I wonder why I feel like it's been more difficult to keep up with this and my online game recently? I'd say it was the Christmas rush, or something similar, but I don't think I've actually been online any less than usual lately. I guess I've found a lot of stuff to occupy my time, anyway.

This is the message I sent out to my LARPing friends in Campaign, as well as posting on the Xaria.org website. I don't know that I need to give any more exposition for it than that.

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I didn't manage to get my Christmas cards out to you folks in time, so I'm posting their content here, instead. Please bear with me - I know it's kind of long, but I hope you'll give it a few moments of your time, nonetheless.

Christmas has been traditionally associated with the birth of Jesus Christ (thus, its name - Christ's Mass). His birth may have been in the winter, though the choice of the particular date on which Christmas is celebrated has been debated: I've read commentaries which claim it was meant to be coincidal with the Hebrew Feast of Dedication (Hanukah, celebrated for eight days in the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually occurs in mid to late December) and the Roman festival of Saturnalia (Dec. 17), but I've also read articles which state that the holiday was the early Christians' best guess at the actual date of Jesus's birth, given the information recorded about the circumstances of His birth and the difficulties inherent in translating from a Hebrew to a Roman calendar; the Roman holiday called "The Birth of the Unconquered Sun" was established by the Emperor Aurelian on Dec. 25, 274 A.D., to compete with the already-existant Christian holiday.

Whichever argument is true, in our modern celebrations of Christmas, while some amount is said of the occurrence and circumstances of Jesus's birth, not as much is commonly said about the reason for His birth.

This can be summed up using Jesus's own words:

"I am a king, though My kingdom is not of this world. My coming was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament; others long before my birth into this world have already testified to my identity as the Messiah. I was born into this world for a reason: to bear witness to the truth.

"Everyone who would know the truth must listen to Me; those who do not heed My words belong to the devil. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There are not 'many paths to God', but only a very narrow door - you can only know God through Me, and through no one else. He who does not honor Me does not honor God, because I am God. I and My Father are one. My name means "God is Salvation," and I am called that because I've come to save you from your sins.

"You stand condemned. You may have heard it said of Me, 'He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.'

"You may think you're basically a good person - maybe you behave better than some other people you've known or heard about - but I'm telling you that you're no better off than they are if you don't admit to your guilt of breaking God's laws, honestly ask Him for forgiveness, and turn away from them. Everyone who has sinned will perish. The day is coming when the dead will hear God's voice and be resurrected. Those who have done good will be resurrected to an eternity of life. Those who do evil will be resurrected to an eternity of punishment.

"Don't think that I came to abolish the Ten Commandments, by which you've been condemned. You know the Sixth Commandment, 'Thou shalt not murder'? I'm telling you that anyone who's ever been angry with someone without cause, or has called someone a name out of anger, has committed murder in his heart and thus faces the fires of Hell. You're aware of the Seventh Commandment, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'? I'm telling you that if you've ever looked at someone with lust or fantasized about someone sexually, you've committed adultery in your heart. It would be awful to tear out your eyes and spend the rest of your life as a blind person, but it's far worse that you continue to sin and end up being cast into Hell because of those eyes. If you've ever broken the Ninth Commandment, 'Thou shalt not lie,' or the First and Second Commandments by believing in a different god, or a version of God that differs from He whom Scripture describes, or placed someone or something before God as a priority in your life, you'll have your part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; the angels will seperate the wicked from the just and cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

"Who is just? As the prophet Isaiah said, 'All our humanly ideas and acts of righteousness are like filthy menstrual rags,' the book of Ecclesiastes said, 'For there is not a just man on the earth who does good and does not sin,' and the Psalmist said, 'There is none who does good, no, not one.'"

"BUT - The Father loves you. He loves you so much that He sent Me to pay the penalty for your sins. I didn't come here to condemn you, but to save you from the fate that awaits you. If you hear the things I've said but don't believe Me, I'm not going to judge you; however, you will be judged by the Father, and you will be judged because you've heard Me and then ignored or rejected Me - this is because the Father commanded me to speak these words; He's given me the authority to say them.

