Hello, thank you for joining me today for Give Him 15.

The title of our post, The Unintended Christmas Carol.

We're only a couple of days from Christmas.

Many believers, like myself, are unhappy with much of the commercialization of Christmas.

However, it is also true that there's no other time of year when Christ's name and the glory of his birth fill the airwaves with such frequency.

If we allow it, the season can be a great reset for us each year as we consider Christ's great gift to us.

As you listen to the Christmas carols, here's some interesting information to consider about three of our favorites.

Number one, in 1719, Isaac Watts wrote what has been the most published Christmas

hymn in North America.

However, it was not written as a Christmas Carol, but is a poem about the reigning

king, Jesus, based on Psalm 98, not on the birth of Christ, Psalm 98. Stanza 3 alludes to Genesis 3,

17 to 19.

Speaks of Christ's blessings extending victoriously over the realm of sin.

Stanza 4 celebrates Christ's rule over the nations,

calling them to celebrate because God's faithfulness to the House of Israel has brought salvation to the world. Here are the words to this

famous hymn. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart

prepare him room and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world, the

Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, plains,

repeat the sounding joy. No more let sin and sorrows grow or thorns infest the ground.

He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace, makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness, wonders of his love.

What great words.

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