Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Today I am celebrating a birthday.  You see, my oldest child was born 32 years ago on this day.  Now he is married and lives far away; but I will always remember the day he was born.  And while I don’t spend time with him on his birthday anymore, I’m thankful for our close relationship and the joy both he and his wife bring to our family (I get to see them soon!)

I’m sure my son hasn’t always appreciated having his birthday so close to Christmas (neither did our pocketbook!), but there is something special about having a baby during this season.  I can remember how much easier it was to relate to the humanness of Jesus’ mother, Mary, as I gingerly sat on a sheepskin-covered wooden bench to become part of a living nativity scene in the church Sunday school Christmas program just four days after he was born.  And, through the years, we have had a constant reminder of what we are celebrating on Christmas Day when we have celebrated our child’s birthday eleven days before.  I don’t want to lose track of that reminder just because I no longer celebrate with my son.

Yesterday we had a missionary speaker at church that was dynamic in both his delivery and his message.  One thing he said that I want to remember relates to Christmas being Jesus’ birthday.  He asked this question: “If Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, why don’t we give gifts to HIM instead of each other?”  I think that is very profound.  While there’s not necessarily anything wrong with giving gifts to those we love at Christmas, we can easily move away from a proper spirit of giving if we don’t use this season as a time to reflect on God’s gift to us and what our response should be. 

Jesus told us that he really only wants two gifts from us: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength . . . Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).  During this season, we do a better job of giving the second gift than the first.  We feel compelled by the warm, fuzzy feeling of Christmas to reach out and give to our neighbors – even those we don’t know.  That’s a good thing, but according to what Jesus said, it shouldn’t just happen at Christmas.

Nor should the first gift – the gift of ourselves to our wonderful and worthy God and Savior.  Heart, soul, mind, and strength pretty much sums up every part of our inner being; and loving God that way is hard work for us humans.  That’s because we are by nature selfish and easily drawn away from that which really matters.  Jesus knew we needed to have his words forever written down if we had any hope of giving to him what pleases him most. 

This Christmas, let’s focus more on what we can give to Jesus than what we give to each other.  Let’s not forget whose birthday it really is!  And then let’s remember to keep giving these two gifts of love throughout the coming year – making Christmas this year the starting point of a changed perspective on what matters most.  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!        

Loving Christmas for the Right Reasons

I love Christmas.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  I love the lights most of all, but I also love the tree and decorations, the special foods and baking, spending time with family, giving gifts to those I love, hearing from friends far and near, fires in the fireplace, and the general warm/cozy feeling I get at Christmas.  Yes, Christmas is a busy time of year; but that busyness can have purpose if we allow it to.  Here are some suggestions:

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  Each time we look at the beautiful Christmas lights, we can remind ourselves about the true light and the difference his light makes in the world.

As we decorate our homes with beautiful Christmas things, we can remember the importance of decorating our own lives on a daily basis with the things that God considers beautiful:   

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  (Colossians 3:12-14)

And the Christmas tree should remind us of another tree – the one God willingly created and nourished in order to provide a means for the sacrifice of his own Son for our redemption.  Imagine how our focus would change if we saw the cross every time we looked at our Christmas trees!

What about the special foods and the baking?  My ability to enjoy these once-a-year delicacies should lead me to praise God, “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17), for his constant provision for me.  Too often we overlook God’s role in providing for all of our needs, but Christmas can be a time to shift our focus in this area.

Since my children have not always lived in close proximity to me, spending time with family is an especially important part of this time of the year for me.  But I don’t want to glorify my earthly family over my heavenly Father.  We can choose to enjoy our families in the way God intended – by remembering that they are an earthly picture of the heavenly principle of God’s church and the broader family of believers that we belong to.

It is easy for gift-giving to get out of hand and fail to be God-honoring.  There are probably many different practical approaches to avoiding this (limiting our spending, choosing gifts that are edifying, focusing on giving rather than receiving, etc.).  But the most important thing we can do is to use the giving and receiving of presents as a tool to remember God’s lavish giving of blessings to us – and to cultivate hearts that are truly thankful beyond this season.

