The Simplicity of Christmas

Before I write my blog for the day, I want to give a quick update on our process. We had our first homestudy interview last night. All went well. We should be able ro complete this by the New Year. It is very exciting to have this process started. As we move toward the in home interview, we need to raise and additional $1,000. Please pray with us. God has provided all that we have needed so far. I know He will contniue to do so.

Please enjoy reading!
For so many Christmas is a time of stress. Having to find the right gift for every person on your list, trying to get the house decorated, cleaned for company, meals made, and all the other details we feel have to be done. Tonight I want us to take a step back and focus on the simplicity of Christmas. God did not intend for us to get so stressed out that we lose sight of His greatest and most simple message. That message rang out as shepherds ran to a stable and kings bowed at a manger. The message still rings true today. God loves you. The simple act of a baby’s birth told of us God’s great love.

Luke 2:6-7 “And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.”

It was a simple star that led simple people to a simple stable in a simple town to find the simplicity of God’s love in the form of a simple child. Think of all the things God has ever done for you, all the things He has given you. Of all of this the simplest thing that He has given is Himself. We try to make everything that God does some complex act with multiple meanings. Let us not lose focus this Christmas that love is the crux of all the complexity in the scripture and in our spiritual lives. Love is a simple emotion. We easily feel it toward a hundred things every day. Love is not complex, relationships and learning to deal with this most powerful emotion confuses us into thinking that love is somehow a high reality that we can never attain. Why did God send His son in the form of a baby? Because He loves you.

Why did that baby teach us all that we needed to know? Because He loves you. Why did Jesus go to the cross? Because He loves you.

John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Christmas emphasizes God’s love toward us and it should also emphasize our love toward others. You want to know how to love? Jesus tells us in Luke 22:25-26 ‘Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ 26 But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant”. Serve someone as an act of love. Go out of your way to do something for someone you would not normally so. As you come to a new realization of God’s love for you this season, show that love to others as well. Have you accepted God’s love? There is no better time than today!