Christmas 2020: Mensa Otabil sends message to Christians

Pastor Mensa Otabil, the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), has asked Christians to remember the poor during the Yuletide.

He urged them to give to support the poor, especially children in orphanages and those on the streets, as part of efforts to bring the love of Christ to them.

Pastor Otabil in his Christmas message wished Ghanaians and Christians all over the world merry Christmas, saying, “Pastor and Mrs Otabil and the entire Christ Temple family wish you a Merry Christmas! May the love, joy, and peace of Christ abide with you always”.

Pastor Otabil said Christmas was to mark the incarnation or the coming into the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.

He said the birth of Jesus Christ was the greatest birth that ever took place on earth and that nothing could be compared to it; stating that all the activities leading to it were miraculous.

Quoting from a hymn, he said: “The hopes and the fears of all the world are met in thee, oh little town of Bethlehem.”

Pastor Otabil said on that day when Christ was born, God was holding the hopes and fears of humanity and bringing mankind to completion through the birth of His son.

He said the Lord God picked a young girl, Mary to be the mother, and that she carried the promise that was delivered in the book of Genesis; the seed of the mother shall bruise the head of the serpent.

“And finally there is the woman carrying the seed and she gives birth to the seed of the woman, the one who will crush the head of the serpent and by his death, Satan dominion was destroyed.

“It was of the beginning of the end of Satan’s power, it ended finally on Easter but this was the beginning; this child was born in a manger in a lonely place.”

He said God brought his child to the world in Bethlehem and there was no place for people to receive him and if the innkeepers had only known who was being born.

The General Overseer said Christians could learn a lot of lessons from the birth of Christ and that there were many who had been born homeless during Christmas seasons with others having no place to lay their heads and must be helped.

He noted that the birth of Jesus Christ although great in its salvation message was also very tough and difficult for the parent on the day of His birth.

He urged Christians to take a cue from that and “visit somebody, give to somebody, encourage somebody, make somebody burden lighter, especially young children who are homeless in the streets and in the orphanages.”

“This Christmas, may we show them the love of Christ; to your nephews/nieces to your children to neighbourhood children, just do something not to save the whole world but do something for one child to let them know there is a room in your heart for them,” he urged.