Christmas with Koloff!

Nakita Kolov, the Russian nightmare here for Crescent Automotive. If buying a car is a nightmare for you, my friends Brian and Jamie Johnson at Crescent Automotive make it simple to find your pre-owned dream car with no hassle, affordable windshield pricing. No matter where you live, they will get your American dream car to you baby. DriveCrescent.com is all you need to know. Their whole inventory is right there with the right price.

Everybody drives a Crescent. You should too. DriveCrescent.com This is Darren Coon with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day-to-day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up, an unusual topic today. No, we're not talking to other men or women, but we are talking about Christmas.

That's right. Welcome to Christmas with Kolov. Hey, what's your favorite Christmas movie? Do you have a favorite? How about Miracle on 34th Street? One of my favorites, if not all-time favorites, It's a Wonderful Life with George Bailey. Have you watched that one any time recent?

You should. How about, on a lighter note, a Charlie Brown Christmas or maybe Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Hey, Frosty the Snowman.

Those are some classics that we all should watch. Hey, what's your favorite Christmas song? Do you have a favorite Christmas song? I was thinking about this.

What is mine? I noted a few. How about White Christmas? Now, growing up in Siberia, I mean, I'm sorry, Minnesota, we had more than one White Christmas. And I could tell you as a child growing up that I absolutely dreamed of a White Christmas.

I mean, lights outside the houses in the neighborhoods and a fresh snowfall and a White Christmas. How about Oh Holy Night? Hey, what about Mary Did You Know? Here's a good one, Silver Bells. You know, I'd sing for you, but you would probably shut the show off, so I'm not going to sing. How about Carol of the Bells? Man, that's a good one. Hey, I was listening to this one today, Joy to the World. What a good one. My favorites, believe it or not, a little drummer boy.

Do you know the story behind that one? Like, the little guy only has like a drum. He has nothing to give Jesus except play a tune, play a song on his drum. It's a pretty fascinating story, a little drummer boy.

And there's a lot of different variations to that. And I just love drums. I don't know, I just always have. Kind of like I love the bagpipes. Not because I'm Russian or anything. I'm not, right? Everybody knows that by now.

At least I hope they do. I actually have some Scottish roots. And I can remember even back into my junior high days just being infatuated with the bagpipes. The little drummer boy. And then last but not least, how about Silent Night? That might rank up there with my all-time favorite. But what's your favorite Christmas song?

Maybe you should go listen to it after you listen to this show. And go watch your favorite Christian Christmas and Christian movie. But you know, I started thinking about Christmas and how different Christmas is for me now compared to how it was, shall I just say BC? Before Christ in my life. My growing up days as I already referred. Growing up in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. And man, I can remember some super cold Christmas mornings. And many times when there was a fresh snowfall. And man, just going out and sledding or ice skating or just some of the things we did as a kid.

And I didn't mind that. As a child, it's just what I knew. We just bundled up and went outside. And had a time of it out there in the snowfall. And I can think how excited we were at the thought of Christmas and perhaps you did too about presents under the tree. And maybe you were one of those families that opened up presents on Christmas Eve. Or maybe you were one of those families that decided that you were going to wait and open them all up on Christmas Day in the morning. I can remember just how excited I was just dreaming of what was under the tree for me. Did you do that?

Did you think about that? Were you one of those that prior to Christmas went hunting through mom and dad's closet to see what it was they actually got for you? And you already knew what was wrapped before you even unwrapped it? Were you one of those? I know there are those of you out there who did that.

I couldn't do that. I wanted the element of surprise. I had my Christmas wish list put together and wasn't certain what mom had bought for me.

I was one of those that just wanted to wait and see what was under the tree. Like sometimes we split time between those two houses and open up presents at the different houses and celebrate and it was typically Christmas Eve that we would do that. And what about Christmas Day meal? Did you look forward to the meal on Christmas Day?

I did. Man the cooking. I don't know what you guys had. We had ham and we had deviled eggs. I can think of yams with melted marshmallows on top and fruit salad. That was one of my favorites was fruit salad with the whipped cream and the whole mixture of different fruits in there and dessert.

Now, I wasn't as strict on my health back in those days. But I loved a good piece of pumpkin pie with some whipped cream, whipped topping on it. But the Christmas meal. Now, once my grandma and uncles, they kind of passed on. My sister, Lori, she took over with the meal duty. And then we shifted from grandma's house to my sister's house.

And at times, even one of my brothers, they would host it at times. And my sister is an excellent cook and I would always enjoy the Christmas meal, right? And once all the presents were open, he kind of got tired of playing with all the toys or different things that you had gotten for Christmas. But I was wondering about the history of Christmas.

And I don't, so I did a little research and I don't know how familiar you are, familiar, I can't get that word out, you are with this. But I was looking up some of the history of Christmas and you may already know some of this, you may not. But here's what I found, quite interesting, that only in the last 200 or so years has Christmas even been celebrated by Christians or Jesus followers. Up until the 1800s, the day was largely a pagan celebration, set aside for drunkenness and rioting in the streets in which people would set aside a week of self-indulgence to celebrate what was called the winter solstice. Did you know this? Strangely, many Christians loathed the holiday and considered it an instrument of sin and evil.

