The True Meaning of Christmas

Christmas: Open Your Gift from God
by Rick Warren

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. Romans 5:1 (MSG)

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You’re not reading this by accident. No, God knew before you were born that you would be here in this moment. He planned to get your attention for just a few seconds so he could say this to you: “I’ve seen every hurt in your life, and I’ve never stopped loving you. You matter to me. I love you more than you will ever know. I made you to love you, and I’ve been waiting for you to love me back.”

God is saying, “I want the rest of your life to be the best of your life. I’m with you, and I’m for you. I want to save you from your past. I want to save you for the purpose I made you for. And I want to save you by my grace. If you’ll let me do that, I will give you peace with me, peace of me, and peace with other people. But you’ve got to open the door and receive the Christmas gift.”

If you gave me a Christmas gift and I never opened it, you would be disappointed. And it would be a worthless gift because I don’t receive the benefit of a gift I never opened.

Jesus Christ is God’s Christmas gift to you. Yet some of us have gone Christmas after Christmas and never opened the best gift of all – God’s gift of salvation. Why even celebrate Christmas if you’re not going to open the biggest gift? It doesn’t make sense to leave unwrapped the gift of your past forgiven, a purpose for living, and a home in heaven.

Jesus Christ says to you, “I can replace the frustration in your heart with peace. I can replace the guilt, resentment, shame, and grudges with forgiveness. I can replace the worry and anxiety with confidence and faith. I can replace depression or despair with hope. I can replace emptiness with meaning and purpose. I can replace confusion with clarity. But I’m not going to break down the door of your heart. You’ve got to invite me in.”

God says: “It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from, if you want me and you are ready to do as I say, the door is open.”

It doesn’t matter what your religious background is – Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Buddhist, Baptist, Hindu, or no religion. This is not about religion. God didn’t send Jesus to give you religion. He sent him so you could have a personal relationship with God. It’s all about relationship.

Below is a prayer I prayed years ago when I stepped across the line and became a friend of God’s. It’s a pretty simple prayer. If these words express the desire in your heart, read them as if you are talking to God.

Prayer:

Dear God, I’m scared, but I want to get to know you. I don’t understand it all, but I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you’re with me even when I didn’t recognize it. I thank you that you are for me; that you didn’t send Jesus to condemn me but to save me.

I admit I never even realized I needed a Savior, but today I want to receive the Christmas gift of your Son. I ask you to save me from my past, my regrets, my mistakes, my sins, my habits, my hurts, and my hang-ups. Save me from myself.

I ask you to save me for your purpose. I want to know why you put me on this planet. And I want to fulfill what you made me to do. I want to learn to love you and trust you and have a relationship with you.

I need peace with you, God, and I need you to put your peace in my heart. I need you to take away the stress and fill me with your love. Help me be a peacemaker, to help others find peace with you and each other. In your name I pray, amen.

A great reminder of what Christmas is really all about.

Go Elf Yourself

Merry Christmas!
Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Answer

Again, just wanted to share another message from my daily devotional. It touched my heart today in a way that I was needing it to be touched! It never ceases to amaze me how God works like that. So here for your reading pleasure.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? Romans 7:24 (MSG)

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Have you figured out yet that a lot of times you are your own worst enemy? It’s your own reactions, your own fears, your own inadequacies that cause you to act in foolish ways. I know that’s true for me.

I need to be saved from myself because there are things I don’t like about me – things I wish I had done differently, things I’d like to change. But I can’t change them, not on my own power. I need an outside power source.

You may be saying, “I can change.” I hate to say this, but you can’t. In January, you’re going to make a list of New Year’s resolutions. And, by the end of January, that list will be in the dumpster. Why? Because you can’t change on your own; you need God’s power. You need a Savior, someone who can make the changes you can’t make yourself.

Let me make an important point here: God never wastes energy. He doesn’t waste effort on things that are unnecessary. In other words, if you didn’t need a Savior, he wouldn’t have sent one. The very fact that God sent a Savior means you need one.

The truth is, if you are honest about it, sometimes you feel like your life is out of control. That’s a pretty common feeling. Welcome to the human race!

The apostle Paul felt that way 2,000 years ago. Paul says this in the Bible: “I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does” (Romans 7:24-25 MSG). That’s the answer!

Let me be honest with you. You may be looking for salvation in the wrong places, that’s why you’re frustrated. You’re looking for that one thing that’s going to give you fulfillment and meaning and peace in life.

Some of us think that if we could just get married, or if we could just get a certain job, or a promotion, or attain a certain level of wealth, or have a baby – or if our babies would grow up and graduate! – things would be great.

You’re looking in the wrong places.

A lot of people are looking for salvation in a self-help book. Or they’re looking for it in therapy or in a fad or diet. Or they’re looking for it in a vacation, “If I could just escape to Tahiti, everything would be great.” The problem is that if you go to Tahiti, you’re taking you with you!

