Pointing People to the “Christ” in Christmas

posted by Navigators on December 9th, 2021 in Evangelism | Gospel | Jesus

By Paul Bailey, Melbourne Labouring Community.

I met Jay on campus in first semester whilst playing basketball, before the lockdown. Since then, I have been meeting one-to-one with Jay, getting our weekly exercise by walking and talking about all aspects of life. In one of our earlier chats many weeks ago, I asked him if he would one day be willing to read the Bible in the future. He expressed interest, saying, “I have never read it before, I would like to try one day”.

One Friday last month, I was about to leave to go for a walk with Jay. He messaged and said it was raining. I stood on the porch for a moment and thought, if we can’t walk and talk, what can we do on this cold, rainy day? Maybe God is telling me to rest, it’s been a busy week.

With the push from the Holy Spirit, I drove, and we bought some hot chocolate. One of our topics of conversation was festivals/celebrations. Jay had never celebrated Christmas. He only knew of it as a “Western Celebration”. It was then I was able to share an “info-bite” on the true reason for Christmas. A reminder of the birth of our Saviour King, Jesus Christ! He replied in shock, “It’s a Christian celebration? Why does the whole world celebrate if they are not Christian?”

I said to Jay, “There are many things people do in life, and they don’t know the reason why they do it.” Jay agreed, “I don’t even know why we celebrate Chinese New Year.” As we continued to discuss the relation of celebrations/festivals and its origins, I posed the question to Jay again, “Are you still interested in reading the Bible with me?” Jay replied “Yes, I’m very curious now!”

Jay and I have decided to go through an Investigative Bible Study over the summer, when exams are finished. Praise God!

Thank you for your support and prayer that allow me to invest the time into students like Jay. Without you, I wouldn’t have had the time to learn and understand him so that I could point him to Jesus in the best way possible. Please pray as we prepare to read the Word together and that Jay would come to know Jesus as His saviour!