Monday, December 6, 2010

December 6, 2010

"You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:32-33
When you say, "Happy Holidays!" What are you really saying?
Obviously, "holiday" is a contracted version of "holy day". While in some instances it has come to represent a period of time off or vacation, in it's original sense it represents a time of special significance.
I heard someone recently commenting on the three successive Holidays that occur this time of year, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. This fellow made a case for the sgnificance of each of them individually and the added importance of them together. I thought it to be worth sharing with you.
Certainly, you get an insight into their import if you simply take the first half of each word and then put them together. Example:
THANKS - CHRIST - NEW
Get it? See the pattern?
Thanksgiving illustrates the manner in which we approach God. We come thankfully before Him in recognition of His Greatness and His Goodness as evidenced by His generous providence and provision.
And the manner in which we demonstrate thanks is by giving! We give ourselves and we give our best. That is what God desires and it is what He deserves!
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 118:1
"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:57
When you approach God with humility and grattitude, He makes it possible for you to enter into a personal realtionship with Him through Christ! Christmas - "the Christ birth" - happens in your spirit and it provides a spiritual transformation.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" II Corithians 5:17
Are you "in Christ"? Have you invited Him to be "in you"?
Those two actions then bring you to the third Holiday - the New Year. As II Corinthians 5:17 reminded us, when you are "in Christ" everything becomes new and all the old passes away. This is not a religious reformation, this is a supernatural spiritual transformation!
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2
So, as you navigate through the stress and the busyness of this six weeks of holiday period. Let me urge you to not just focus on the traditions and the trials, remember the truths:
Thanksgiving to God brings Christmas into your heart and makes for a truly New Year!