The answer is not in a place. It’s not in a program or a pill. The answer is a person: Jesus Christ. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life is never going to make sense.

And to end, a video and song from a group that has also helped me realize a lot about what I am going through right now.

Christmas Is a Time of Salvation

Each day I get a daily devotional sent to my email that Pastor Rick Warren of the Purpose Driven Life has written, and given all that has been going on around me lately, not only in my life, but the lives of people I love, I thought this was an especially fitting "story" to share with you.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:11-12 (NIV)

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Today in the town of David (that’s Bethlehem) a Savior (there’s the salvation part) has been born to you (for you – a savior for YOU); he is Christ the Lord.

No doubt you’ve heard the phrase, “He was saved” or “She was saved,” but maybe you’ve wondered what that really means?

Let me give you a simple illustration. When my oldest child, Amy, was still young enough to be strapped into a car seat, she was with me as we were driving on a very, very hot day. She finally hung her head out the window, and being a three-and-a-half-year-old unable to get herself out of the car seat, she said, “Please, God! Get me out of this!”

Amy needed a savior! She couldn’t get out of her predicament by herself; she needed someone else to set her free. She needed someone to rescue her, to deliver her, to release her.

Maybe you’ve hit a point in your life when you felt the same way? Or, maybe you feel that way today? You simply want to hang your head out the window, and plead, “Oh, God. Get me out of this! Hello, God, I need your help here … please!”

What you’re hoping for is a savior. You’re hoping someone will somehow save you. The good news is that your hope is no longer an empty dream. God is actively engaged in a plan to save you. He is a God of hope, and it is a hope that will not disappoint.

God’s plan for your salvation is three-dimensional: You’re saved from something; you’re saved for something; and you’re saved by something.

Turn me towards the sun and water me periodically...

That's the status on my facebook page today. I am done, or feeling like I am done anyway. Let me tell you why.

I got some answers from the doctors last week (FINALLY!) after 3 long months of being sick and not feeling like myself. Turns out I have an intestinal mal-absorbtion problem. In short that means all the nutrients in the food I eat don't get absorbed into my system but all the fat goes straight through to my stomach and intestines, and wall-ah, stomach problems. Lovely. So to counter-act all the this the doc prescribed some Colestid, which is supposed to help bind all the fats together and not make my stomach so gross anymore. Yay! Also I have to start taking a multi-vitamin; the children's chewables so that I can absorb it easier, as well as Vitamins A and D to help with any of the nutrients I may be lacking and also for fatigue. At this same appointment, as I suspected and pretty much already knew, I was diagnosed as having depression. To counter-act those symptoms I have been put on Prozac, with the option to switch to a different anti-depressant if this one gives me any bad side effects. So yay! I am able to help myself and it really is NOT all in my head! (only some of it :-) My mom said, she thinks it's great that we have those kinds of medicines, so that we are able to help ourselves, and that she thinks God obviously allowed people to make them for a reason, so we can feel better and better about ourselves, so there is no reason I should feel "ashamed" for getting help with the Prozac. Moms always put things into perspective don't they? :-)

I cannot tell you how long it seems that I have waited for all of this to come to fruition, many people have been thinking of and praying for me (and Jake) in all this, and there are no words that I can use to thank all of you enough! However, we still need those prayers, and covet them more than you all know or probably even realize! I have still been having some symptoms despite the medication, and I have been feeling really sick these last few days.

Today I had another doctors appointment and he wants me to have a CT scan on my abdomen, to rule out anything really bad; ie: lesions, cancer, etc. that could be effecting my liver and pancreatic enzyme levels. He doesn't think that that's what it is, but wants to rule it out because my blood tests have been showing really high levels in many areas, but especially those. That appointment is next week Thursday 12/11/08 at 8:30am and I have to drink this fun "contrast" stuff beforehand, so prayers for my nerves and also for me to be able to keep that stuff down, cause I hear it's not the most pleasant thing I could ever drink :-) After the CT I will follow up with the specialist in GI (Gastrointerology) again, and go from there.

So you can imagine, after all that why I am done. I feel really alone in all this sometimes, and I have to check myself back into reality and remind myself that I am not alone, and it could always be worse than what it is. I don't want to feel sorry for myself, and I should not be, because I have been so blessed in my life. Sometimes it's still hard though, and I know that it's not just me going through these hard times, it is God, me, Jake, my family and friends, they're all in this with me too! It's amazing to think and to know that I have that much support no matter where I am and what I am going through in my life.

To end, I have been hearing this great song from Tenth Avenue North all over the radio since my friend Sarah introduced me to them a few weeks ago, and I cannot help but to think that this song is from God as a message to me. Not only to me, but to all those who need to know that no matter what He is by your side, through it all.