I'm just fascinated by this myself. December 25th is widely considered by biblical scholars not to be the actual day of Jesus' birth. Now there's many different accounts, it just so happens to be the day that we celebrate that, but it's by many scholars' accounts not the actual day of his birth. Many scholars believe that that may have actually taken place perhaps in the spring of the year, but most believe the December date was set aside to counteract the ancient wild festivals annually held around the world during this winter solstice, the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar, December 25th. The days of December were originally considered to be cold and dark, as you might imagine, in many parts of the world, right? Cold and snow, but also dark, both physically and spiritually.

And celebrating a season of joy and peace in December would bring light and hope into a very dark and cold period of the year, made even darker by its pagan celebrations. Large bands of men, get this, large bands of men would go to upper-class homes demanding food and drink and money. They would loot and riot, they would scare people, they would sing rowdy songs like, believe it or not, we wish you a Merry Christmas. You're like, what? I mean, think about this. It actually included, listen, this actually included the sign of the times with lines like, bring us some figgy pudding and we won't go until we get some. So think about that. In other words, hey, give us what we want.

This is what that generally meant. Give us what we want, the writers were saying, or we won't leave until we get what we want. Think about it, give us some figgy pudding and we won't go until we get some. For many, Christmas was a day to be feared rather than celebrated. But in 1822, a minister and educator named Clement Clark Moore wrote a poem called A Visit from St. Nicholas that would go on to become known as the famed Twas the Night Before Christmas. You know, for every year, every year on Christmas Eve, I'm gonna get choked up when I say this, whoo, every year on Christmas Eve, as a tradition, I call all four of my daughters and they know not to answer their phone and I read them Twas the Night Before Christmas. And do you know, like for real, do you know they all tell me that they look forward to that phone call more than any other call any time of the year?

Because they know what's on the other end of the voicemail. Dad reciting Twas the Night Before Christmas went all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I'm gonna stop right there or I'm gonna cry so much I won't be able to stop. The poem would dramatically change the way Americans viewed Christmas. And for the first time, children, family, and giving to others were actually seen as vital to the Christmas story. I mean, childlike wonder was introduced into the Christmas story. In 1843, a man named Charles Dickens wrote a story called The Christmas Carol that stressed the true meaning and essence of Christmas in spreading hope and helping the needy and serving as Christ did. Hey, I'm gonna finish this story in just a moment. You hang tight. If you feel you're receiving value from this show, it's time to man up and you'd like to support the show along with Koloff for Christ Ministries, go to koloff.org, koloff.org and make a donation of any amount.

A note, you want my latest book and you'll receive a personalized copy of Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Picking up where we left off, Charles Dickens' story of A Christmas Carol that brought the true meaning, we were saying, right, of Christmas into spreading hope and joy and helping the needy and serving as Christ did. During Dickens' time, people in those days, do you realize, work 12 hours a day, six days a week just to try to get by to make ends meet or try to get ahead? I mean, children, children were put, like when you watch that, A Christmas Carol, children, it's like the real deal here, were in factories at age eight and age nine.

I mean, young children working in factories just to help make ends meet. A Christmas Carol made people visit their values for what was truly important during the Industrial Revolution. In the United States of America, Christmas was established as a federal holiday on June 26th, 1870. And over the next 20 to 30 years, Christmas evolved from a holiday characterized by drinking and riots to focus on family, on giving, and most importantly, the worship of Jesus Christ. So in effect, as much as people like to criticize the commercialization of Christmas, it was actually Santa Claus, an old miser named Scrooge, that helped bring peace, joy, and focus back onto the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of a savior in a manger, the hope of the world, Jesus.

Now I share that story with you as I think about my own story. I told you, Christmas looked a little different for me before surrendering my heart and my life to Jesus in 1993. Since that time, Christmas has taken on a different look as I concluded that story, that it's taken on more of a meaning of the birth of our savior, Jesus, than presents under a Christmas tree, or looking forward to the meal on Christmas Day. I still look forward to those things.

I still look forward to that meal. I'm still excited to put those presents under the tree for my children and my grandchildren. And I tell them, I go, you know, they're like, what can we get you for Christmas? I'm like, you know, just your presence is a present enough, just being in your presence, just spending time with you is enough of a present for me.

And that doesn't always, they don't always accept that. They still like to get Dad a little something. But Christmas has taken on a different meaning. Christmas is really, now for me, all about the good news. But it's not just the good news of special gifts.

It's not the good news of a big meal. It's not the good news of festive music, as we talked about at the early part of the show, or movies, and or beautiful lights. As I said, even though I enjoy all those things, Christmas is about the good news of God's love. That's what Christmas is about.

The Bible says every person desperately needs God's love. In fact, you're lost without it. You're directionless, like you have no direction in life.

You're without protection. You're without, really without real joy. You know how others are always trying to search for happiness or search for joy, only to realize, as I did in 1993, that what was missing in my life was a personal relationship with Jesus, and that brought, for me, true joy. And then gave me a different perspective on Christmas. Now your potential eternal impact upon the world is unrealized without that relationship with Jesus.

