Christmas should be a time of joy and a celebration of life, love and family. It should be about His presence in the earth and in our hearts.
To the retail world it’s about people spending money often on things they don’t need with money they don’t have.
I grew up in South Africa and we didn’t call him Santa but Father Christmas which I’m grateful for because as a child I saw a man with a beard, often my dad, with a red bag of gifts for the children and my memory through the eyes of a child was a father who wanted to bless his children and that’s what Christmas is about. It’s about the love our Heavenly Father has for his creation. If we want to bless our earthy children with gifts how much more does God want to shower blessing on us.
We do however need to learn to receive those gifts.
One gift we were given in the late 80’s was an understanding of the gift of Righteousness. Rom. 5:17 says, to as many as receive the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Christ Jesus.
We receive this gift because of His love for us. We don’t deserve gifts at Christmas we get to give them and receive them. Well we did not deserve the gift of righteousness.
Jesus paid the price for our righteousness or right standing with God.
2 Cor.5:21
He became sin that we might become His righteousness.
Seems too simple ? We over complicate the Bible as though we need to go to bible college in order to be a witness in the world.
Once we understand who we are in Christ, our identity in Him, we cannot help but want to speak of what we have seen and heard concerning the Word of life.
1 John:1 .
The Gospel is a revelation of God’s righteousness. It’s the power of God in His Word to change a life, transform a heart bring hope into hopelessness.
Rom 1:16:17
The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation first for the Jew then for the Greek. In it the ‘righteousness’ of God is ‘revealed’ from faith to faith.
Let us all become more like Children who simply trust their Father to provide.
Jesus said that we should become as little children then we would see the Kingdom. There are many that don’t see the Kingdom because they have yet to understand the simplicity and power of the cross. They are awaiting His second coming but not fully embraced His first.
Christmas is a time to become like a child and receive from our Father with child-like faith and trust so that we can go out and share the good news of the gospel with everyman in every place.
People need to see love in action so let us all be mindful of preferring one another, loving our neighbor and honoring our Savior because if we make room for Him, He will make room for us.
Nick Coetzee is a music producer and worship leader from South Africa. He has spent the past 30 years pouring into worship ministry and also developing and recording worship songs. He produced the first US release of ‘Shout to the Lord’ with Darlene Zschech , as well as many instrumental and vocals albums for artists and recording companies. He and his family are based in Wesley Chapel, FL where he owns and operate a recording Studio. Nick also produces promotional videos for companies and Churches.
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