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    The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season
    The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season
    The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season
    Ebook149 pages2 hours

    The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season

    By Hank Hanegraaff

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    About this ebook

    Have Yourself a Historical and Inspirational Christmas!

    Let the Christ of Christmas prepare your heart for the celebration of His birth through a devotional journey beginning December 1st and climaxing Christmas day.  Each of the twenty-five devotions includes a Scripture reading, carol, and questions for meditation and discussion.  The acronym C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S (Christ, History, Resurrection, Incarnation, Santa Claus, Traditions, Miracles, Advent, Salvation) is used to focus on who Christ is and why He came.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateOct 12, 2009
    ISBN9781418580162
    The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season
    Author

    Hank Hanegraaff

    Hank Hanegraaff es presidente y moderador de la junta del Instituto Cristiano de Investigación, con sede en Carolina del Norte. También es el anfitrión de un programa nacional de radio que se escucha a diario en todo Estados Unidos y Canadá, y en el mundo entero por el portal equip.org de la Internet. Hank ha escrito más de veinte libros.  Considerado altamente como uno de los principales autores y apologistas cristianos, Hank está profundamente dedicado a la preparación de los cristianos para que estén tan familiarizados con la verdad, que cuando se presenten las falsificaciones en el horizonte, las puedan reconocer de inmediato. A través de su programa de llamadas en vivo, responde las preguntas a partir de una cuidadosa investigación y un razonamiento sólido, además de entrevistar a los líderes y pensadores más importantes del momento. 

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      Book preview

      The Heart of Christmas - Hank Hanegraaff

      CHRIST

      HISTORY

      RESURRECTION

      INCARNATION

      SANTA CLAUS

      TRADITIONS

      MIRACLES

      ADVENT

      SALVATION

      THE

      HEART

      OF

      Christmas

      A Devotional for the Season

      HANK HANEGRAAFF

      9781404187580_ePDF_0005_002

      Copyright © 2009 by Hank Hanegraaff

      All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

      Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

      All Scriptures are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-4041-8758-0

      Printed in China

      09 10 11 12 13 [HH] 6 5 4 3 2 1

      www.equip.org

      www.thomasnelson.com

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      CHRIST

      Day 1 THE LONG-AWAITED CHRIST

      Day 2 ISAIAH ’ S PROPHECY

      Day 3 THE GOLDEN KEY OF MESSIANIC PROPHECIES

      HISTORY

      Day 4 A PAGAN FESTIVAL ?

      Day 5 IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

      Day 6 GENEALOGIES OF THE BABE OF BETHLEHEM

      Day 7 CENSUS CONSIDERATIONS

      RESURRECTION

      Day 8 TIDINGS OF COMFORT AND JOY

      INCARNATION

      Day 9 IMMANUEL

      Day 10 ONE PERSON —TWO NATURES

      Day 11 DID THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS CLAIM TO BE GOD ?

      Day 12 WHAT CHILD IS THIS ?

      Day 13 THE PREEMINENT CHRIST

      SANTA CLAUS

      Day 14 CAN SANTA CLAUS BE SAVED ?

      TRADITIONS

      Day 15 THE CHRISTMAS TREE TRADITION

      Day 16 ARE IMAGES IDOLATROUS ?

      Day 17 THE MAGI

      Day 18 EPIPHANY

      Day 19 THE GIVING OF GIFTS

      MIRACLES

      Day 20 MIRACLE OR MYTH ?

      ADVENT

      Day 21 THE FIRST ADVENT

      Day 22 THE DAILY ADVENT OF CHRIST

      Day 23 THE FINAL ADVENT OF CHRIST

      SALVATION

      Day 24 YAHWEH IS SALVATION

      Day 25 THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

      NOTES

      CHRISTIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE

      INTRODUCTION

      Each year during Christmas, I communicate the truth concerning Christ’s coming in flesh. This year I want to take the truths of Christmas and turn them into a Christmas tradition. As such, the purpose of The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season is to ensure that just as you prepare your home for Christmas, you will likewise prepare your heart.

      As the culture begins promoting Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, Christians can begin preparing their hearts for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It is my hope and prayer that this year you will use this devotional for the season to begin a Christmas tradition that carries on until the year in which you meet your Savior face-to-face—and that even in your absence, your loved ones will carry the tradition forward.

      To make the journey memorable, I’ve organized this twenty-five-day odyssey around the acronym C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S.

      CHRIST

      Day 1

      THE LONG-AWAITED CHRIST

      Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;

      he is Christ the Lord.

      —LUKE 2:11

      We begin our journey to the heart of Christmas by zeroing in on the word Christ. In a biblically illiterate culture, many mistakenly suppose that Christ represents the last name of Jesus. In truth, Christ is a title that comes from the Greek (Christos) rendering of the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning anointed one. As such, the Christ of Christmas is the long-awaited Messiah who fulfills all the types and shadows of the Old Testament Scriptures.

      To fully grasp the significance of Christ’s messianic role, you must drink deeply from the wellspring of Old Testament prophecy. In Hebrews, as in the rest of the New Testament, the Old Testament history of Israel is interpreted as a succession of types that find ultimate fulfillment in the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Christ we celebrate at Christmas.

      In his letter to the Romans, Paul refers to Adam as a pattern (literally, type) of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:14). Likewise, Paul taught the believers at Colosse that the dietary laws, religious festivals, and Sabbath of the Old Covenant were a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:17).

      The interpretive principle of typology is equally persuasive in the Gospels. Christ’s successful resistance of temptation in the desert after forty days of fasting is a direct typological contrast to the disobedience of the Israelites that resulted in forty years of wilderness wanderings (Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). In remaining faithful to His Father, Christ did what Israel was unable to do. Christ is thus the true Israel, and all who are found in Christ are heirs according to the promises God made to Abraham (Galatians 3:29).

      Moreover, Jesus is revealed as the antitype (that to which the type points) of the Hebrew prophets through His preaching of repentance, His ministry of healing, His concern for the poor and social outcasts, and His death near Jerusalem. Though like the prophets in these ways, Christ is shown to be greater than all the previous prophets in the manner of His miraculous ministry, His claims to be God, and the vindication of those claims in His resurrection. According to Luke’s gospel, Jesus Himself, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets . . . explained to [his disciples] what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27).

      Today as you ponder the Christ of Christmas, remember that it is He alone who could emerge through the doorway of the Old Testament Scriptures.

      READING

      Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

      Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

      Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. (Luke 2:11–14)

      QUESTIONS

      1 What is the meaning of the word Christ?

      1 What are some of the Old Testament types and shadows that find fulfillment in Christ?

      CAROL

      JOY TO THE WORLD

      Isaac Watts

      Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

      Let earth receive her King;

      Let every heart prepare Him room,

      And heaven and nature sing,

      And heaven and nature sing,

      And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

      Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!

      Let men their songs employ;

      While fields and floods,

      Rocks, hills and plains

      Repeat the sounding joy,

      Repeat the sounding joy,

      Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

      No more let sins and sorrows grow,

      Nor thorns infest the ground;

      He comes to make His blessing flow

      Far as the curse is found,

      Far as the curse is found,

      Far as, far as, the curse is found.

      He rules the world with truth and grace,

      And makes the nations prove

      The glories of His righteousness,

      And wonders

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