My only trip out of the house today was to get a newspaper, which involved me passing by our Walmart on the way.  Which is always SO WEIRD on Christmas Day, because it’s absolutely empty!  I slowed down and just took in the sight of that completely calm, peaceful parking lot and was immediately struck by this thought..in less than 12 hours, that very same lot will be a frantic, loud, stress building place as people rush to buy all those Christmas leftovers and return half of those gifts they politely “oohed and aahed” over today!

Such a contrast!  And it proves something every born-again, evangelical, Jesus loving and Jesus sharing believer already knows..there is no earthly gift that can ever satisfy the eternal longing in the hearts of those who don’t believe!

A lot of people, especially those in the secular world, believe that all the warm fuzzies and good wishes, and in many cases truly good works for others, are what Christmas is all about and what the world really needs…and that somehow those things and the exchanging of gifts will be enough to finally increase peace and goodwill in the days after.  A lot of Christians, too, may think that the easiest time to evangelize is when the whole world is heading toward a time of giving and generosity and will be naturally more inclined to listen to us.

AND YET!  As I thought about tomorrow and the gift exchanging, I realized we may be very wrong.  God challenged me right there to think about the spirit of dissatisfaction invading the lives of thousands of people even now, on Christmas night, just hours after all that peace and joy was supposed to happen!  All those who had different presents or different places to go this year for “celebration” but who still walked away feeling empty in spite of the glitz.  All those who will go to bed tonight thinking about how much they SPENT and how little satisfaction they got from it!  All those who fell for the hype and exhausted themselves, their families and their budgets and tomorrow will still wake up the same people they always have been.  All those who will still not be happy, or prettier, or better off because of one day and its supposed promises.

So what BETTER time than tomorrow, instead of being tempted to “relax” our spiritual senses, than to ask God to energize them!  What if we made it a point to seek out the dissatisfied, and offer them the BEST gift exchange of all..their sick, sorry and sad lives, without Jesus, in exchange for HIS eternal gift of salvation!!  That exchange requires no waiting in line, no receipts..it can happen anywhere, anytime.  And for ALL people tomorrow and every day after, THAT exchange will be the only one that will affect the rest of their lives as they submit to the Author of peace, the Giver of joy, and the One who died to give them eternal life!  

One of the most popular, newer Christmas songs is the one in this title, and it’s not Christmas in most churches until someone sings it.  And in spite of an FB post the other day that said yes, she DID know (and referenced the angel’s appearance to her) it still is a song that captures the wonder and beauty of Christ coming to the Earth as a baby at Christmas.

This song theoretically asks questions of Mary about the power that Jesus would have in His ministry, including the ultimate power to give up His life and rise again to save all mankind from sin and hell.  It also asks if Mary knew that Jesus was God and He would “one day rule the nations”.   In other words, did Mary really understand…not just intellectually know..AND believe that all prophecy about the Messiah was being fulfilled through her son? And did she accept that she too would need the salvation that He offered?

Listening to this song again the other day, the Lord spoke to my heart and showed me another way to interpret this song, and I could not believe that I had missed it before.  What if, instead of “Mary”, we inserted other names in that song?  And changed the lyrics just slightly?  After all, we are carrying the same Jesus she did – just in our hearts, and not physically!  So what if it said, “Christian, did you know, that Christmas was about Jesus, and not Santa?” Or “Christian, did you know, that Christmas means one day I WILL rule the nations, so why do you fret over evil?”  Or, “Christian, did you know, that I am the way to salvation, so why aren’t you using Christmas to tell others about me?”  After all, the heart of our Gospel BEGINS at Christmas!  Without Jesus coming as a baby, His life, death, and resurrection would NOT have happened…and where would we be?

I believe that sometimes we spend Easter focusing on salvation, and how it cost SO much to save us.  And because of that, we tend to “fluff over” the deeper meaning of Christmas….that Jesus was born specifically to DIE for us, and that Christmas was the way He chose to begin that process.

So, maybe we need to ask ourselves…do we really KNOW?  And if we do, then what are we doing about it?  Are we spending another Christmas season immersed in culture, with a nod to our heritage…or are we truly celebrating what we KNOW and sharing it with others?  May God help us to understand that and work for His glory!

“Said the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see?”  It’s that time of year again, and this is one of my top Christmas songs ever.  I have loved it sunce I was old enough to sing it, but this year it is even more beautiful to me, as God has been using it to teach me new things about His will for my daily life.

I love my job, drive thru window at ChickFilA, and I love my customers.  I also love the opportunities it gives me to see people from all walks of life, and in all kinds of circumstances..the rich, the poor, the friendly, the rude, and the hurried and the retired!

So as I was humming my song the other day, God spoke to my heart about the way I see those customers, and I was so challenged by what He said!  What would happen, for instance, if I were to “see what I see?”, with the “I” being Him?  Instead of seeing the rundown car with the slightly dirty people, what if I saw the future missionaries He was creating from those difficult times?  Or what if instead of being blinded by the BMW and the bling loaded driver, I saw the person that might be miserable in their lives who needs to discover money doesn’t buy it all?  Or what if I saw the hurried, food snatching person who appears too important to talk with me for the insecure ladder climber who might be one mistake from being fired?

I have the feeling that if I truly saw what God sees, it would revolutionize my world!  I would be kinder, more observant, more effective for His work, and have a greatly increased prayer life.  And now is the perfect time of year..because Christmas is all about God seeing His people as they really are, and sending His Son to save them from their sin…so let’s take the song to heart, and start looking around!!

Like many people, our Christmas TV always includes movies that we practically know by heart, but still love to watch!  We were watching The Santa Clause the other night, and a girl elf tells the young boy in the movie, “seeing is not believing, believing is seeing!”  In other words, the ability to believe in Santa was not there because he had seen Santa…he could SEE Santa because he believed first.  So a whole beautiful world of joy and magic opened up for him, and the happy ending to this movie was that eventually even the hardest skeptics became believers, because Santa is real and he gave them the ability.  Millions of people saw this movie and left thinking that it only takes a little bit of “belief” and EVERYONE is win over in the end, to live happily ever after.

Now, if this sounds very familiar, it should!  The whole of our Gospel message is almost the same…almost..and that “almost” is a big obstacle this time of year.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple..by faith, which is a gift of God, we believe (even though we don’t physically see) in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, and He leads us to salvation by believing in Him.

And yet!  Hollywood’s ending is not the reality of this present world!  There is no “magic” that can take an unhappy sinner with an unfulfilled life and give him a new life with a new view and joy.  There is ONLY Jesus, and unlike the movie, NOT everyone will come around and believe!

So what’s the point?  It’s simply this, and I need to remember it probably more than most:  the best gift we can give the world AND the Lord is our lives this season, dedicated to sharing the real Jesus who came for a real reason and who died for others to recieve the GIFT of eternal life!  I am a Christmas fanatic, and love ALL of it..but it is very easy to join the world’s temporary “peace on earth” and “joy to the world” and forget to take it deeper with all those we can!  Let’s make sure and “unwrap” the Gospel and share that gift with everyone we can!