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Christmas: A Call to Remember

"Over half a century ago," stated Solzhenitsyn, "while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God, that’s why all this has happened.’"

"And if I were called upon to identify the principal trait of the entire twentieth century," Solzhenitsyn continued, "I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God’."

Besides the onslaught of godless Communism, among some of the other tragic consequences of men forgetting God in this century have been World Wars I and II, followed by the division of Eastern Europe, the Korean, Vietnam, Mid-East, and endless other wars, growing terrorism, and the threat of total annihilation through nuclear warfare.

The history of the Jewish people, and indeed of all the world, has repeatedly shown that when individuals and nations forget God, they ultimately lead themselves to self-destruction.

But every year Christmas comes around to call us to remember God and to turn back to him—as individuals—to save us from eternal damnation and—as nations—to save us from self-destruction.

Another great tragedy of our time is that, instead of recognizing Christmas as God’s call to turn back to him, people look for a vision or an emotional high or something electric as a sign of God’s presence. And they miss him. When Christ came the first time, people didn’t recognize him because he didn’t come the way they expected him to come either. And they missed not only the opportunity of a lifetime but also of an eternity!

People look for a vision or
an emotional high or something
electric. And they miss him.

Don’t miss Christ’s call to you this Christmas because you don’t have some experience out of the ordinary. God speaks to us through the ordinary, and commitment to him is a step of faith based on an act of your wil—with or without any feelings or great flashes of insight.

C. S. Lewis, one of the great thinkers of the past century, was a professor at Cambridge, a well-known author, an outstanding lecturer and, for many years, an atheist. He is a good example of a person who made a calculated, rather than an emotional, commitment to Christ. He said, "In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in, and admitted that God was God ... perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

Christ’s call to commitment is the same today as it has been for the past two thousand years: "Come to me all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest." 3

If you believe the true meaning of Christmas—that Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth to die for your sins—and you have never made a commitment of your life to him, or if you sense a need to recommit your life to him, click on the "God's Invitation" button link below for further help.

1. Matthew 1:23 (NIV).  
2. Matthew 1:20 (NIV).  
3. Matthew 11:28.

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All articles on this website are written by
Richard (Dick) Innes unless otherwise stated.