The Greatest Gift

December 2014: A Word from Dr. Stanley

There’s nothing like the happy (and sometimes chaotic) disorder of Christmas morning. Children hurriedly tear wrapping paper off the packages to find they got exactly what they wanted. But the real joy comes from exploring and using the things they’ve been given. How unusual it would be if a child decided to keep a present without unwrapping it. Yet that’s how many Christians treat the priceless gift of salvation. They accept it but never bother to explore all the riches available to them as children of God.

Eternal life is the most precious possession anyone can receive. Because of His great love, the heavenly Father offers this gift to everyone who will accept it through faith in His Son. Unlike all the earthly presents we accumulate and eventually discard, this one lasts forever. So let’s unwrap it and see what’s inside.

First of all, God gave what was most precious to Him: His beloved Son. Jesus came to earth in human flesh while remaining fully divine. On that first Christmas, the angels announced that a Savior had been born (Luke 2:11). To rescue us from eternal separation from God, He came to live a perfect life and die on the cross in our place. Now all who place their trust in Jesus receive mercy instead of punishment.

But there’s more to this amazing gift. One of the benefits of salvation is a personal relationship with God. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are accepted and have instant access to the Father. We are now free to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Even when we falter, our fellowship can be restored if we confess our sins (1 John 1:9).

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of our salvation is the Holy Spirit, who lives within each believer. He reminds us of Christ’s teachings and enables us to accomplish His will (John 14:16-17, 26). The Spirit guarantees the promise that we will one day be with the Lord forever.

I’d like to encourage you to explore your gift of salvation this Christmas season and throughout the coming year. As you discover the riches of this treasure, may your heart overflow with praise and gratitude for all that God has provided.

Copyright 2014 In Touch Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. www.intouch.org. In Touch grants permission to print for personal use only.

Christmas: God Is For You

By Rick Warren


“But the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.’” (Luke 2:10 NLT)

Knowing God is for you will change your whole perspective on life. You’ll stop thinking of God as someone looking down from Heaven, ready to yell “Gotcha!” any time you mess up.

God is for your success in life; he created you for a purpose and he wants you to succeed. It is God, your Creator, who will measure your success in life, and no one else.

This is extremely good news!

It means you don’t need to be afraid of God because God is for you. Yet, some people are so afraid of God they get nervous just talking about him. Do you know why? They feel guilty, and then they start thinking, “If I get close to God, he’s going to lecture me. He’s going to remind me of all the things I’ve done wrong, and then I’ll feel even worse!”

Nothing could be further from the truth of God. Jesus said, “I did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it.” In effect, Jesus is saying, “I didn’t come to scold you, I came to save you.”

And if God is for us, who can be against us?

Jesus came to save us, not to scare us. That’s why when the angel was telling the shepherds about the birth of Jesus, the first thing he said is, “Don’t be afraid!”

In fact, when God sends a message to people in the Bible, it’s not unusual for the first words to be: “Don’t be afraid.” There are 365 messages from God in the Bible that begin with a phrase like, “Fear not!” In other words, every single day of the year you can read a message from God that says, in effect, “You don’t need to be afraid. I am for you; I am with you; I love you.”

We celebrate Christmas because of this good news from God!

How would your life change if you deeply believed God is for you? Ask God to help you in your unbelief.

Sermon Idea: Making the Most of Christmas

November 7, 2011

By Rick Warren


“… But the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! … Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.’” Luke 2:10-11, 14 (NLT, second edition)

From the angel, God’s messenger, we learn how to make the most of Christmas:

Make it a time for celebration!

“Good news … great joy!” Christmas is a time to celebrate all that God has given us and done for us. It’s a time to set aside your problems and pressures for a moment and focus on God. If God wanted to communicate to birds, he would have become a bird. But he wanted to communicate to human beings, so he became like one of us and came to Earth. Now we can know what God is like because Jesus tells us.

Of all the ways God could have come to Earth, he came the same way every one of us did — by a birth. Why? Because he didn’t want us to fear him, and no one is afraid of a baby! Christmas says God wantsyou to know him.

Make it a time for salvation!

“Your Savior was born …” If we needed information, God would have sent an Educator. If we needed more government, God would have sent a Politician. But what we need most is salvation, so God sent us a Savior. What is “salvation”? It’s forgiveness for my past, power to manage my present problems, and a guarantee for my future. But like any gift, you must accept it in order to benefit from it.

As a young man I worked as a lifeguard for three summers. I learned that you can’t save people until they stop trying to save themselves. We must stop trying to save ourselves and instead trust Jesus to be our Savior.

Make it a time for reconciliation!

“Let there be peace …” Christmas is a time to seek to restore those broken or strained relationships. It’s a time to say “I’m sorry” and “Will you forgive me?” It’s also a time to offer forgiveness to all those who have hurt you.

First you make peace with God, and then you receive the peace of God. Once you have that you’ll find it much easier to make peace with other people.

Christmas

The day observed by Christians in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures do not reveal the exact date of Christ’s birth, and the earliest Christians had no fixed time for observing it. However, by the late fourth century Christmas was generally celebrated in the churches, although on differing dates in different locales. Various methods were used in an attempt to compute the day of Christ’s birth; among dates suggested by early churchmen were January 6, April 18, April 19, May 20, and according to Hippolytus (ca. 170-ca, 236), in his Commentary on Daniel, “Our Lord was born on Wednesday, December 25, in the 42^nd year (2 B.C.) of the reign of Augustus.” December 25 eventually became the officially recognized date for Christmas because it coincided with the pagan festivals celebrating Saturnalia and the winter solstice. The church thereby offered the people a Christian alternative to the pagan festivities and eventually reinterpreted many of their symbols and actions in ways acceptable to Christian faith and practice. For example, Jesus Christ was presented as the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2), replacing the Sun god, Sol Invictus. As Christianity spread throughout Europe, it assimilated into its observances many customs of the pagan winter festivals such as holly, mistletoe, the Christmas tree, and log fires. At the same time new Christmas customs such as the nativity crib and the singing of carols were introduced by Christians.

In every period of Christian history the observance of Christmas has been opposed by a minority of Christian leaders. Usually one or more of three factors have been involved in this opposition: (1) a rejection of ecclesiastical authority in its attempt of establish official feast days, of which Christmas is one; (2) an objection of the drinking, partying and immorality associated in every age with Christmas festivities; (3) the long-standing and continuing associations of Christmas with pagan religious ideas and practices. Some Protestants, especially those in the Calvinistic tradition – including Calvin himself, Knox, the English and American Puritans, and many Presbyterians – refused to celebrate Christmas. However, the Lutherans, the Continental Reformers, and most other Protestants defended the observance of Christmas and sought to emphasize its deeper truth expressed in the doctrine of the incarnation. By the midtwentieth century Christmas had come to be observed almost universally in some form or another by Christians throughout the world. With the expansion of Christianity into the cultures of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, many new customs and ideas were incorporated into the Christian celebration of Christmas.                                                                  O. G. OLIVER JR.

Bibliography.           L. W. Cowie and J. S. Gummer, Christian Calendar; O. Cullmann, “Origin of Christmas,” in Early Church; A. A. McArthur, Evolution of the Christian Year; P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church; T. J. Taley, Origins of the Liturgical Years.

*Evangelical Dictionary of Theology 2^nd Edition. Edited by Walter A. Elwell, Baker, 2001

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