The Christmas Story as it will be FOREVER Told

By Stephen S Ahokas

Thoroughly researched and thoughtfully written, Dr. Ahokas has provided his readers with a deeper understanding of the meaning and significance of Jesus' birth as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" I would encourage you to read "The Christmas Story...Forever Told" during the advent sea

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independently Published by Stephen S. Ahokas
• Release date: Dec 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798869047625

Book preview

Preface

Readers of my first book might ask, Why an expanded version of your book? The short answer to that question is, It’s in the details. Those who have not read my first book will soon find out that I don’t just read the words in the Bible, because one day I began to realize that God doesn’t write just words. He writes word pictures. So I look for to identify the picture that God has painted with His words. And I’m finding that the true beauty of the picture that God has painted is in the details of th e picture.

After completion of the first book, my study continued, and I have identified additional details that I regret not having shared in the first book. So I felt compelled to continue writing and publishing. There are several key aspects of the picture that I have added here. First, I expounded on the details of the Passover, because the details of the Passover are what portray the intimacy with which God redeems and shelters His people so vividly. Related to that, I delved deeper into the timing of the Passover, giving special attention to the realization that the Jewish calendar turns its page to the next day at sundown (as opposed to midnight). In my study of the night that Jesus was betrayed, with my realization of who He is, I was startled to discover and am thrilled to pass on to my readers a new understanding of the significance of what Jesus did with and for His disciples on that night. Finally, having not seized the opportunity to do so in the first book, I would be remiss if I didn’t share in this book how the details of the events that occurred immediately after Jesus’ death illustrate the confidence with which we, as children of God, can approach Him.

For you who read my first book, I am convinced that this book is poised to offer new blessings and an even deeper understanding of who Jesus is and the love that God has for you. For my first-time readers, you will receive all of the same blessings. That is my earnest prayer for all. And for my Jewish readers, whom I long to befriend and relate to in increasing numbers, I have full confidence that this picture will give you a new and cherished meaning to your Jewish heritage, just as your Jewish heritage gives me a new and cherished meaning to my heritage in Christ, my Jewish Savior.

Acknowledgments

Forty years ago I first began to see the rudiments of the picture that God has painted in His Word. The seed was planted and took root in my brain when it came to me in the form of an enlightening comment by a Messianic Jewish organization. The concept that came to me rolled around in my brain the way a cow’s cud is chewed on, then swallowed . . . then regurgitated and chewed on again, then swallowed . . . and on and on, over and over again. For thirty-eight years it rolled around in my head. It occurred to me that I was on to something that virtually no one ever talks about. Occasionally, I found opportunity to share the very basic picture with brothers and sisters in Christ, some of them pastors, some of them not. And I was almost always disappointed that they didn’t have the same excitement that I had over it. I often got blank stares. I listened to preachers every Advent season, hoping to hear them start talking about it (oddly, feeling like I needed to hear them talk about it, as if hearing it would validate what I was seeing). But I never heard it. Thankfully, there was a brother in Christ who showed interest in hearing me talk about it. That gave me enough validation to continue exploring what I believed I was seeing, and it gave me a desire and the will to explore ways to share the picture with others. Thank you, Dann y Ottoson!

Occasionally, I wrote about the picture in church bulletins. I wrote it into Church Christmas programs that I authored. When my community gave my church the opportunity to help our community kick off the Advent season with a Live Nativity downtown on Black Friday, I designed the Live Nativity to portray it. It became an annual event. The picture was now reaching a community, not just a local church. Each year we portrayed the picture, my desire to reach a wider audience grew. Thank you, Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Pelican Rapids, MN, Birch Hills Community Church in Melrose, MN, and community of Melrose, MN for such an opportunities!

Two years ago, however, my desire to reach a wider audience turned to restlessness. I felt the picture that I am seeing is worthy of being shared in much greater detail, and to an even wider audience. A seven-minute Live Nativity was not nearly enough time to share all the beautiful details of the picture that need to be seen, and it is a picture that the entire world needs to see and begin to recognize. I began writing what was intended to be a handout that could be given to everyone who attends the next Live Nativity. As I studied and wrote, I sought counsel from my pastor and was challenged by his difficulty in visualizing the significance of it. But that challenge spurred me on to study and research all the more. And that led to the discovery of very intricate and beautiful details of the picture that I hadn’t seen before, but that absolutely validate and add deeper meaning to what I am seeing. Without that challenge, this work would not have advanced as far as it has. So thank you, Paul