Grade Day: December 20

so... for the people that were not there for grade day... here is my bible study that i did!

Bible Study

Christmas

Why was December 25 considered as Jesus’ birthday? Ask Everyone

Luke 2:1-3

December 25 was chosen for Jesus’ birthday because no one knew the actual day or date of his birth. Luke tells us it happened when the Roman emperor Augustus ruled the world. But he doesn’t give us the day or the month. Romans already celebrated the festival of Saturnalia in December. The general holiday gave Christians time for their own celebrations. The Scandinavian mid-winter Yuletide festival was transformed into the birthday feast of Jesus Christ.

Why do we give gifts on Christmas? Ask Everyone

Matthew 2:1-12

John 3:16

John tells us that God loved us so much that he gave us Jesus, his Son. When Paul thought about that most wonderful of all presents he exclaimed, “Let us thank God for his priceless gift.” Many of the Christmas customs we enjoy today are left over from long ago, from the days before December was taken over as Jesus’ festival. Giving presents, eating special foods, decorating homes, lighting candles, all began in the long distant past. Because these customs were so deeply rooted in the minds and memories of the people, the Christian leaders of then had to let them stay. But they were given new meanings.

The Love of God

What is Love? Define

God’s love is his holy disposition toward all that he has created that compels him to express unconditional affection and selective correction to provide the highest quality of existence, both now and forever, for the object of his love.

1 Corinthians 13

John 3:16

In the Bible, we find a particular word used to name the love that God exhibits: agape. English uses one word (love) in dozens of settings, but Greek has several words that often end up being translated into our language as love. God’s agape-love is characterized by being giving, sacrificial, unconditional, and boundless. Read John 3:16

This verse illustrates the characteristics listed above. God gave sacrificially (“his one and only Son”) so that anyone who believes (“whoever”) could have boundless abundance (“eternal life”).

1 John 4:7-21

Romans 8: 38-39

Share examples of God’s love in your life

Closing Prayer

O Lord, our God who is love, as we consider the infinite nature of your compassion, mercy and favour, grant that we might grasp and accept the reality of your love, abandon all the things we’ve tried to use as substitutes, and sacrificially demonstrate your love to others.

Let us rely on and rest in the certainly of your unconditional love, even when we don’t feel it. Help us to see it even in difficult times, to know that it’s always there regardless of our performance, and to thank you for it constantly. Let it really sink into our heart as we’ve never known it before. In Jesus’ name, Amen.