I enjoy receiving Christmas cards and letters from those I don’t otherwise see or hear from often.  This year, as the cards arrive, I want to try and focus on the gift of God’s constant messages to me – through his Word as well as the Spirit’s promptings in my life.  Whether we keep in touch with those we know here on earth, our God is always “keeping in touch” with us if we will just listen.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, we are told not to “put out the Spirit’s fire”.  Every time we light a fire in the fireplace this Christmas season, we can remind ourselves of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the flames that he fans in our lives to do what he calls us to do for the kingdom of God.  I am so thankful for his work in my life as comforter, counselor, and guide (see John 16); and I want to remember that when I’m enjoying a fire in my fireplace.

When I think about the warm, cozy feeling I get this time of year, it reminds me of an Old Testament verse that Handel celebrated in his work, The Messiah.  Isaiah 40:11 tells us that God “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart”.  What could be more warm and cozy than having the ability, whenever we choose, to climb up into God Almighty’s lap because he is our “Abba”, our Father (Galatians 4:6-7)?

This year, I want to take every opportunity that this wonderful season affords to focus my heart in the right direction.  I’ll always love Christmas, but I’m hoping to be more purposeful about my reasons.  Will you join me?

What Would Jesus Do?

I am not a political person.  I have never joined a political party or voted strictly along party lines.  And I am not a perfect Christian who always responds to everything in the way God would want me to.  But what I have seen on social media over the past week has struck a chord deep inside me, and I feel compelled to comment.

By all accounts, both the Syrian refugee crisis and the terrorist attacks in Paris and other cities around the world are horrendous; and the lives that have been affected by both issues will never be the same.  I have come to expect that both Republicans and Democrats would find a way to connect these unrelated events and use them for political gain and misguided American patriotism.  What I was surprised, saddened, and quite frankly ashamed to see on social media was the number of people who call themselves Christians siding with the politicians in deciding that terrorist attacks by ISIS in Paris justify closing our country’s borders to innocent refugees.  As Christians, we have a responsibility to choose wisely who or what we allow to inform our thoughts and actions; and I believe that this should never be politicians, fear, or patriotism – but God’s Word alone.  It is easy to allow others to guide what we think and do, instead of listening to God only.  The apostle Paul talked about this in Colossians 2:8: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”       

Here’s a few facts.  First of all, ISIS does not speak for all of Islam; and mainstream Islamic people oppose ISIS just as much as Christians do.  Mainstream Islamic people are no more of a threat to us than any other non-Biblical or extra-Biblical groups (many of whom masquerade as acceptable churches or religions in our country).  Secondly, not only are not all Syrians associated with ISIS, they aren’t even all associated with Islam.  There are many Syrian Christians who have become refugees in an attempt to save their families from horrible conditions in their country.

 We are told by the apostle Paul to have the same attitude as Jesus did (Philippians 2:5).  Jesus had much to say about how we should respond to the Syrian refugees.  In Matthew 25:31-46, he talks about what will happen at his second coming, when he will separate “the sheep from the goats” based on what we did to help “the least of these”.  The result for not attending to the needs of helpless people is not a pleasant one (verse 46).  Jesus also told us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).  Jesus’ brother, James, elaborated on this principle and condemned playing favorites: “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.  But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.” (James 2:8-9).  James also tells us that God places great value on how we take care of those around us: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).  Do we dare decide that our own lives and those of our families (and protecting ourselves from perceived or possible danger) are more important than the lives of the Syrian refugees?

ALL people are made in the image of God and loved by God, not just Christians or Americans.  Jesus died for Syrian refugees and ISIS terrorists as much as he died for any of the rest of us.  How we must hurt God’s heart when we act superior and allow fear to rule our thoughts and actions instead of compassion and love.  After all, fear and love can’t exist together, for “perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).  When we trust God, there is no room for fear or self-protection, because we are placing our welfare in HIS hands instead of our own.

So, do we really trust God?  We have the opportunity to demonstrate whether we think like the Israelites did when facing Goliath, or whether we think like David did (1 Samuel 17).  The Israelites were ruled by fear and frozen by the possibility of Goliath’s victory; but David was ruled by his trust in God and could only see God’s imminent victory.  Can we, as Christians, be different than those around us and choose to love and care for others instead of acting from a stance of fear and self-protection?  And can we make an effort to use the power of social media to advance truth and God’s ways instead of being deceived by the enemy and his many schemes?  What would Jesus do?