Your eternity in heaven isn't secure. You see, the good news of Christmas is that God sent Jesus to seek and save the lost. Yeah, the Bible says there's only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human. I mean, he was a man. He was a man's man. You didn't have to tell Jesus to man up.

He knew what that already looked like. I mean, if anyone manned up, it was him. Just consider what he did when he went to the cross. Jesus was truly a man, and he gave himself to rescue all of us. Talks about that in 1 Timothy, the second chapter. If you've ever spent time in church, you've likely heard the word salvation, probably more than once. What you may not know is what that means, though. Like, you may be out there listening today to this show, and you're not certain what the word salvation means.

I mean, the word is like, it's like a diamond, right? You can look at it from many different angles and still discover new facets, right? Salvation means Jesus came to rescue you, and he came to rescue me. You can't solve all your problems on your own. You can try. I tried.

It didn't work out well. Without Jesus, you're trapped in the expectations of others. You're trapped in living for the approval of others. You're trapped in addictions. You may be out there today in this Christmas season and trapped in an addiction.

You may try to change, but you don't have the power needed to escape the addiction, to escape the expectations of others, to escape the desire to be approved by everyone else. Jesus came to give you that power to set you free. Jesus came to recover you. All people long to recover parts of their lives that have been lost.

I know I look back in some of the parts of my life and like, hmm, man, I wish I could recover that, right? Without Christ, you long to recover your strength, your confidence, your reputation, your innocence, your relationship with God, but only Jesus can do that. Jesus came to reconnect you. Many people think God will scold them if they come back to him. Maybe there was a day and a time when you were walking with Jesus, but somehow, some way, you slipped off the straight and narrow path and you find yourself today out there in a wayward way and you're thinking, man, I've done too much.

I've screwed up too much at this point. I can't turn back to God. You think he's this ogre who's just gonna scold you for all the mistakes you've made, but can I tell you that God's not mad at you?

He's not. If anything, he's mad about you. In other words, his love for you is immeasurable. You can't measure the amount of love that God has for you. So whether you were on that narrow path one time or maybe today you're listening to this show and you've never been on that narrow path, can I tell you, God loves you with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus came to earth on the first Christmas to reconcile you and I back to God, separated from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden to give you and I harmony with the creator of the universe. And as you look around this Christmas, you'll see plenty of good in the Christmas season.

You will. You'll see a lot of good, but remember that the best of all is the good news of God's love. Through Jesus, you can experience rescue, recovery, and reconnection with God.

How can you experience rescue, recovery, and reconnection with God? You don't have to earn God's love. You don't have to earn it or work your way into heaven like the Bible says, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves, it's the gift of God, the greatest gift of all, a present that doesn't even come under a tree. It's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works that no one can boast.

You'll find that in Ephesians chapter two. And if you haven't trusted Jesus and committed to following him, why wait any longer? I mean, if you're ready to step across that line and make a decision to believe in Jesus Christ, then I wanna encourage you today, even as you're listening to this show, to pray this prayer. Dear Jesus, you've promised that if I believe in you, everything I've ever done wrong will be forgiven. I'll learn the purpose of my life and you will accept me into your eternal home in heaven one day. I confess my sin and I believe that you are my savior. I trust you.

I trust you when you say salvation comes through grace and through faith and not by anything I do. I receive you into my life as my Lord today. I'm turning over every part of my life to you.

You have the right to call the shots in my life from this point on. I wanna use the rest of my life to serve you instead of serving myself and I commit my life to you and ask you to save me, accept me into your family. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

If you prayed that prayer, man, shoot me an email. Go to coloff.org and just shoot me an email and say, man, I listened to your Christmas show, Christmas with Koloff and I surrender my heart and my life to Jesus or I got my life back on the right track and man, now this is gonna be the great, this is the greatest Christmas present I've ever received. I'm just so grateful and thankful that you tune in to this show each and every week. Can I encourage you to spread the word and tell others and I hope, I hope that truly this Christmas is the best Christmas that you've ever had and you'll go out and spread lots of Christmas joy, sing lots of songs, watch some of the movies that we talked about and go out with a cheerful heart and be a giver, give to others. Make a point this Christmas season to be more of a giver than you ever have before, whether it's given to a mission, given to a missionary, given to your church, given to a friend, given to a neighbor, giving to a coworker, whether it's giving a present, buying them a meal, just go out and make this Christmas the best Christmas yet and oh yeah, by the way, as we close out 2020, it's been an interesting year, has it not, it's been an interesting year, but get ready, if you prayed that prayer and or made that decision, 2021 will be your best year ever.

So not only will this be your best Christmas, 2021 will be your best year ever. God bless you, we'll see you next week on It's Time to Man Up. So if you prayed that prayer today, guess what? This really is Christmas with Kolov because you and I get to spend all eternity together celebrating Jesus.

Merry Christmas. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands and godly fathers. If God appeals to you, give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Kolov for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to kolov.org and email me. Remember this, it's time to man up. This is the Truth Network.