The messages are clear.

"Discover the Greatest Gift of all."

"His name shall be called Wonderful."

"Christmas Brings Hope."

Tuesday, Dec. 25, Christians will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. So tonight and tomorrow, there will be special messages and music. Sanctuaries will be decorated, sermons will be delivered.

Doug Waltar, pastor at Community Presbyterian Church in Post Falls, said the story of the Christmas nativity (Luke 2:1-14) will be read.

"The message will focus on God's light breaking through with hope into the dark places of our lives, like light at the end of a dark tunnel," Waltar said.

Buddy Jones, pastor of Coeur d'Alene Worship Center, said the signficance of Christ's birth is that's when God became man. He was born and walked among men.

Jones, during the church's 7 p.m. Christman Eve service, will deliver a message that 2,000 years ago, "A perfect God was born into an imperfect world."

"It's the same today. We have a God that loves us, cares for us, wants to walking alongside us," Jones said.

Paul Van Noy, pastor of Candlelight Christian Fellowship, said his sermon about Jesus' birth will focus on the choice God made to use the weak things of the world to make Himself known to all the nations.

One of the promises made to Israel through a prophet was that in the tiny and obscure village of Bethlehem, Jesus the Messiah would be born and that all the earth would be blessed as a result.

"Bethlehem was the location where sheep were raised for sacrifice," Van Noy said. "There in that humble and weak village, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was born to willingly lay down His life as the one and only true sacrifice who could take away - forever - the sins of the world."

The Bible says

The Bible says little of Jesus' birth.

Neither the Gospel of John nor Mark even mention it.

Matthew offers more details - that Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, "but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18)

Joseph, the Bible says, wasn't particularly wild about this and was going to part ways with Mary when an angel appeared to him and convinced him otherwise, saying, "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins."

Matthew never refers to a manger or shepherds, but it does outline King Herod's efforts to find and kill the baby boy, of Magi following a star to find the baby Jesus, and bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and warns him to flee and take the child and Mary to Egypt.

Luke contains other details, such as Caesar Augustus demanding a census of the entire Roman world, "and everyone went to his own town to register."

Which is why Joseph and Mary headed from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Luke also tells of angels appearing to shepherds in the fields, and Mary wrapping the baby in clothes, and placing him in a manger "because there was no room for them in the inn."

Survey says

Preachers throughout the nation will be talking on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

One Rasmussen Reports survey said that 64 percent of adults say the holiday season should focus more on the birth of Jesus. It also found that 27 percent believe there should be less Christian emphasis.

The survey found that 77 percent of Christians also believe that Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary, while 13 percent were doubters.

LifeWay Research and USA TODAY/Gallup "indicate that while most call this a holy day that is primarily religious, their actions say otherwise. Many skip church, omit Jesus and zero in on the egg nog."

Pastors say

Kurt Wandrey, pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Post Falls, said the recent school shooting tragedy in Connecticut and other events are a reminder that we need to put our hope in Jesus.

"That's the only place where we can turn," he said. "God knew exactly what he was doing when He sent his son in our world as a baby. We need to put our trust in Him and we can all be thankful that God has a plan for our salvation."

Mike Rima, pastor of Lake City Community Church, plans to talk on "The Heart of Christmas."

From being a wonderful day as kids about receiving gifts to a day of giving gifts as adults, as people grow, the meaning of Christmas changes.

But there is one constant.

"Regardless of where we're at, the heart of Christmas is about this incredible momment, this most remarkable moment, when the creator God decided to step in to his creation and become one of us, to make himself completely accessible to us."

Mark McWhorter, pastor of the Post Falls Church of the Nazarene, said we need to break through the doom and gloom of our culture and proclaim the same message that the angels declared to the uneducated, socially clueless, lowly shepherds.

"We have a savior," McWhorter said. "His name is Christ, the Lord."