There have been some Christmas seasons when my wife and kids would tell me I was like Scrooge. They would all be anxious to put up the lights, pull out the boxes of decorations and put up the Christmas tree. The house would be filled with smells of fresh cookies and fudge. On the television Christmas movies were showing. The music in the house and the car were the familiar Christmas Carols. But somehow I wasn’t getting it. I couldn’t feel the SPIRIT of the season. You ever felt like that? You ever feel like the family SCROOGE?
Maybe this will help you like it helped me on those many occasions when I just could not seem to get into the spirit of the Christmas season. I begin to find that elusive spirit as I began to GIVE. Sometimes I did not have the resources to give much, so I gave the little gifts that I could give. In giving I wasn’t thinking about what I might receive or not receive. Gifts of kindness, gifts of sacrifice, gifts to friends and to family begin to make the SCROOGE in me move to the background. We all know the Bible says it is more blessed to give than receive, but have you ever read these verses?
6Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. (1 John 3:16-19)
At Christmas, possibly more than at other times, we can think about the love of God in sending His Son Jesus, by way of a virgin womb, a Bethlehem stable and into a troubled and sinful world. His purpose in that was so that Jesus would lay down his life, die a cruel death upon the cross to satisfy the just demands of a Holy God and to satisfy the sin debt of those who believe upon Him. And so John in his epistle says we should surely learn a lesson from God who so beneficently loved and we should also love. But IF we have a selfish and Scrooge sized heart, and see those in need and will not give, our selfishness will weaken the evidence of our conversion, we will feel condemned and lack confidence of our relationship with God.
We must learn this good lesson, that no amount of Christmas sights, sounds and smells will really bring us that Spirit that filled heaven and earth on that first Christmas like GIVING! “Let us not love in word and tongue; but in deed and truth.” In other words, like God, by GIVING, especially to those who have needs. When you do, the Holy Spirit will inform your conscience, and our hearts will be assured before God. What happens when we give like this? Instant Christmas Spirit! Scrooge – gone!
This year we are encouraging others to “open their bowels of compassion” and give all they can to help our orphans at the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Haiti. For more about these needy kids or to GIVE, go to our website and click on donate. And please pray for our ministry throughout the Caribbean basin.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
December 24, 2011 at 10:03 pm |
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