Good morning,
Happy Wednesday of Christmas week. Praise the Lord for the songs of the season of Advent and Christmas. My wife and all of my daughters love the songs of Christmas. They sing the songs of Christmas and they have sung them since they were very little. I love to sing and hear all the songs of Savior's birth.
Our Church Choir presented a very beautiful and sweet Christmas Cantata last Sunday. For many it doesn’t seem like the Christmas season until we start to hear Christmas songs, and as Christians we listen for the sweet and familiar carols. The truth is that songs have been a part of the celebration of the birth of the Savior for a VERY long time. In fact, the central characters in the Christmas story almost instantly responded to the events surrounding the birth of Jesus with songs. The great Bible teacher, G. Campbell Morgan, writes, “Luke, the artist, has gathered and collected, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the stories which reveal the fact that when Jesus came into the world poetry expressed itself and music was reborn.”
As we sing the old and new Christmas songs we can gain a sense of joining hands and lifting our voices with people who have sung them down through the centuries. We become one mighty chorus resounding through the halls of Heaven. In my mind the story of Christmas is all about how God cared for Mary. Mary, just a teenager at the time, was surely overwhelmed with the responsibility that was given to her. Even if she accepted and understood that which the Angel had told her about the birth of Jesus, she needed human support. God directed her to the community of faith, to godly Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. Here she found people with a mutual faith, mutual hope, and even a mutual experience. God took care of Mary. It seems obvious that God also directs us to community of people with a mutual belief – a church. Mary’s faith very likely would have faltered without the encouragement and support of Elizabeth and Zechariah. Like Mary, we need to make a priority of placing ourselves in a community of those who believe God’s word.
The greatest way to begin the Christmas season is by submission to the person of Christ. Elizabeth recognized herself as a sinner who needed a savior; that Jesus was that Savior and so she submitted herself to Him. Have you submitted yourself to Him?
Yesterday, I decided to send out some Christmas cards. As I was looking through boxes of cards, I came across an old card in a stained envelope. Inside there was cash in the amount of $115. Somehow we had failed to open the gift. Often in our lives we fail to open the gifts that the Lord bestows, and so we miss out on the tremendous blessings He has given to us. This season, let us not miss the gift of Christmas.
Just a note: this evening there will be no soup supper, Bible study, and Adult Choir at the church. Instead, we can spend some time letting the Christ of Christmas be real in our lives. Read a Christmas story, listen to Christmas music, relax, and enjoy.
Praise the Lord,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76RrdwElnTU
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