"So this is what it means for you to 'do good': repent from your sin and trust in Me, because this is what God wants you to do. The will of God is that everyone who learns about Me and trusts in Me will get everlasting life, and I'll raise that person up on the Day of Judgement.

"You cannot ever enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are born again. You are currently born of the flesh, and are subject to its desires, but you must be born of the Holy Spirit to enjoy My gift, which is to live for eternity in God's presence. Your flesh condemns you, but the Spirit, which you will find in My words, will save you.

"If anyone wants to serve Me, let him follow Me. To follow Me means that you must love me more than your own father and mother, more than your wife and children, more than your brother and sister, more than your friends. If anyone wants to serve Me, do it by keeping My commandments; this is how you show that you love Me. If you obey My commandments, you are My disciples indeed, and My Father will honor you. Anyone who proclaims the truth of My words and My identity to other people, I will proclaim before the Father and the angels as one of Mine. Anyone who hears the Word of God and does it will be my brothers and sisters.

"However, if anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, I will be ashamed of him before God and the angels. Not everyone who calls me 'Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father. Many will say to Me on the Day of Judgement, 'Lord, didn't I do miracles in your name?' And then I'll say to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels!"

(paraphrased from John 18:36-37; John 5:39-47; Isaiah 53; Isaiah 61:1-2; John 14:6; Luke 13: 24; John 5:23; John 10:30; Matthew 1:18-21; John 8:37-47; John 8:57-59; Matthew 5:17-22; Matthew 5:27-29; Revelation 21:8; Matthew 49-50; Isaiah 64:6; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Psalm 14:3; John 3:1-21; John 12:47-49; John 5:28-29; John 6:29; Luke 13:1-9; John 6:40; John 12:26; Luke 14:26; John 14:21; John 8:21-32; Luke 9:23-26; Luke 8:21; Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 25:41)

As the Apostle Paul wrote, "For He says, 'In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

This is the true meaning of Christmas; the true Christmas message. It's the same as the message of Easter. It's the summary of what the entire Bible is saying. Everything hinges upon what you personally decide about Jesus's words, whether He was lying (and thus should be ignored, as he's not to be trusted), insane (and thus should be ignored, as he'd have no bearing on reality), or telling the truth (and thus deserves your worship).

This all sounds horribly dire, I know. Of course, it is, if Jesus is to be believed. I'm convinced that He was telling the truth. My intention isn't to make you all depressed this Christmas, but to take advantage of the holiday - the one time of the year when it seems like people may be more receptive to hearing about Jesus - to share with you the burden that's been on my heart. I've been feeling it especially heavily since moving away from California, and I would be doing a terrible disservice to God and to you, my friends, if I didn't say anything for fear of offending you. If I truly claim to be your friend, how could I not tell you this? I can think of no more sincere Christmas message than this - in fact, I can think of no single thing that could be more important to say to another person.

I consider you my friends. You've been kind: you've shown me generosity, welcoming me into your homes and giving me gifts, entertainment, and companionship; you've been forgiving of me when I was selfish or thoughtless toward you. You accepted me for who I am, and shared great times with me. I thoroughly enjoy your company, but more than that, I've come to care about you all very much. Being this far away from all of you, especially around this time of year, has reminded me of that. Trying to keep up with the news and internet reports during the fires this autumn reminded me of how quickly and easily any one of us could be gone in an instant, whether by fire, car accident, sickness, or even suicide. I want to spend the rest of eternity in your company, my friends. I can't bear the thought of any of you suffering in Hell. I want us all to be in Paradise together so desperately... This was the God of Abraham and Moses; the God of Washington and Lincoln; the God of Tolkien and Lewis. We would be in such good company...

I hope you'll take what I've said here to heart; if any of you want to discuss it with me privately, please feel free to e-mail me. Merry Christmas to you all.

Your Friend,

Devin