12/23/2024
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We love and appreciate you and are thankful to be able to call you friends. We hope and pray that you and your families are doing well and are healthy and happy. Rather than wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a Joyful Christmas! Joy is a gift from Heavenly Father to His faithful sons and daughters who follow His Son, Jesus Christ. Joy is enduring, while merry can be temporary and fleeting. Joy comes from our focus on Jesus Christ and our striving to follow Him. You have qualified for this heavenly gift and we invite you to receive it this Christmas. We invite you to keep it with you always by choosing to consistently focus on and follow our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Joy also comes as we remember what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done and are doing for us. That Holy Night over 2000 years ago, Heavenly Father was fulfilling His perfect and merciful plan by sending His Son, with power, into the world! The Christ child was never in danger. Herod never had a chance of destroying God’s son and claiming king of Israel. The adversary never had a chance of causing Christ to choose to commit sin or reject The Father’s will. Nor could he prevent Christ from overcoming death and providing the gift of immortality and the agency to choose eternal life for all of God’s children who receive a body in mortality. There was never any doubt that Jesus Christ would fulfill His Father’s will and, with power, defeat the enemy of all righteousness!
King Benjamin’s words in the Book of Mormon teach us these things plainly:
Mosiah 3:5-9
- 5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
- 6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.
- 7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
- 8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
- 9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name!
“Joy to the World”, the Lord did come! We add our testimony that He did come to provide salvation and redemption to all who will receive Him. His Church, authority, doctrine and power are here now! And the time is not far distant that, with power and great glory, our Redeemer is coming again!
While the adversary still has power over his dominion for a time, and as much as he wants your misery, Christ wants your joy and salvation more. The adversary can’t ever give as much to destroy us as the Savior can to redeem and save us. Christ gave all! His love is more powerful than the opposing hate that exists in this world. His pure love for us is charity, and charity is the greatest of all! Christ’s charity is the gift and power that strengthens us when we are weak, lonely, weary, bullied, confused, sad, depressed, uncertain, afraid or any other malady we will ever face in mortality. He saves us from all things, including the bo***ge of sin and the captivity of the devil. He truly is our Savior!
“O Holy Night” it was, the night when our dear Savior was born and our redemption certain and sure!
With love, we wish you a Joyful Christmas!
The Stake Presidency
Brett Barnett
Art Kline
Jared Jones
