CHRISTMAS MESSAGE:
More of Our Identity in Jesus Christ and Less of Our Earthly Identity
~ Pastor Th. Mangthianlal

The other day I was struggling for a long time in order to use a correct and meaningful portrayal of Christmas picture for my facebook profile cover. In the process I stumbled upon one important fact - that much of the Christmas cards, costumes, wishes, greetings, designs, and photos we use were far away from the true message of Christmas. And that is why I use to be very careful till today to avoid the use of Santa Claus in Christmas celebration. Last week I shared in facebook one beautiful Christmas story but quickly I had to delete it again as it has a Santa Claus tag for I am afraid that I may point to others Santa and not God.

Let me explain that. As a person who has an interest in art, one thing I learn about Christian art work-mission is that the art is not an end in itself. Symbols, designs and gestures use in Christianity is not just for the sake of the enjoyment of it. It has a goal. It conveys or points to a deeper truth. Just like the cross symbolizes that Jesus Christ died for us in order to save us from our sins and rose again on the third day, the picture of baby Jesus Christ in a manger with Joseph and Mary and with animals around conveys to us the truth about our Savior incarnating in flesh and blood with a goal to save us from our sin and eternal damnation.

If I use a card or home decoration or costume of Santa Claus, it conveys to non-believers or to my children or those who saw it not about Jesus Christ but about enjoyment and gift and partying. It points to something about all merrying. But if I use a different picture which portrays about Jesus birth in one way or another, it points to a deeper spirituality and historical reality that Jesus Christ in person was born in flesh and blood who ultimately died for us at the Cross with an aim to redeem us and give us eternal life. His ultimate goal was to restore our spiritual state that we become child of God.

At last, my struggle was over when brother Nathan Bawm from Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh posted a very beautifully drawn Christmas photo with a cultural touch. It was about the nativity scene in a CHT hamlet background. He himself wrote it.
Today, apart from our original sin and our personal sins, God want us to save us from one Satanic stronghold of bondage which most of us are trapped into it. This is about the sins of earthly identity. This has to do with our over identification with culture, language, land and organization. It is about the way we put number one our tribe identity above our identity in Christ Jesus. This is idolatry in the sight of God for a simple Biblical understanding  of idolatry is putting something or someone more higher or important than God. The Word of God exhorts us to seek first His kingdom and then all earthly things will also fall into its perfect place. But we seek after these things first and the more we seek after it, it seems we are chasing away farther and farther.

If you are not having a saving faith experience till now, this Christmas is a very good time for you to believe in Jesus Christ and confess your sin and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior into your heart and life (right now you may do it). The Word of God says. “Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved” (Rom. 10:9-10).

And for those who already experience salvation in a personal way, let us review whether the way we preserve or exert our physical identity is a reflection of a child of God? Let us follow the true footsteps of a disciple of Christ. Let us seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness this Christmas and all through our life. For we all know that if we love our earthly identity, people and land more than we love God, we will destroy everything we love and care. If our physical identity and not our spiritual identity is our prerogative, then we are nothing but idol worshipper. And the sure end of idolatrousness is destruction. May this Christmas be a call for all of us to love Jesus Christ supremely with all our heart, mind and soul and with all our being! And may that totality of God’s love in our hearts cast away the obsession of our tribal affiliations and mindsets which Satan has a stronghold. In this way, we will love less of ourselves and each others’ and more of God. And in loving more of God and less of ourselves and each others’, we will come to a state of reconciliation, peace and unity. In the process, we will begin to experience the love of our fellow brothers and sisters in a mysterious way. And Christmas will really be born and meaningful in our hearts, land and lives! The story of Christmas, coming alive in oour individuals and community-Nation's life, is our only hope in this part of the world..and in every part of the world! Christmas is the true and only answer for all our social ills and probelms rooted in our original sin. May Jesus Christ saves us from this original sin and from our idolatrous lifestyle. Happy Christmas dear folks and God bless you all!