Christmas isn't about Me...
Strange how many people feel depressed on Christmas. It’s called the “Christmas blues,” or seasonal affective disorder. Whatever it is, if you’re down in the dumps today, stop thinking about Christmas. Think instead about Christ. He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. He is the Master, the Bridegroom, the Good Shepherd, the Holy One of God. His name is “Emmanuel—God with us.” His name was called Jesus. John introduced Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The wise men recognized Him as the “King of the Jews,” and even the demons called Him “the Holy One of God” (Matthew 2:2; Mark 1:24, respectively). “Is this not the carpenter?” asked the people of Nazareth in Mark 6:3. “Could this be the Christ?” asked the woman by the well in John 4:29. Thomas called Him, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Today isn’t about Christmas but about Christ. It isn’t about presents but about His presence. You may or may not have family nearby, but your Father is close at hand, and your faith is more important than your feelings. He sets us free from chains we can never remove ourselves. He is our hope. Don’t worry about celebrating Christmas. Just celebrate Jesus! - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening
People have been used to rushing around trying to find gifts for others or used to playing Scrooge this time of year and in the months preceding it.
People scrambling to spend money they don't really have, and if they charged the purchases end up potentially spending hundreds more in interest payments.
People, everywhere can claim that they haven't forgotten the reason for the season but the evidence is to the contrary.
People thinking they HAVE to go get something for someone when in reality they are not getting a gift to celebrate Jesus’s birth, but rather to look for a certain look on someone's face. Truth be known it wasn't about Christmas at all. A harsh reality but it is the truth!
We as a world have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas. Each year since it came out, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" has been popular. In it Linus quotes the story in the Gospel of Luke. When asked Charles Schultz said that if we didn't say it, who would?
Presents for each other that really aren't about celebrating the birth of Christ are just things bought to make someone happy or at least that's the real hope.
The reason for the season is wrapped up in that opening question. "Who do you say that I am?"
In looking at the newly cleaned slate of my life in this new to me city, it reminds me of places that I have visited in my younger years. It also reminds me of an old computer game from the 1980's called SimCity. You are given a blank canvas of a sort to build a thriving city upon. Depending on your planning it either will work or it won't.
In the life of believers we ought to be keeping who Jesus is at the center of our lives. Peter walked on the water because of who Jesus is, not because of Peter.
The people who visited the baby Jesus were there because of who He was and nothing else.
Your life will reflect the truth of who Jesus is to yourself and to others.
The truth of the world's ideas surrounding the mass hysteria of present buying for all the wrong reasons will show itself yet again in light of a point in the book of Revelation. When the two Witnesses are supposedly killed an identical day of celebrating will happen again. People will celebrate by sending or just giving gifts to each other.
The world has so many people getting depressed because of the inability to buy presents.
The world has so many people getting depressed because of an inability to visit who they want to or wishing someone would visit them.
The world is looking for someone to make sense of the chaos and for the most part rejects Jesus as the embodiment of who can be that one. Yet this message of the birth of Christ is all about His coming to save mankind if only they would come and ask Him to.
Gifts are a temporary either pick-me-up or a for-certain let down. But a life in Christ can be lifted up for all eternity. A life without Christ will never see nor understand because they don't yet understand who the great "I AM" is.
Put not an emphasis on whether or not you got someone a present. Rather just celebrate the hope that Satan couldn't stop by any means for 2,000 plus years. That Jesus left Heaven to seek and save the lost. He brought hope to all who would believe and come to Him.
I really don't have expectations of gifts anymore when it comes to Christmas. My focus is on what Christmas really is. It's about the Word of God becoming flesh, coming to Earth to save a wretch like me. It's about the extent that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus came to save someone like me.
He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is the Great I AM.
He is the lover of my soul.
He is the Word of God.
He is the First and the Last, the Everlasting One.
He is coming back soon.
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