I have a question...

Okay...the truth is I have several rhetorical questions but they really can be distilled down into one.  

Can anyone tell me what exactly about the behaviour of North American Christians during the Christmas season actually reflects the Christ of Christmas, the story of Christmas or even the essence of our Christian values?  

Is it our overeating?  Is it how we spend our money?  Is it our schedule of activity?  Is it our brief time of organized worship during a Sunday service?  Is it the process of shopping, wrapping, unwrapping, and then storing stuff we don’t need?  Is it who we invite into our inner circle to celebrate with us? Is it how we live among and are available to our neighbours practically and spiritually? 
  

I’m thinking that if we were honest with ourselves we would have to admit that there is not that much about our behaviour as Christians during Christmas that distinguishes us from everyone else.  Notice I am using inclusive language here.  I'm definitely included in this conversation.

Yet still we wonder why the world isn't attracted to Jesus.  Why we aren't experiencing exponential growth like the early church.  Perhaps it's because the world simply doesn't see Jesus in his "followers."  Isn't this the perfect time of year to work toward changing that?

What do you think?  How do you propose we follow Jesus this Christmas?

Pastor Gary

Bethlehem...A Personal Christmas.

With just 10 days to go before Christmas, the excitement and pressure is growing! But if you're like me, over the years the excitement has changed. It has changed steadily from a focus on the gifts that are exchanged to the people that bring meaning and joy to life. In other words, Christmas is getting more personal.

I wonder if this is why the town of Bethlehem was chosen by God to be the birthplace of Jesus. Jerusalem, Rome or Athens would have been more notable places because of their role in world affairs. Why wouldn't the World-Changer come from a town with more notariety?  Maybe Bethlehem is among the first indications of how personal Christmas is supposed to be!  Maybe the reason for Bethlehem was to ensure that the Christ of God would be someone to whom even a commom person could relate--you know, those of us not born into royalty, riches, celebrity, power or influence!

Or, given that Bethlehem means "house of bread," I wonder if Bethlehem was God's choice in order to indicate that his Christ would satisfy our most basic hunger. After all, the One born in Bethlehem's "house of bread" later called himself "the bread of life" (John 6:35). A remarkably intentional connection, don't you think?

Or, I wonder if maybe Bethlehem might have been chosen to testify that we individually must choose the One born there. You can't eat for another person. Even if we eat from the same loaf of bread we each eat for ourselves (1 Cor. 10:17).

By the way, I still like getting and giving gifts :-) but I think there's more...a whole lot more...that is worthy of our excitement and attention. Like the "bread of life" that came from the "house of bread."

Merry Christmas!

Twitter | Christmas | The Gospel

Do you use Twitter?  I’m sure you’ve heard of it somewhere.  Twitter.com is a social media website which allows its users to write microblogs consisting of no more than 140 characters.  When properly used, Twitter allows users to creatively and concisely share their thoughts, post web links, share photos, etc.  I use it mainly to follow the thoughts of authors, Christian thinkers, and get news and TTC updates.  This blog, however, is not about Twitter.  It’s about something I found on Twitter.

Today I read a ‘tweet’ which jumped right off the screen and hit me like a ton of bricks!  The user (@leadershipfreak)  posted a quote by Henry David Thoreau which read, “It takes two to speak the truth: to speak and another to hear.”  I immediately flipped open my bible to Romans 10 where Paul is writing about The Message of Salvation to All.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.  Romans 10:17

Faith comes from hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.  

How will people hear it if we don’t share it?

Christmas time is absolutely overflowing with opportunities to discuss your faith in Jesus at work, school, in line at Tim Horton’s...Anywhere!  The radio is playing songs that are singing about the manger in which our Saviour was born, performances of Handel’s Messiah are selling out in venues across the city, ‘Jesus is the Reason for the Season’ stickers and decorations can be seen stuck on the bumpers of cars and in store windows, beautiful life-sized manger scenes are setup in front of churches...do you get the idea?  Simply talking about what you see and hear during the Christmas season will provide you with a foundation to share your faith.

Christmas is a time to celebrate the arrival of our Saviour and King.  God the Father directly and intentionally brought his Son into the world with the mission of dying in the place of sinners and rising again for the eternal salvation of all who believe it.  

 

How can you not tell somebody about it?

I’m praying for ya,

Dave