Our culture’s increasing aversion to anything Christian is something I don’t like but it is there and we need to deal with it.
Some Christians have responded with outrage, petitions and protests at the increasing removal of Christ from Christmas but can I suggest that I think that they are missing a couple of key points.
This is a symptom of people moving away from Jesus and that is the real problem. Christmas as a celebration is a total cultural choice. It is not a biblical imperative. The reason the season is becoming secular is that so many of our friends, co-workers, neighbors, family are moving away from God and becoming secular. That’s the key issue. You can get to heaven without Christmas but you can’t without Jesus (John 14:6). So let’s get upset about the real issue. Not your sense of loss of the Christmas of old that you grew up with but the real loss of some many to the godless and powerless philosophies of the age.
Every one us have been sick. We know we are sick because of symptoms (fever, runny nose and various other gross things our bodies do). We also know that, if we just treat the symptom like a fever and don’t treat the cause of the fever, we are never going to heal. Trying to restore Christmas is a bit like that. Where should our energies be focused? On restoring Christmas or restoring Christ? That brings me to the second key point.
As Christians, we have been charged with the proclamation of the good news of Jesus. We can read all the verses (1 Cor. 2:2, 15:1-5, Romans 1:16 etc.) but we also have to apply them to our lives. We have an obligation before God to call everyone back to Jesus as their savior. We have the charge from God to call his wayward children but to Him. This is the labor of love we are called to. This is the only real thing that will truly remedy the ills of people caught up in this world. You see, even if we can get everyone back to saying, “Merry Christmas”, if they aren’t giving their lives to Jesus then their place before God is still just as bad as before.
God puts it this ways, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9, 10, NIV. What we say is important but only if it comes from the heart.
This world will probably keep taking away reverence and honor of Jesus but we shouldn’t be surprised. We can be upset and feel slighted but let’s not be surprised when the ungodly do ungodly things. That’s only natural (terrible but natural). But once we have taken our egos out of the mix, we have got to face up to the fact that our friends, family, neighbors and fellow countrymen are not going to be saved by Christmas. Only Jesus can save them.
This Christmas proclaim Christ. Proclaim Him in your conversations. Proclaim Him with your life as you love the helpless, hopeless and unlovely. Proclaim Him as you give. There is so much power in generosity. Give Jesus the glory and keep on being His redeemed child. Keep on loving God and loving people.
Every time the people of God do this amazing things happen. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20, 21, NIV.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZw4fEFuTVA
