The story of Jesus Christ's birth has been told and retold for nearly 2000 years, in some of the most beloved chapters of the Bible. However, there are more chapters that are equally important that need to be read, too. To start at the beginning of the Gospels with Christ's birth and stop there is like always reading the first chapter of a book and never finishing it.

Baby Jesus fits in well with baby Christianity. He is small and sweet and a lot less threatening than grown up King Jesus armed with the Sword of the Word and mounted on a white steed readying for that ride leading His troops to victory at Armageddon. Just so, baby Christianity with its simple lessons in salvation and morality is a lot less threatening than lessons on Jesus as King and High Priest of an Earthly kingdom under his rule and our place either in His kingdom or confined with Satan.

Our knowledge of what Christianity means needs to reach maturity, too. Just as small children are taught simple lessons on right and wrong for their culture first and later the more complex laws and government system of their country, we need to learn about the kingdom of God as a kingdom and not just as a moral system. Jesus is not coming back as a baby or even as an angry nanny to spank bad children in the nursery. He is coming to rule as a King, a King far more powerful than any Earthly king ever was and Who will never die and Who will rule us forever.

Jesus grew up to manhood and became a rabbi teaching his disciples the words that His Father gave Him of how life should be lived. He restored sight to the blind, healed lepers and the lame, restored hearing to the deaf, and even raised the dead. In miracle after miracle, He gave undeniable proof that He was indeed the Son of God, sent to tell us of the Father's love for us and to provide the only way for us to be reconciled to the Father, through Christ paying the price for our sins on the cross and rising from the dead again after three days. Yet this wasn't the last chapter, either.

After He rose from the dead, with hundreds of witnesses to swear to the truth of this, He charged His disciples to tell the world the good news that the way to the Father was now open to those who would come to Him. Under the leadership and inspiration of God through the Holy Spirit who came to them after Jesus went back to Heaven, those disciples spread the message across the known world. His disciples are still spreading it today through all the means available. Yet this isn't the last chapter, either.

The Bible is a living book whose chapters are not only past history, but present and future history. We are literally living out our parts of this book as the chapters unfold. We are approaching the last chapters of this book, the book of Revelation. The final chapters tell of Christ's Rapture of the Church, the seven years of the Tribulation, and the Second Coming. They tell of a 1000 year reign of King Jesus, the final defeat of our foe Satan, and the establishment of a new Heavens and a new Earth without sin, pain, sorrow or death. They are the most hoped for chapters of the story for Christians, and all the signs of the time indicate that we are living the opening paragraphs of them now.

God is in control of human events, arranging them to prepare for the return of His Son as He planned even before the foundation of the Earth. God has always told us about what He was planning to do in advance through His prophets, yet even with centuries of notice and the actual happening of prophecied events, humans have an amazing capacity for ignoring or disbelieving God's clear warnings.

God warned the human race through Noah that he was going to destroy the human race through a flood, and yet even the living example of Noah building a huge ark and preaching of the coming flood wasn't enough to convince people that God was serious about what he said until the rain was coming down and the waters rising. God sent prophet after prophet telling of events surrounding the coming of His Son as a baby, even naming the birthplace so accurately that the Jewish priests could tell a group of pagan wise men where to look for the baby Jesus, and yet only a few shepherds and other common people went to see Him after an angelic chorus gave the birth announcement. The priests themselves didn't even bother to check for the fulfillment of the prophecy until King Herod called them to ask what these pagans were talking about, and then the king only did so to try to slay a rival king to his throne!

The traditional Sabbath on the seventh day of the week predates the Ten Commandments. In Biblical prophecy, 1000 years is like a day to the Lord. He decided that mankind would have six days (that is, 6000 years of history) to live on the Earth after the Fall of Adam and Eve until Jesus came to set up His 1000 year kingdom on the seventh day. His purpose was to let all the intelligent beings that He created see what sin was and the terrible effects it has on the people who sin and who are sinned against. That is why we have had to endure nearly 6000 years of evil and bloodshed on this planet, while the Heavenly hosts watched the unfolding drama.

