The first recorded words God spoke were a command: “Let there be light.” And there was light. God separated the light from the darkness when he made night and day. From the moment of man’s first sin in Eden, spiritual darkness and light have been at cosmic war with each other. The struggle has been unrelenting, fierce, and irreconcilable. It has been manifest at a million different points of conflict throughout human history.

This is what the new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson publicly said about Christians Engaged:

“This is one of the key ministries in America working to equip and empower believers to stand for truth and make an impact on public policy and the direction of our country. ‘For such a time as this!’”

I can tell you, Christians Engaged is here for such a time as this.

A transformational gospel that has the power to redeem people from destruction cannot just be about the First Coming but it must also include the Second Coming as well.

It’s the centerpiece of the sacred and joyous celebration of Christmas. It was a first. No other god had ever done it. No other god could have conceived it. It was an offence, a scandal, a puzzle. The Greeks mocked it. The Jews rejected it. The Bible prophesied it and then proclaimed it. Without it, Christianity wouldn’t even be a very good story, to say nothing of The Greatest Story Ever Told.

The happy music and conversation in the background was oblivious to the painful desperation of one man. He sat alone at the bar. He raised his hands to his anguished and weary face. Tears filled his eyes. He bowed his head and with a whispering intensity, struggled through a simple, heartfelt prayer. “Dear Father in heaven. I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. Show me the way God.”

In the stillness of the night, darkness, like a heavy shroud, hung upon the world. A mournful despair held the nations in its grip. How long? How long would God’s people have to wait? At the appointed time, a shaft of light split the darkness. Mourning would turn to joy; despair would turn to hope… “A light has dawned.”

They are the timeless words and melodies that transcend the shifting tastes and styles of sacred music. They alone are the songs we go door to door singing at this time of year. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

Christmas carols.

The same words. The same music. “Contemporary worship” is powerless to stop them. Smoke, loud noise, darkness and blinking fluorescent lights cannot drown them out. Or update them or modernize them.

The Christmas story in sum: God incarnate, Man divine. Jesus was fully God and fully human. An essential truth of the Gospel. The Bible teaches that Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Jesus possessed every essential quality of being human, yet remained fully God.