The good news of Jesus Christ is what is being celebrated at Christmas and for many the essence of Christ is lost in the midst of the festivities. I tend to believe the stories that give credence to the fact that the genesis of celebrating at this winter season is traceable to something other than the birth of Christ. It was a celebration that some people took over and made it a celebration aimed at the birth of Jesus. Whatever the genesis, the fact that a Savior was born is worthy of note and His purpose for coming needs to be told worldwide. Satan has always been known to shoot himself in the foot in many things he does, so here goes another one.

The story of salvation is too good to be true and it needs to be heralded. The birth of Jesus Christ brought good will to humanity. The great dividing wall between God and man can at last be bridged. Sin has brought eternal separation between God and man. Man in his own effort to get right with God always met with failure. Religion is the end result of man’s attempts. The good news is that God came in the person of His Son Jesus to reconcile us to Himself and is not imputing our trespasses against us. All we need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of our sins and get saved. Read 2 COR. 5: 17-21. A sinner can be redeemed from sin through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A lost man can become a child of God by the miracle of the new birth.

My meditation today is why this simple truth no longer seems to produce radical changes in people’s lives especially in some parts of the world. In fact the simple story is simply not believed and where some try to believe they meet such repulsion inside themselves to this simple sweet story. I think we need to throw some light on the story, how the death of the Man Jesus on the cross was what dealt a deathblow on Satan’s authority on earth. If however he can penetrate a person, family or area with a blinding influence on their minds to the gospel, they will not believe. In the bible, reading from 2 Corinthians 4:4-5, Satan is called the god of this world who blinds peoples’ minds and they do not believe.

Satan comes into lives through sin. He is authorized to enter anywhere sin is found. He has a right to enter when sin is permitted either ignorantly or deliberately. When he enters, he blocks God’s program in the area. He tries to escalate individual sin into a corporate sin and thereby establishing a legal hold on the area. Wherever you find people sinning with reckless abandon you know a corporate sin is established and Satan can now build his throne there. He also decapacitates the Church in that area so he does not get challenged. He does it by attacking the leadership and the basis of faith in the people to a point where there is no conviction to put up a fight to resist the enemy as in the days of old when we are told to resist the devil and he will flee.

All iniquity on earth is actually working from a satanic system of worship meant to usurp God's authority and keep lost souls in darkness to the truth of the gospel; a quote from a book: The Future War of the Church by Chuck Pierce and Rebecca Sytsema.

Jesus took the nature of sin on himself and when He died on the cross, the authority of Satan given by sin was destroyed. This is the fulfillment of what was said in Genesis, the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the enemy. Gen.3: 15. Satan's authority came through sin and as sin died on the cross his authority was crushed. That was eternally settled and it is up to us to enforce it or deny it to our detriment. The church is God's agent to enforce the victory of Calvary. Let us arise and shine for our light has come. It is time to celebrate our victory in Christ.

Rev Kola Ewuosho