WHAT CHRISTMAS IS TO ALL OUR OFFSPRING!
December 23, 2006
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Children of God – Please do not sent me any poison pen e-mail, advising me Christmas came from a pagan observance or that Jesus was not born on December 25, or that as a Pastor I should tell people not to have a tree in their house because it is worshipping the tree and not Christ, or that to let young children believe in Santa Claus is an abomination to God, which will cause them not to believe in Jesus when they grow up. If you must get it out of your system, go ahead, go ahead, maybe it will make you a little jollier – Ho, Ho, Ho! Believe me when I tell you I was saved in the sixth grade, and had no trouble in repenting of my sins and accepting Jesus as being absolutely real.
I Corinthians 13:11 – When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
I believed in Santa Claus until I was in the fourth grade, and so did all the other kids in the
fourth grade. It was a great childhood joy of my life, so please don’t knock ole Santa. One Christmas all ole Santa could give was a-29-cent toy cannon, but it was from him,
and that was what mattered. Yes, we drag a big Christmas tree into our house and I play Santa Claus for all our great-grand children, and we have more fun than a barrel of monkeys! And don’t tell me I’ll go to hell for what we do, or that I will live outside the heavenly city because we have so much fun, and that Jesus will punish me now and at his Judgment seat. If that is the case, why not leave my judgment up to him, rather than passing it on me yourself!
My offspring all do love Christmas and have fond memories of all our many past Christmas Eve’s waiting for Santa and decorating the tree and house – but we all love Jesus, and can separate quite well between fact and fiction, and now we are waiting for the one who gave us the unspeakable gift which lasts forever, and he not only lives in us and among us on Christmas, he is in us and among us now and forever. He is our living Christ and is so much more than “mas” I cannot describe the joy I know in him. But yes, he is there in the gifts we give, all the tinsel and decorations, and the tremendous joy we experience as we all assemble together as one extended family (this year it was yesterday on December 22 because that is when everybody could get here and then return to have their own tree and ole Santa). Tomorrow, Lord willing, Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church
will assemble as a local visible body of God, and Christ will be in our hearts and in our midst. We will not be celebrating his birth but his life, as we do whenever we assemble as a local visible body, his body, in a building at 1201 North 2nd Street, in Dardanelle, Arkansas. There is a burning desire in me to assemble tomorrow and worship him with his local, visible, body. And I can’ t wai
t until I get to worship him by sight in heaven. I would set out some cookies and milk for him before church tomorrow, but he doesn’t want cookies and milk, he wants my life, and he gave me his, so I could offer it to him.
Romans 12:1 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, th at ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
I Peter 2:5 – Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:22 – In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 1:22,23 – And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, [23] Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Ephesians 3:21 – Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
And, Lord willing, I will be preaching the message you may read, which follows.
CHRISTMAS EVE MESSAGE
Christmas – Spent Rejoicing in God’s Gift or Our Gifts!?
Christ’s Spirit Pleasure Is Eternal – Flesh Pleasure Is Temporal!
Rejoicing in Christ’s Spirit or in Flesh? Which One Lasts?
II Corinthians 9:15
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Some Go through this Life and Never Believe It Exists!
John 3:18 – He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Some Wander through Life, Never Spiritually Seeing It!
John 3:36 – He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Some Pass through this life and Never Receive It!
Luke 8:12 – Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Some Who Receive it, Never See the Joy of How Truly Great It Is!
John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Some Never Accept It was forever Finished by Jesus for them as a gift!
John 19:30 – When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Colossians 2:9,10 – For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
[10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Some Complete in Him Never Let Him Work in Them!
Philippians 2:13 – For it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure.
Some Grieve Him by Never Letting Him Change Them!
Ephesians 4:30 – And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
[31] Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: [32] And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Some Never Make His Church a Part of Their Lives!
Ephesians 5:26,27 – That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, [27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Some Never Let Him Be the High Priest of their Lives!
Hebrews 10:21-25 – And having an high priest over the house of God; [22] Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. [23] Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) [24] And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: [25] Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Happy Christ to you! My prayer for you is that you won’t just be found worshipping him tomorrow on Christmas Eve in one of his churches, but that you will be found assembling regularly in one of his local, visible, New Testament, Churches in the coming year, worshipping him in Spirit and in truth.
John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth.
I Timothy 3:14,15 – These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: [15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.