What About Christmas Gifts?

Christmas is all about thinking of others first, and God set the precedent for gift-giving when He gave His very own Son, a living sacrifice for the sins of the world. He came to be born, to dwell among us and to die, a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, to be resurrected and to finally take His place with God, the Father in Heaven. We have hope in life eternal because of this precious gift.

Then, there were the Magi who came when Jesus was a young child, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

AND

The gift of the Holy Spirit ~ For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

Romans 1:11

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

1 Corinthians 12:7

In the Spirit of Christmas giving this year, we have given to The Voice of the Martyrs, Australia, for the children of the persecuted church in Colombia who, without this gift would have had no Christmas at all. Their Mothers and Fathers have been martyred for the cause of preaching the gospel, and some of the children have been taken in by their aunts and uncles. We felt that this was such a worthy cause that we donated to it.

Do I say this so that you can see what good people we are – no, I just thought that there might still be time, for people who felt so inclined, to give to this worthwhile cause.

Each gift pack includes:

• a school pack (includes notebooks, pencils, sharpeners, erasers and a box of colouring pencils)
• toiletries kit (includes tooth brush, tooth paste, soap)
• He Lived Among Us Gospel booklet
• T-shirt with a Christian message
• food
• a toy
• and a carry bag.

Each pack costs only $20.00, but for a child in Colombia, it will make the world of difference. What price the smile of a child?

My Favourite Christmas Carol

Christmas Cards & The Reason for the Season

I know that some bloggers don’t “do Christmas”, but here in our home, we take pleasure in remembering what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us in His birth, baptism, death and resurrection, and I truly look forward to the day when He will once again reign on this earth. Sarah has also written about “doing Christmas”, and I agree wholeheartedly with what she has written.

Oh sure, there once was a time when we became very legalistic about “not doing Christmas” or birthdays for that matter, but we are told to live in the world but not be of the world. It is up to the individual ♥ of each person to do what the Holy Spirit convicts them of. Susan also wrote an excellent blog post about doing or not doing Christmas, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and I have been thinking on what she wrote ever since.

I enjoy spending time worshipping Jesus, but it is not just confined to Christmas, and while we are told to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature – what better time of year to be able to do just this? People are so much more receptive to the gospel at this time of year than they are at any other time of the year.

We love doing and making things for others and I love the carol singing – old time favourites, such as Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Once in Royal David’s City, but my favourite would have to be Oh, Holy Night, as the lyrics are absolutely divine.

Do we believe in Santa Claus – definitely not, but we do believe in Saint Nicholas, for he was known for his secret gift-giving, such as leaving coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. Christmas should be all about servanthood, and remembering why Jesus came in the first place.

We also have a holiday for the Queen’s birthday, but her birthday is not on that day. The Queen of Australia was born on 21 April, 1926, but her birthday was celebrated this year on 8 June, 2009. Birthdays are to celebrate the birth of an individual, but as the Queen illustrates, it is not the day that is important. Nobody knows precisely when Jesus was born, but that doesn’t stop us (in our home) from wanting to celebrate His birth and all that it stands for.

Nativity Scene – The Real Reason for Christmas

We put up the nativity scene yesterday. My daughter really delighted in putting all of the figurines in place.
Heavenly Host
The probability is that this mighty angel, leading the heavenly host in their praises, was Michael the archangel; this occasion was later commemorated by the early church as Michaelmas (i.e., “Michael sent”) on September 29, the same as the date of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. It would have been appropriate for Christ to have been born on such a date, for it was at His birth that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt (i.e. literally “Tabernacled”) among us” (John 1:14). This would mean, then, that His conception (and this was the real miracle of the incarnation, since His birth itself was a normal human birth) took place in late December. Thus, it might well be that when we today celebrate Christ’s birth at what we call Christmas (i.e., “Christ sent”), we are actually celebrating His miraculous conception, the time when the Father sent the Son into the world, in the virgin’s womb. This darkest time of the year – the time of the pagan Saturnalia, and the time when the sun (the physical “light of the world”) is at its greatest distance from the Holy Land – would surely be an appropriate time for God to send the spiritual “light of the world” into the world as the “Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (2:11). Taken from New Defender’s Study Bible with footnotes by Henry M. Morris, Ph. D., LL.D., Litt.D. Luke 2:13