But, what do we actually mean by CHRISTmas? Well, most of us neglect the true essence of the season. Some of us say, JESUS is the reason for this Season, but we don't really understand why HE was born. Let me tell you something..
Simply,
"JESUS is the expression of God's love."
He gave His one & only begotten SON just to save the whole world from SIN.
That's plain simple, right? But some or even most of us thought of Christmas as an occasion or an event to celebrate with our loved ones. Nothing is wrong with that, but we tend to forget that it's JESUS' birthday, not everybody elses.
Now, let me ask you this, what do used to see during Christmas? Our beloved gift giver Santa Claus together with his reindeers? The big Christmas trees in our homes? The twinkling Christmas lights on our windows? Or the gifts that we give to everyone? Well, I have nothing against on all of those things, it's just that, we do sometimes neglect that Christmas is about the Bethlehem story, that Christ was born to redeem us from our sins. I got this one text message that says, that unless we don't see the shadow of the cross on the cradle, we may not understand the real essence of Christmas.
Now, why do we sometimes came up with a shortcut of the word Christmas to X'mas? Hmm. I guess you already know what I mean. It's not that I have something against that, but for some, it shows disrespect to the word that replaced it, Christ.
Just to give you the history of it. Let me share my research about it.
Usage of X for Christ
"Xmas" and "X-mas" are common abbreviations of the word "Christmas". They are sometimes pronounced "eksmas", but they, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the pronunciation "Christmas". The "-mas" part came from the Latin-derived Old English word for "mass". This abbreviation is widely used but not universally accepted. Many do not know about its antiquity and believe it to be of commercial origin and thus demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it a helpful abbreviation.
In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas)
That's it. So, there's really nothing wrong with it. Alright. I guess, that's all I could say for this blog. Just to end, Christmas is not only just a time for celebrations/parties, reunions, gifts, christmas trees and especially Santa Claus. But it's JESUS CHRIST who won it all. As we used to hear, Jesus is the reason for the season. I do strongly agree. And Christmas doesn't end every December. But we could express the spirit of giving, love and care the whole year round. So, thanks again for spending your precious time on reading this post. Hold on to my next post. God Bless you.Ü
Simply,
"JESUS is the expression of God's love."
He gave His one & only begotten SON just to save the whole world from SIN.
That's plain simple, right? But some or even most of us thought of Christmas as an occasion or an event to celebrate with our loved ones. Nothing is wrong with that, but we tend to forget that it's JESUS' birthday, not everybody elses.
Now, let me ask you this, what do used to see during Christmas? Our beloved gift giver Santa Claus together with his reindeers? The big Christmas trees in our homes? The twinkling Christmas lights on our windows? Or the gifts that we give to everyone? Well, I have nothing against on all of those things, it's just that, we do sometimes neglect that Christmas is about the Bethlehem story, that Christ was born to redeem us from our sins. I got this one text message that says, that unless we don't see the shadow of the cross on the cradle, we may not understand the real essence of Christmas.
Now, why do we sometimes came up with a shortcut of the word Christmas to X'mas? Hmm. I guess you already know what I mean. It's not that I have something against that, but for some, it shows disrespect to the word that replaced it, Christ.
Just to give you the history of it. Let me share my research about it.
Usage of X for Christ
"Xmas" and "X-mas" are common abbreviations of the word "Christmas". They are sometimes pronounced "eksmas", but they, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the pronunciation "Christmas". The "-mas" part came from the Latin-derived Old English word for "mass". This abbreviation is widely used but not universally accepted. Many do not know about its antiquity and believe it to be of commercial origin and thus demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it a helpful abbreviation.
In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas)
That's it. So, there's really nothing wrong with it. Alright. I guess, that's all I could say for this blog. Just to end, Christmas is not only just a time for celebrations/parties, reunions, gifts, christmas trees and especially Santa Claus. But it's JESUS CHRIST who won it all. As we used to hear, Jesus is the reason for the season. I do strongly agree. And Christmas doesn't end every December. But we could express the spirit of giving, love and care the whole year round. So, thanks again for spending your precious time on reading this post. Hold on to my next post. God Bless you.Ü
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