CHRISTmas

Dear Church,

This is not an alarmist’s post! Let’s start with that. No doubt, like me, you’ve seen email forward after email forward warning of the dangers that the church faces by the cruel hands of everybody from liberals, to homosexuals, to communists, and beyond. Take heart, this is not another dire post!

But this is a challenge to be a people worthy of the name of Christ.

I read on CNN this morning that The American Humanist Association plans to unveil a bus campaign in Washington next week in which they will run a holiday add that reads the following:

“Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness sake.”

Now, my inbox will, no doubt, be flooded with emails over the next few weeks warning me to take up my Bible and my gun, and to lock myself inside the four walls of my church, and to not come out until those adds are taken down! I’ll probably also be encouraged to write my congressman asking him to personally see that those adds are taken down. I might even be asked to boycott buses which have those specific adds on the side. I, however, want to challenge the Christian community in a different way; How about we simply be Christ like about it?

First of all, how about PERSONALLY strive to “bring back the Christ in Christmas”? Not by boycotting certain stores, or picketing bus terminals, but by seeing to it that we follow Christ’s example over the Christmas season, that we honor God with our families, and that we serve our fellow man. As so many before me have already stated, Christmas has become a time where, at worst, we go into debt, stress ourselves out, and rise to our absolute materialistic peak! At best it’s become a time when we go into debt, stress ourselves out, and rise to our absolute materialistic peak…..to celebrate Jesus’ birthday! Want to celebrate Jesus’ birthday? Give to the needy. After all, when we give a Christmas present to the least of these, we give a birthday present to Jesus himself (Matthew 25)!

Spend this Christmas teaching your children about the real meaning of Christmas. Serve the needy, spend quality time with your family, and spend quality time with your family serving the needy. Which would mean more to you as a parent; your child having memories of Christmas with lots of presents? Or your child having memories of Christmas where, as a family, you made up food and gift baskets together, and then played secret Santa (or Jesus?), dropping those baskets off on the porches of families in need? Could there be a better way to honor the Savior this Christmas, and could there be a better way to spend the holidays with your family? Surely not!

For more information on how you can celebrate a more ethical Christmas (free from candies and presents made by child laborers), check out a new site called FreeChristmas.org. This site gives a lot of great information on ethical gift giving, and lots of great resources for families, churches, businesses, and even schools.

Want to put the Christ back into Christmas? Start in your own home and then spread those Christ like actions out into your communities. Do that and you won’t have to worry about “defending the gospel”. Your actions will do it for you!

Btw, thanks Lucy!