Some of us have found the rituals of purchasing and giving
gifts, sending greeting cards and meeting with friends and neighbors at holiday
parties, a frantic effort to stay on a tight schedule. Most of this occurs
during the four weeks of Advent, but perhaps we are not all that fully prepared
for Christmas, after all.
So, what is the point of Christmas? Was it merely
something for Jesus, Mary and Joseph to do? Or, is it more complicated
and profound?
Well-known Pastor Rick Warren, with a church in California,
offers some helpful ideas on how we can re-focus ourselves to the deeper
meaning of Christmas. He explains why we should have real gratitude for
the birth of Jesus.
Warren says that the first purpose of Christmas is to celebrate.
God loves you! Not based on what you do, but based on who he
is. Our good works do not buy God's favor. Secondly, God is
with us and will never abandon you. You may not feel like he is near,
but that just means you are not tuned-in.
Thirdly, God is not against you. He is not out
to get you or make you miserable. God loves you. God is with you.
God is for you. Therefore, the gift to mankind of Jesus, God's only son,
is a priceless gift to YOU.
But, there is more!
There is this thing called "Salvation." Rick
Warren believes that most people recognize their need for somebody greater than
themselves ---- someone to save them from something they cannot solve on their
own. They realize the need for somehow being saved ---- salvation.
Warren believes that God's salvation is three-dimensional:
----- You are saved FROM SOMETHING
---- yourself. Sin is an attitude. It is a pride problem. Sin is saying, "I
want to be my own boss, I don't need God." The problem with sin is that it separates us from God.
Jesus came to set us free from our sin. So there is something from which we need to be set free. We need to be
set free from ourselves.
We need a savior!
----- Secondly, Pastor Warren believes
Jesus came to save us FOR A PURPOSE. It's in Christ, he says that we find out who we are and what we are living
for. But, Warren believes, you will never be
completely satisfied with your life until you find out what is the purpose God has for you, and how to bring it to
pass. You were not made for mere "success" in some secular sense. You were made for a
higher level ---- "significance." Significance comes from knowing God, his purpose for your life, and then
for you to fulfill it.
----- Thirdly, Rick Warren reminds us
that Jesus came to save us BY HIS GRACE. Grace is when God gives us what we need and not what we
deserve. Grace is when God says,
"I'm going to take your problem and make it my problem." God
came to save us from our hurts, our habits
and our hang-ups.
So far, God and Jesus have done all the work. What
role do we play at Christmas time, if any? Rick Warren sees a very
difficult but important role for us! In a word, he calls it
"Reconciliation" ----- when a broken relationship is restored.
Pastor Warren says there are three kinds of
"peace" relationships:
----- First, if
you are trying to live without God, then you are at war with God and you
need a peace treaty. How do you make peace
with God? You don't do it by promising to be good. You don't do it
by being perfect. You can't be perfect. You don't do it by never sinning. You will sin.
You make peace, the Bible says, by faith
----- trust in God's grace.
----- Second,
you've got two choices in life. In every circumstance, you can pray or
panic. You can worship or
worry. If you prayed as much as you worry, you would have a whole lot less to worry about. The
peace of God is in your heart when you've made peace with God.
----- Third, God
has given us both a ministry and a message. It's about reconciliation; to help other people find peace with God
and peace with each other.
With whom do you need to rebuild a broken relationship this
Christmas? Just remember that you will need to let Jesus Christ fill you
with his love so you can love other people the way he does. And, you will
need to let him fill you with his forgiveness. Until you
let God in, and feel truly forgiven, you don't have the ability to forgive
others.
So, we have a range of gifts to acknowledge this
Christmas. There could be new golf clubs, a wide-screen TV or something
even more grand. At the same time we can count on an invaluable gift from
God, as evidenced by the birth of Jesus, two thousand years ago. But, one of
the most precious gifts we can give might simply be the gift of forgiveness to
someone who caused us pain in the year that is now behind us, just as God's
grace has already forgiven us of our repeated sinning.
Merry Christmas!
___________________________________________________________________________
These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual
Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual
growth this year at CPC.
___________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment