Christmas gives us a wonderful opportunity to tell people about Jesus, it gives us the opportunity to give a reason for our faith in God and it gives us the chance to take people beyond the crib and to look to the cross. Here are a few booklets and tracts that I’ve looked at that could assist you to tell people about Jesus this year…
Whiter than snow – Roger Carswell
Everyone wants a white Christmas. We love to wake up in the morning and see streets, hills and pathways full of snow as we cuddle up in the warmth of our homes.
Snow often covers the imperfections that we normally see, it puts a mask on things that aren’t pleasing to the eye. For example, Carswell starts this wee tract with the picture of a snow covered…rubbish hill. Suddenly the thing that is not nice looks lovely.
But this tract goes beyond snow, and Carswell takes you to the words of Isaiah, and speaks of a better thing than a white Christmas.
God says to those who turn to Him that he will make them whiter than snow. That all of our sins and transgressions, which are scarlet red, will be dealt with and we will be clean. That is the promise of Christmas. Look beyond the crib to the cross and celebrate this truth this year. This is a great wee tract that you can give away at church, to friends and family and even use as a stocking filler.
Rating 4/5
So this is Christmas – Rico Tice
Rico Tice is a great author and he has great ways of conveying the gospel message in understandable and easy ways. This booklet is no different.
Tice doesn’t focus on the nativity scene because people have seen that hundreds of times. Instead, he focuses on the significance of Christmas in terms of walls… yes you read that correctly, walls.
We go through life with walls or barriers that we put up. Walls between couples, siblings, parents and children and walls between friends; at Christmas we cover those walls with tinsel, food and terrible TV. All of these walls and barriers exist because of sin, which causes the biggest wall ever, the one between us and God. Because of this greater wall we can’t tear down all of the others in our lives properly, something will always be missing. But Christmas gives us hope!
Jesus came into this world of walls to obliterate the biggest wall that exists, the one separating us from God. If we grasp the significance of Christmas and the peace that is offered, our lives will be changed and we’ll be at peace with God.
This little booklet isn’t your usual Christmas giveaway but it might give a new approach to a familiar story for people.
I recommend that you take this booklet and give it to friends and open up about the walls in your life and how God is helping you dismantle them.
Rating 5/5
Good news, great joy – William Taylor
William Taylor has written a great little booklet that goes into the Christmas message with an apologetics spin on it. He starts off by explaining how he is the most exited person in the house when Christmas comes and all of the family traditions that surround that time of year in the Taylor house. But he explains how long after Christmas has been and gone the rejoicing in the birth and life of Jesus still remains. This little booklet goes into three aspects that stand out of Luke 2:11 “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord”.
Firstly, Taylor goes into the fact that the first Christmas is a historical event. The events described in Luke’s Gospel are eye-witness accounts that name people for verification and that put in details that a fake story wouldn’t. This birth didn’t just happen but Jesus’ birth was predicted years and years before it happened, the message of Christmas is trustworthy and it is based on facts not blind faith.
Secondly, Taylor discusses how we shouldn’t sentimentalise the Christmas message. Christmas is filled with pictures and songs about this perfect little baby who is cute but nothing more and this is simply not true. All of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus point to a much greater truth of who He is. Jesus is not just a cute baby in the manger but He is God in the flesh, the Ruler and Lord of this world who will one day judge all of humanity. Christmas is wonderful as it is, God came down to earth, there is no need to romanticise the significance of that or soften the message. Christmas is good news!
Lastly, Taylor looks beyond the baby Jesus and talks about the reason for God coming into this world and taking on flesh… rescue. We all know that our world is broken and in need of rescuing, we know that something is wrong and it needs to be fixed and that is what we celebrate. At the first Christmas God stepped into our broken world to make it possible for us to be made right with Him. This year don’t just stop at the crib but look to the cross of Jesus.
This is a slightly longer booklet, but it’ll still only take you 10 minutes to read, I recommend that you pick it up and be taken through a truth packed verse in Luke’s Gospel.
Rating 4/5
Christmas Jackpot – Adrian Reynolds
Adrian Reynolds has written a short book that explains the riches of the Christmas message. At Christmas time people aren’t focusing on their bank balances, they are spending more than they normally would to give gifts that will be used and forgotten about soon enough. Is this really all that it’s about?!?
No! Christmas is the story of how Jesus went from riches to rags, how He left His place of glory with God and became a man and walked this earth. He stepped into this world that is as poor as poor can be, not necessarily in the material sense but in the spiritual sense. Mankind is spiritually bankrupt; as we stand before God we have nothing of worth but all of our sins, our wrongdoings and rebellion against God, have caused there to be a gap between the Creator and the created. But the Christmas message flips that on its head and Jesus offers us the opportunity to go from being spiritually poor to being eternally rich (in the spiritual sense) because he gives us His righteousness.
Reynolds is tapping into something that is huge in our society, namely money and riches. Whilst I understand what he is trying to do and I pray that it helps people think about Christmas and their state before God more, I’m not convinced that it is the best approach. Jesus offers us the best gift that we could ever dream of and all of the spiritual riches that we could ever imagine, but this is not to be confused for monetary wealth or material riches. Reynolds does make this clear, but I wonder if the title and cover of the book is slightly confusing.
Rating 2/5
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