NOT EVERYONE BELIEVES IN CHRISTMAS!

I know this may come as a shock for some, but Christmas is a real difficult time for some folk. You may or may not celebrate the holiday as the birthday of Jesus or you may just celebrate it as a national or family holiday, or you may even choose not to celebrate it at all.

Whatever your choice, that's OK, we don't find it in the bible, but the bible give us the liberty to celebrate things other than just the things mentioned there. So, you may proclaim, "I don't believe in Christmas", and that's OK, because the important thing is that you believe in Jesus.

A friend sends me the following little story that makes an important point. "It seems that there was a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys & everything else imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.

Finally, the doors opened to an already crowded elevator. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff.  When the doors closed, she couldn't take it anymore and said, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found and hanged."

From the back of the elevator everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, "Don't worry.  We already crucified Him."  For the rest of the trip down it was so quiet you could hear only the breathing of the people in the elevator.

You see, whether you believe in Christmas or not is really not important, but if we don't understand the sacrifice that was made on our behalf we believe in nothing. Paul reminds us: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8 (NIV)

So for me I really don't believe in Christmas as a bible based holiday, but I do believe in the one that the holiday remembers. His birth was indeed miraculous, if it weren’t, it wouldn't have been recorded the way it was. But it is his death, burial and resurrection that saves us! Yes, our sins crucified him and he loves us anyway! Now, that's what we really need to remember.

Life Without God...

Someone wrote, "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil, it has no point." That sounds like a cool, insightful saying to those of us who are Christians, but what about those who are not. I received a question as to how to answer a non-believing friend who had responded to this quote in this way: "Life with God is like a lead pencil; you sharpen it and it keeps breaking, eventually there is no more pencil." So, lets think about that response.

How do you respond to someone who sees life and God in that way? My first thought is that obviously this person doesn't know MY God! The first analogy is not that God is like a pencil, but rather that life without him has no point! To the response, of God being like a continually breaking pencil, it makes me wonder when this person tried to find an answer to something that broke in their lives, but when they didn't they choose to blame God. Now, this may or may not be a correct conclusion, but I've known several people through my lifetime that have reacted this way.

Does God break? Does God fail us? I don't believe he does. However there is another problem that comes into this equation. What if you don't believe in God in the first place?

The problem with any answer that might be given from the standpoint of a believing and practicing Christian is that all of our answers are based upon faith; which are based upon scripture, which are based upon provable, confirmed historic facts and information. (1 Corinthians 15:1-9 for example).

Those who do not accept the idea that there is a God who is in control of our universe, really have nothing in common with us. Most of our beliefs and doctrines are rejected out of hand because they refuse to believe that there is a God. Whereas our basic tenant of life is based upon our belief that there is a God.

The point where the rubber meets the road (so to speak) is that our belief, our faith gives us something that those who reject God can never and will never have. That is a hope, a belief, a faith that there is something better for us than just this world with its problems and grief. It is a belief that causes us to live, make decisions, raise our families, have certain work ethics, guides our relationships and so much more. All of those things are based upon our belief in God and the hope he gives us that (if you will) the lead in the pencil never breaks or is used up.

For the non-believers this will not mean much, but to those of us who believe, the words of the Apostle Paul seem appropriate here. He wrote:

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.

 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.

But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13, The New Living Translation)

I don't know about you, but I much prefer my life of HOPE, than one without any.

Russ Lawson, Messages From The Heart

Books by Russ Lawson @ http://www.lulu.com/russlawson