Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Why I Will Always Believe that Jesus is the Reason for the Season

Not too many years ago, no one would have thought twice about renaming Christmas, or removing a nativity, or anything else we hear discussed & done nowadays...& it seems with each passing year, the attacks become more & more aggressive to remove all semblance to Christ-mas. And if I let it, it can really get me worked up. But then the Lord whispers to me to rest in His mighty & comforting arms and as I do...

...I am reminded that Jesus will always be the reason for the season...and that no one can ever take that away from us as long as we carry Him in our hearts. Through the years, there have been many attempts, in many nations, to expunge Christ from being celebrated and worshipped no matter what season it was...and in all these years, no one has ever succeeded...certainly no one ever will. Christ will always transcend all time, holidays, and any other categorical box the world would try to neatly allocate Him to. The world that would be rid of Him does not understand that He is not the packaging, but rather what the packaging is about. Tear down a church, and He will still be present. Make it a crime to worship Him at threat of life, and He will still reside in the hearts that wish Him there. Remove His name and story from all that we have cherished and so fondly called Christmas, and He will still remain as the Gift of all gifts. Christ cannot, and will not, not be what He was & is, no matter what mere man tries to do about & to Him. If a cross could not kill such a King, and remove Him from the world's midst, (and it could not)...rest assured that the Name of all names cannot be eradicated from Christmas, either...not truly. The celebratory feast cannot but always take place in every hovel, heart, and home that wishes it so, so powerful is this Name that some would wish begone. If an edict could not remove Him, & death could not hold Him...then certainly rearranging, renaming, or trying to obscure Him from Christmas will never do so, either. What those that would so readily excise Him do not understand is that Christ is forevermore with us...yes, even unto such times as "winter holiday"...where the memory of "Christ-mas" is bent on steadily being relegated, (for much of the world), to the deep recesses of one's mind. Yet He *is* here and He will *always* be here: for this Christmas season, for the next Christmas season...for all times, for all seasons. For the believer, the really good news is that Christ will forevermore live on as the reason for each & every season. Know you not that there is *no* power on earth or below, that can relegate where Christ is to be. There is absolutely, beyond a shadow-of-a-doubt, just *NOT*. He is & has always been, the beginning and the end, therefore it is futile & folly to believe that any era, fence, edict, country, or person can block Him in or out of anything, much less the hearts and seasons of men. And that, dear world, is the reason why it will always be Christ-mas, for those of us that choose to believe. :)

....So from our family to yours, we wish you a most wonderfully blessed, peaceful, and joyful Christ-mas! ~mkerr

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Spiritual Snack of the Day ~ Letting God Move Us Out of Our Comfort Zone

I know I already posted for today, ggg, but the below short quote by Stott came in my email today, and I just had to quickly post it:

"We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our
security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our
patterns of thought and behavior."
-- John Stott

Ponder those eggs.... :)

(Btw, this is an outdated pic of our grandson, Daylin. He's 6 months old in this, and yet he is now almost 7 years old...still love the pic, though!) :)

John 3:16 Christmas, gift-wrapped with love from above

It is Christmastime once again: a time when we exchange gifts; a time of festivities & food...so many wonderful things, yet every one of them so temporal. Each here today, then gone with the end of our man-made Christmas season. How we all, whether young or old, long to hold on to those feelings that Christmastime invokes. And yet, the good news is it doesn't have to end with the close of Christmas Day...in fact, it can be even better than ALL the Christmas seasons put together that you've ever experienced! The really GOOD news is that the magic of Christmas is just a *fraction* of the taste of what can be there all the year through. Which brings me to the following...

If you haven't yet asked the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to be your personal Lord & Savior, would you like to now? He loves you SO very much & has such wonderful plans for you...plans you can't even begin to imagine! He can work with you, if you will only let Him. There will never, ever, be any greater love that anyone has for you, than what Jesus does, in that He laid down His life for you!! Never forget that you are important to at least one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ, your Heavenly Father...how He so LOVES you. :)

Did you know that had you been the only person on the earth, He would have STILL died on the cross for YOU...that's how much He loves you, and how special YOU are to Him! He wants to become Lord of your life...won't you ask Him to come in? Do you need comfort? Reassurance? Peace? Joy? The Bible is His *Living* Word...open it, read it, and let it comfort you & give you His peace as He intended it to. It is full of such jewels! If you are not sure where to begin, start by reading the New Testament. See if reading it doesn't do miracles for you...miracles you thought were only relegated to Christmas movies. The real miracle IS still alive, praise the Lord! It is the Christmas Story, and how God sent His only Son, as a gift to YOU, because He loved YOU so very much! YOU, YOU, YOU, YOU (yes, YOU!) are SO very special to Him...never doubt that for an instant!

In closing, the gift I would most like to give at Christmas for my family & friends, as well as those I've not met yet & may never meet...would be a prayer that if you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord & Savior, that you would step out in faith & ask Him to come live in your heart, and let it be His home. How I wish you could know that His gift of salvation is SO much greater than any Christmas season can contain, and far richer & deeper than ALL the lovely & wonderful Christmas memories *combined* that you can remember from over the years! Can you imagine such a love that surpasses your warmest, dearest memories of all your prior Christmases?!? To me, it is mind-boggling, that He would even have such a love for ME, but I know that He does, because the warmth of His love fills me when I need filled; comforts me when I need comforted; & strengthens me when I need strengthened. It is a love that has NO end. Won't you accept that love of His for yourself, as well?

For all my current brothers & sisters in Christ, it is my prayer-gift to you this Christmas season that you may continue to grow by leaps & bounds in the eternal richness, grace, & knowledge of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. There is simply no way for us as humans to completely comprehend the magnitude of the sacrificial gift that was given to us so many years ago!...but may we ever remember that it was the gift of a KING, like no other king before, nor any other King since. And may we come to Him always on bended knee, all 100% of our being, remembering that we are for HIS glory, because He SO loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have life everlasting. (John 3:16) That then, is the gift-essence of Christmas.

A most blessed Christmas season to each of you!