Is Christmas Pleasing to the Lord?
The descent of the Lord Jesus brought the gospel of the kingdom of heaven to mankind. For the sake of redeeming mankind, the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross. Man all experienced His love and salvation for them, and enjoyed His bountiful grace as well. Therefore, man established some festivals in commemoration of the Lord Jesus. But are these festivals pleasing to God or not? No one knows. I had pondered in my heart what God’s emotions of pleasure, anger, sorrow, and happiness are. But I found no answer, so I was in a great confusion.
It was not until one day I read Almighty God’s words that I had some understanding and knowledge of God’s emotions of pleasure, anger, sorrow, and happiness. Almighty God says, “All those who have read the Bible know that when the Lord Jesus was born, there happened many things. The biggest among them was that He was hunted by the king of devils and even all children under the age of two in the whole city were killed. It can be seen that what a great risk God took when He was incarnated and came among men, that what a great price God paid in order to accomplish His management of saving mankind, and that what a great expectation God had for His being incarnated to work among men. … When the Lord Jesus was baptized and formally began to do His work and perform His ministry, God’s heart was extremely happy, because after having waited and prepared for so many years, God finally could put on a normal human flesh and begin to do His new work in the image of a man who had blood and flesh and who could be seen and touched by man. He finally could speak with man face to face and have a heart-to-heart talk with man face to face in the capacity of a man, and He finally could be face to face with man in human language and in a human way, could supply man or guide and help man in human language, could eat at the same table and live in the same space with man, and also could look at mankind, look at things, and look at everything in a human way and even with human eyes. … From that moment, God felt for the first time a kind of comfort for His working among men. All this happened so practically and so naturally, and the comfort God felt was so real. This is because to mankind, whenever God accomplishes a stage of new work and whenever God feels gratified, it is the time mankind can come nearer to God and is also the time man comes closer to being saved; to God, it is the time His new work can be carried out and His management plan progresses forward, much more the time His will can come closer to complete accomplishment. It is fortunate and great to mankind that such an opportunity comes to them. To all those waiting for God’s salvation, it is extremely good news. When God does a stage of new work, He has a new start. When the stage of new work, the new start, is carried out and implemented among men, it is the time this stage of work is already settled and accomplished and God already sees the final result and achievement, and it is also the time God is satisfied with the result; of course God’s heart is happy.” (from A Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh) From Almighty God’s words I knew: Although God took a great risk when He was incarnated as the Son of man and came among man, He had a great expectation for His work at that time. For God incarnate can personally experience the joys and sorrows of the world, understand man’s weakness and difficulties, and thus shorten the distance between God and man and better expand the work of saving mankind. So when the Lord Jesus began to work, His heart was happy and joyful.
Almighty God says, “His disposition encompasses His love for mankind, comforting of mankind, hatred of mankind, and even more so, a thorough understanding of mankind. … The disposition of God is one that belongs to the Ruler of the living beings among all things, to the Lord of all creation. His disposition represents honor, power, nobility, greatness, and most of all, supremacy. His disposition is the symbol of authority and all that is righteous, beautiful, and good. Moreover, it is a symbol of how God cannot be suppressed or attacked by the darkness and any enemy force, as well as a symbol of how He cannot be (and indeed is not allowed to be) offended by any created being. His disposition is the symbol of the highest power. No person or persons may or can disturb His work or His disposition. … The ‘pleasure’ of God is due to the existence and emergence of righteousness and light; because of the destruction of darkness and evil. He takes ‘pleasure’ because He has brought the light and a good life to mankind; His ‘pleasure’ is one of righteousness, a symbol of the existence of all that is positive and, most of all, a symbol of auspiciousness. The ‘anger’ of God is due to the existence of injustice and the disturbance it causes that are harming His mankind; because of the existence of evil and darkness, the existence of things that drive out the truth, and even more so because of the existence of things that oppose what is good. His ‘anger’ is a symbol that all things negative no longer exist and, moreover, is a symbol of His holiness. His ‘sorrow’ is due to mankind, for whom He has hopes but who has fallen into darkness, because the work He does on man does not reach His expectations, and because it is not possible for the mankind He loves to all live in the light. He feels sorrow for the innocent mankind, for the honest but ignorant man, and for the good but ambivalent man. His ‘sorrow’ is a symbol of His goodness and of His mercy, a symbol of beauty and of kindness. His ‘happiness,’ of course, comes from defeating His enemies and gaining the good faith of man. Moreover, it comes from the expulsion and destruction of all enemy forces and mankind receiving a good and peaceful life. The ‘happiness’ of God is unlike the joy of man; rather, it is the feeling of receiving pleasant fruits, a feeling even greater than joy. His ‘happiness’ is a symbol of mankind breaking free of suffering and entering a world of light.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) From Almighty God’s words we can see: God is beautiful and good in substance. His pleasure, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all for man to exist in a better way, and are the symbol of positive things. God’s pleasure and happiness come from defeating Satan and mankind living in God’s care and keeping, no longer suffering Satan’s attack. From God’s emotions of pleasure, anger, sorrow, and happiness, we can see that God’s disposition is living and real, and is pure. God’s love for man is flawless and is unadulterated. God’s two incarnations are both for saving mankind and recovering man’s conscience and sense so that they can return to the Creator’s side. What God is pleased with is not man’s various ceremonies commemorating Him, yet He hopes man can follow His footprints and receive His salvation. Now God has revealed to us all His will. As long as we investigate Almighty God’s words carefully, we’ll understand God’s will and receive God’s salvation.
Source from: Hymn of the Heart
Eastern Lightning Is My Salvation 