Christmas 2021 Message 1

INTRO: I am going to do a message this morning related to Christmas. I had wanted to do a few messages on mercy, but after writing a few messages, I was not quite prepared to go ahead. I believe an understanding of the word agapee love, grace, and mercy would change the Christian Church if they were rightly understood. So in the next series of messages, when I've had more time, Lord willing I will do a few messages on mercy and one on Romans 9.
Let me just add here that we will have a New Year's service. I plan to give the first message on the book of Hebrews on that day and give us some background information to the political climate of the time in which they would have become Christians. I am doing that to take two birds with one stone, as they say. It will be an introduction to messages to come, and I trust it will encourage us to face our present world situation in the year to come.
This coming Saturday we will commemorate the birth of Christ. In 2018 I started to go through the Christmas story in chronological order and simply commenting on passages that stood out to me. That is different from my usual procedure. So instead of doing heavy duty studying as I do throughout the year I would take things a little easier.