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Bring Back the Joy --- B B t J . O r g
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This is the prepared copy for a speech given from outline
form at the Outreach for America Christmas Program on Thursday, December 23,
2004. The program was recorded.
Click here
to hear the audio of the actual speech.
WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME Do you take Christmas for granted? There's gifts, Christmas Carols, Christmas Trees, turkey and ham, jingle bells--and lots of fun with friends and family. We had it last year and it'll roll around again this year -- two days from now as a matter of fact. br> I hope I never take Christmas for granted. When I was seven my parents joined a church that was Christian in that we believed in Christ and Him Crucified. However, we believed that we were supposed to keep the holy days as outlined in Leviticus. We rejected Christmas as being taken from paganism and dressed up as honoring Christ. So I spent my whole life rejecting the good things about Christmas along with the bad stuff. It was hard to not sing Christmas Carols when everyone else was doing it. After a while, my friends learned not to ask me what I got for Christmas. I had to develop a thick skin in order to field the questions people ask. I may not know all the words to Silent Night -- but I can tell you all about why the Yule Log is sinful. Then about 10 years ago, the denomination we belonged to made some major doctrinal changes. Suddenly Christmas was okay. I had to do a lot of soul searching to satisfy myself that it indeed was okay. When you've spent a lifetime, longer than many of you in this room have been alive, rejecting something. It's not easy to suddenly change. But I realized, I don't really have to change anything but the attitude. I can enjoy and take part as much or as little as I want to. Mark and I are enjoying associating with people who preach Christ and what he is about. Especially at this season. Yesterday we helped put together and hand out Christmas baskets at Christ's Cupboard. That was a rewarding experience. Several years ago, we were invited to spend the holiday weekend with friends. We went to a Christmas Eve service at their church. But that was the only mention of Jesus during the entire weekend--until we brought him up and then that conversation didn't last long. That experience made me again take a second look at what this season is all about. God sent his only begotten son to earth to save mankind. Basically to save us from ourselves. You remember, Adam was created and then blew it--Adam and Eve listened to the serpent who told them God was a liar, withholding good things from them by telling them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. By disobeying, they lost the blessings that mankind could have had if they had rejected Satan and eaten of the tree of life. Adam's descendants continued rejecting God. Yes, some of them were good. But read the Old Testament stories of the children of Israel. They had all sorts of miracles but still couldn't trust God; they didn't believe what He said. They murmured and complained. Then by Ezekial's time, they were sacrificing their children to pagan idols. We think--I believe in God. I'm not sacrificing myself to idols. But are we really. What is an idol? Anything that can separate us from God. Not that we have to sit around saying Praise God, 24 hours a day. But what is it about our lives that could be different. I'm going to publicly confess my idol today. I love to read fiction. Some of it's quite good. I've learned a lot about life and how to do things from my reading. But I realize I've put that first. My mind isn't on God if I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter of the Who Done It--I love mysteries. So I've been giving up that idol. And it's not that I don't have plenty of other non-fiction stuff to read--including my Bible. I'm a couple of days away from having read the Bible through again. So I ask you to consider what your idol is. Christ came to this earth. Yes, as the Baby Jesus. He grew up. And then was crucified. It was a horrible death. But by doing so, he took our sins, our sickness , whatever crap you can think of upon himself--and was crucified. We were redeemed. If we believe on Him, we will have eternal life. We talk about going to heaven. But that's in the future. What about today? By the sacrifice of Jesus' life, we humans were given the gift to direct access to God. We can have a relationship with him, we don't have to take our lamb to Jerusalem and have the priest sacrifice it as a burnt offering. You and I can pray every day, directly to God--and actually receive answers from him. Also, because of Jesus' sacrifice, we were given the authority to heal, cast out demons, etc. Jesus told us to do the things that he did. That's awesome! Are we really following Him? Are we doing stuff just as bad as sacrificing our children to idols? So what is Christmas all about? It's a celebration of the fact that Christ came to earth as a human. We can decorate, put up lights and trees, have lots of holiday cheer. But to me, it's more than that. At this time of year, I also think about all the things that he did during his 3 ½ years of ministry; I think about his dying a horrible death for our sins. I may not have killed anyone, but I've sinned, too. Then the important thing we should look to is that Jesus still lives, he rose again and is Alive today. And because he went back to Heaven, the Holy Spirit could come down here to be with us and in us. So, to me...Christmas is the whole Jesus -- the Jesus that was, and is, and is to come. |
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