Dear Partner,

Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It is good that we set aside time to give honor and praise for the day He was born on planet earth. Sadly, much of the true meaning of Christmas has been lost through the merchandising that has come to typify the season. People are rushing from store to store trying to find the best deals on their gift list. Often they have forgotten the reason for giving gifts at Christmas is to celebrate the greatest gift of all:

John 3:16   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What love the Father God has for mankind that He would give His most precious gift to lost sinners who had no hope. It is amazing that God's heart was so full of love even while we were still sinners by nature that He would give His only Son to pay the full penalty for our guilt:

Rom 5:8   But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Even after all of these years I am still amazed by God's love for sinful man. It is one thing to give your most precious gift for a good person who might be in trouble somehow. But to give your only son for a thieving, lying, corrupt person … that's hard to comprehend. The only way to understand it is in the context of a family. A parent's love for their child is the closest thing on earth to the love of God. Our three daughters were not perfect, but our love for them never wavered no matter what level of rebellion they got into. There were times when their actions brought us great pleasure and joy. There were other times when their actions most certainly did not please us. But there was nothing they could ever do that could destroy our love for them.

God's mercy saved us by sending His Son to pay the full penalty for our sins. He loved us too much to leave us slaves to a sin nature. We who believe in Jesus are not only forgiven, we are "born again" with the nature of His Son:

Gal 4:4-7   But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

This is the greatest mystery of all time. It is the one that Paul said he had been commissioned to preach to the world:

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Christ in us. The spirit of His Son. No longer filled with a sin nature passed down from fallen Adam, but having a spirit spawned of God in righteousness and true holiness. It is the very nature of Christ Jesus. The same nature that kept him sinless all of His lifetime on earth … now resides in us. Amazing! That is hard for us to believe because we see ourselves so differently from what the bible says about believers.

Jesus mentioned often "having faith as a grain of mustard seed." Why does He make that comparison? Well, a mustard seed is very tiny, about the size of a grain of pepper. But "inside" it contains the image of a huge tree. What begins very small has the capacity to become very large. Our "faith" is to be like that. God does not lie. We have a new nature. In order for the new nature to have dominion in our lives, we must have faith in the fact that the very nature of Christ Himself resides within us.

Let's say it like this for teaching purposes … the next time you are tempted to commit sin and you are using all of your own strength to resist it, yet you are beginning to slip and it seems like those old habitual patterns are about to conquer you again … suddenly … you hear instructions from the Lord Himself … "Trust My life within you." That is the faith that grows like a mustard seed. We are to have faith in the fact that His nature is within us and no matter how strong the temptation to sin is … we have been made free from sin:

Rom 6:22   But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Recently the Lord has been saying that the body of Christ is coming into a new level of accountability. The true Teacher of the body of Christ is the Holy Ghost and He has been opening up the mysteries of God in these last days. No longer are we to believe false doctrines that are the product of the mind of man. We are to believe the TRUTH of God’s Word. We have been made heirs with Christ. He is calling His body to rise up and “walk as He walked” in order to demonstrate to a lost world that Jesus Christ is alive and that He is Lord of all.

Sue and I love you and appreciate you. We thank God for your generous and giving heart. God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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