{"id":24883,"date":"2016-11-01T08:02:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T14:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=24883"},"modified":"2016-11-01T08:02:36","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T14:02:36","slug":"christmas-connection-with-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/christmas-connection-with-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Connection with the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChristmasMany limit the Christmas<\/a> connection with the dead as merely something from the imagination of Charles Dickens. <\/p>\n

As Scrooge is haunted by Marley he encounters many of the dead from his family and youth \u2013 and that has a huge connection to all that was sacred to those who celebrated the ancient Christmas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Halloween<\/a> in many parts of the world is actually a celebration of two or three days. There is All Hallow\u2019s Eve (Halloween<\/a>), Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and Dia de los Santos (Day of the Saints). <\/p>\n

Some Christians mistaken these days as a scary or even an evil connection to Satan. This is a false notion. <\/p>\n

Fear and faith are polar opposites and these days of recognition of the dead have much more to do with faith than of fear. <\/p>\n

The meaning of the word \u201challow\u201d is to make sacred \u2013 or to honor as holy. <\/p>\n

This is how people ancient felt about their dead family members. <\/p>\n

These days of Halloween<\/a> are a time when the dead are remembered, honored and prayed over before the season of light, hope and redemption known as Christmas<\/a> begins.<\/p>\n

The Apostle Matthew recorded \u201cNow the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Apostle Luke, in the Bible, renders a more plain meaning to the divine conception of Christ: \u201cThe Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest<\/em> shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God\u201d. <\/p>\n

The power of the Highest<\/em> is what separates Christ from any other mortal. <\/p>\n

Joseph and Mary had been reared with ancient scripture and knew what these things meant. <\/p>\n

When Mary was told the Baby\u2019s name would be Jesus she understood the significance of that name: The Hebrew root from which it was derived, Jehoshua, means \u201cJehovah is salvation\u201d. <\/p>\n

Joseph and Mary, indeed, many anciently knew that Jehovah was the Creator of all things, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob \u2013 the Holy One of Israel. <\/p>\n

When the Great God of the Universe condescended to be born of mortal woman, He submitted Himself to the infirmities of mortality, to \u201csuffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death\u201d. <\/p>\n

These infirmities He inherited from His mortal mother. <\/p>\n

But because His father was God, Jesus Christ had powers which no human had before or since. He was God in the flesh\u2014even the Son of God. These powers enabled Him to accomplish miracles, signs, wonders, the great Atonement, and the Resurrection\u2014all of which are additional marks of His divinity.<\/p>\n

It is because of Christ that people honor and even revere the dead. In the Book of Psalms it says \u201cPrecious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints\u201d.
\nHow and why can this be?<\/p>\n

The very mission of Christ and God is to \u201cbring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man\u201d. <\/p>\n

Nowhere is this more evident in the celebration of Christmas<\/a> than through the symbol of the Christmas<\/a> tree \u2013 which is really just an extension of Christ being the \u201ctree of life\u201d or that all humans live with the hope of eternal life. <\/p>\n

Christ himself taught of this many times. \u201cCome, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world\u201d. (Matthew 25:34). <\/p>\n

Christ taught this in His ministry. When Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, approached Jesus because his \u201clittle daughter lieth at the point of death\u201d Christ lovingly taught Jairus about the true nature of death. \u201cThe damsel is not dead,\u201d He said before even seeing the girl. \u201cBut sleepeth\u201d. <\/p>\n

Watch this transpire in this video:<\/p>\n