The seven day week is a picture of future history that God gave us. We are now coming to the end of that sixth day, when the blessed kingdom of Jesus Christ will be established and love and peace and righteousness will flood the Earth. Before that occurs, a seven year period of war will take place called the Tribulation. After the Church is removed from the Earth in the Rapture, evil will be allowed to have full effect on the Earth. The effects of sin without the restraint of the Holy Spirit will be fully evident in the horrors that will take place when Satan's host and his children have the freedom to carry out their plans as a result of their free choices.

God wants His intelligent creatures to have free will to make decisions for themselves, but along with that freedom comes the responsibility to make wise decisions in everyone's best interests, not just your own best interest. Satan chose to start making selfish, destructive plans and convinced a third of the Heavenly host to accept his belief system and his plans as their own. That lawless belief system is the cause of the civil war and sin.

God has given His children ample warning signs of the end of the sixth day to look for and commanded us to tell everyone about them to give the lost people a chance to choose His side of the civil war and be saved by accepting the free pardon for their sins and being adopted into God's family. We see these signs all around us in ever increasing numbers and intensity.

Too many people are simply unaware of Bible prophecy, like a boater headed for a waterfall without realizing the dangerous rapids around him are a warning of the final deadly plunge ahead. When the Church is removed, the Holy Spirit residing in us will be drawn back and will no longer be restraining Satan's forces as He currently does today. That is when Hell on Earth becomes a reality as an angry and desperate Satan lashes out in his struggle to stave off his inevitable capture and imprisonment for the 1000 years of Jesus' rule before the final showdown that imprisons Satan and his followers forever.

You have to choose which side of this civil war you will be on forever. Will you be on God's side of unselfish love and life, or on Satan's side of selfish hate and death? God loved us so much that His Son came to die an agonizing death on the cross to redeem us after Adam and Eve delivered us into Satan's kingdom by joining his rebellion. God was and is not obliged to pay such a price to bail us out of this disaster that our first parents got us into, but He did it anyway out of love and compassion for us. All he asks is that you ask for the free gift of pardon that His Son Jesus paid for you.

Even at the last of the last days before the coming of Jesus for His Church right before the Tribulation, we are still ignoring God's clear warnings. Christ's first coming was given by a prophecy in Daniel 9:26 in such a way that the exact time of His entry into Jerusalem days before the Crucifixion could be determined, and still the Jews and Gentiles knowledgeable about the Scriptures missed His arrival. His Second Coming was to be preceded by signs and wonders that are taking place right now, and most people are scoffing at the Christian messengers spreading the warning.

The Bible said in 2 Peter 3:3,4 that there would be scoffers denying the reality of the Second Coming, but there is no excuse for Christians to deny it by acting like it won't ever happen, even through ignorance. Wake up, Church, and prepare to greet your Bridegroom! Don't be like the Jews who forgot to look for Jesus the first time He came. He is coming soon, and we need to keep working to save the lost while keeping one eye on the sky watching for His soon return.

Please read about the birth of Christ, but don't shut the Bible there. Keep reading to the end of the book. The Bible tells about the most important part of human history, our relationship to the God who created us and Who will come to claim His own children and confine His enemies forever. It's a far more exciting story than any book you will receive as a Christmas present, and it is one you can play a part in. The only question is, what part will you choose to play? Will you choose to be a child of God and join Him in His total final victory over His foes, or will you choose to be His enemy and share in their defeat? Please choose to join His family while there is still time. Just pray this prayer sincerely and you will be saved:

Dear God, I'm sorry for my sins. I want to join your Heavenly family and I submit to King Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I renounce anything to do with Satan, his kingdom, and his ways. Please save me and adopt me as one of Your children. In Jesus' Name, Amen