 book. Then the Ketuvim includes all the remaining books.

Planning for Panic

No sooner is the Thanksgiving Holiday over than we’re served up the latest raw news on the harsh reality of our perilous times:

November 28 – Death for a Hot Deal: At 5:00 am an unnamed worker is trampled to death by bargain seekers at a Wal-Mart who “physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground,” a police statement said. “He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too…I literally had to fight people off my back.” A co-worker explained. This Daily News link shows photos of the mayhem on the biggest US shopping day.