How to celebrate Christmas!

          <ESPAÑOL>

December 24th

How to celebrate Christmas!

With Total Redemption!

By Riqui Ricón*

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life (Luke 1:68-75, KJV).

God has never failed His Word. He did not fail Abraham regarding the promise that in his seed all the families of the Earth would be blessed, and He will not fail you today either.

Jesus Christ is the Mighty Savior who has redeemed you from the power of sin and every curse, so that, today, you may serve Him in His Presence in holiness and righteousness; for through His Blood, His death, and His resurrection, you have been Born Again. You are a Child of God!

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:25-28, KJV).

The New Covenant promised by God in Jeremiah 31 began its fulfillment on a night like tonight when Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, when our Savior arrived in the world. Through Jesus Christ, you were cleansed from all

your filthiness and sins and, furthermore, created anew with a new heart and spirit. As if this were not enough, you were given the Holy Spirit of the promise as the guarantee of the fulfillment of everything promised in the New Covenant: That He, the Lord, will do a totally New work in you so that you walk in His statutes and keep His precepts and carry them out.

As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever (Isaiah 59:21, KJV).

He promised it! He fulfilled it!

God commits His Honor and His Word that, in this New Covenant, His Presence and His Word will never be lacking in your life, nor in the lives of your children, nor in the lives of your children's children.

As you can see, the work of Redemption is most amazing. God took upon Himself the responsibility for your salvation, for it does not depend on what you have done or can do, but on what He promised He would do to save you and what He already did for you in the person of His Son Jesus Christ:

1.    He paid for all your sins to fulfill all righteousness.

2.    He forgave all your wickedness and remembers your sins no more.

3.    He gave you a New heart.

4.    He created you again, making you a totally new spirit.

5.    He put His Holy Spirit within you and with you as the guarantee of the promise.

6.    He placed His Law in your mind and wrote it on your new heart.

In short, that night in Bethlehem, Jesus appeared in the world as the fulfillment of the Father's promise to pay for all your sins and justify you. Once justified, He forgave you; once forgiven, He sanctified you to make you be Born Again, giving you the Eternal Life that only the Children of God can enjoy, for now, just like Jesus, you have been begotten by the Holy Spirit of God.

I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine

inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession (Psalm 2:7- 8, KJV).

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 John 5:1, NIV).

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter 1:23, KJV).

Undoubtedly, you are a Born Again Child of God, and not from a seed that can be corrupted but from the incorruptible seed which is the Word of God, which lives and remains forever.

And this, my beloved, is called Total Redemption!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17, KJV).

So, celebrate this Christmas believing that God loves you so much He preferred to give up His own Son rather than lose you.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him (1 John 3:1, NIV).

Celebrate this Christmas knowing that you are totally and genuinely a Beloved Child of God.

Let’s pray out loud:

Beloved heavenly Father, on this very special day when we remember the night Your Son Jesus came into the world to fulfill Your Word, I cannot do less than thank You and tell You how much I love You. Lord Jesus, I cannot find enough words to declare my love and gratitude to You. Because of what You did for me on that cross, I was made righteous; by overcoming death and rising from the dead, You opened the way for me to Eternal Life. Holy Spirit, by giving me the faith to believe in the Word of God, to believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior, You made me be Born Again, endowing me with the Eternal Life that He

paid for with the price of His Blood. Now, by the Blood of the New Covenant, I am a New Creation; old things have passed away, and behold, my entire life is made new. Thank You Father! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Holy Spirit! Now I understand more why in all things I am more than a conqueror, for I can do ALL things through Christ Jesus, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I know I am Yours, Father, and that I have overcome them (the world and its deceptive desires), for greater are You, Holy Spirit, who are in me and with me, than he who is in the world. I know I am a Child of the King because of what Jesus did out of Love for me. Therefore, this Christmas Eve, I believe and accept Your sacrifice of Love, Your precious Blood shed to the last drop as the price of my total redemption. Thank You, my Lord Jesus. I declare that I am healed! I am free! I am prosperous! I am happy! I am a Born Again Child of God! In the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

 

 

 

Important Note:

How do I become a Child of God? How do I establish a relationship with the Almighty?

Just say the following prayer aloud, putting all your attention and heart into what you are saying to God:

 

Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God. That You came into this world, born of the virgin Mary, to pay for all my sins, and I have been a sinner. Therefore, today I say that I accept. I accept Your sacrifice on the cross! I accept Your precious Blood shed to the last drop out of love for me! I open my heart to You and invite You in because I want, Lord Jesus, that from today and forever You be my only and sufficient Savior, my God, my King, and my Lord.

Thank You, Almighty God, because with this simple prayer and profession of faith I have passed from death to Life, I have been transferred from darkness to Your marvelous Light. Today I have been Born Again! God, now I am Your Child! Now You are my Father! I will never be alone again! I will never live defeated again. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

Three Recommendations:

What just happened by you recognizing Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life, according to God's Word, is that you have been Born Again. No longer as an ordinary human being, subject to the law of sin and death, but now as a legitimate and authentic Child of God, Born Again, exactly like Jesus Christ, who is now your Older Brother. Therefore, I give you these three, very important, recommendations:

1.    Pray. Praying is talking with God. So, find a quiet place where you can begin talking to Him about everything. Do it out loud, and you will notice how God always responds to your heart.

 

2.    Read and meditate on the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God, so get a Bible and start reading and meditating on it. How do you begin? It’s very simple. Depending on the day, look up the reading program “The

Bible in One Year” and do the corresponding readings. You can get this program at: Through The Bible In One Year (palabradehonor.org). You will notice that the program is set up so you can print it as a booklet.

 

3.    In prayer with God, your Father, look for and join a Christian church or congregation where the Word of God is taught based on the Good News, which are the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Ricardo C. Peredo Jaime © 2020

Reading and Meditation on the Word of God

Do these daily readings, and by the end of one year you will have read the entire Bible.

December 24    Luke 1.57-80 / Ezekiel 35-36 / Isaiah 59 Luke

57  Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

58  And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.

59  And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

60  And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.

61  And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.

62  And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

63  And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.

64  And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.

65  And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea.

66  And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.

67  And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

68  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

69  And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

70  As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

71  That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

72  To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;

73  The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

74  That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

75  In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

76  And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;

77  To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

78  Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79  To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

80  And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

 

 

Ezekiel

 

35 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2  Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,

3  And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.

4  I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

5  Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:

6  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.

7  Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.

8  And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.

9  I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

10  Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:

11  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

12  And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.

13  Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.

14  Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.

15  As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

36 Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:

2  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:

3  Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:

4  Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;

5  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have

appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

6  Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:

7  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.

8  But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

9  For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:

10  And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

11  And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

12  Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men.

13  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations:

14  Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.

15  Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD.

16  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

17  Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

18  Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

19  And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

20  And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

21  But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

22  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

23  And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

24  For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

28  And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29  I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

30  And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

31  Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

32  Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

33  Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

34  And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

35  And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

36  Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

37  Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38  As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

 

 

Isaiah

 

59 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

4  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

5  They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

6  Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

7  Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

9  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

11  We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

15  Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

16  And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

17  For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

18  According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.

19  So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

20  And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.

21  As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.