Skip to main content

THE CHRISTMAS OPPORTUNITY

By David Pam McQuel

Merry Christmas!

As we all are aware, the festive season is here. No matter what your religious or theological conviction is, you certainly cannot ignore the season. So much expectations, so much preparations and so many plans.

Christmas is a time of joy for so many. Especially those who affiliate with Christianity and those who look forward to making financial gain from sales. For others it is the holiday attached to it. A much anticipated time of rest and social gatherings.

Among Christians, the debate will rage again as to whether Christmas is biblical or pagan, how it all started, and how serious Christians should either be involved or abstain. While many write it off as a Catholic ritual and others see it as the Roman emperor Constantine defiling a thriving Church. And others argue vehemently on the exact month of birth of Christ. Surely the theological warfare is at boiling point.

There are two things we need to focus on.

1. The fact that Jesus came. For me this is epic. It is not about when Jesus came. It is not about how it is been marked or ignored. It is worth celebrating that He came down from heaven to die for us. 

It is pathetic how many so called religiously affiliated and nonaffiliated people spend money, traveling long distances, and sink into debauchery, orgies and paganism in the name of celebrating Christmas.
At the end, Christ is totally absent from Christmas.

Jesus came to save us from spiritual death. If we understand this, then the best way to mark His coming is by staying away from spiritual death and her manifestations. How do you celebrate an extraordinary act of mercy, by doing more of the very thing that the mercy was required in the first place?

How do you celebrate a forgiven debt by going to shop more frivolously piling up unbelievable debt? Celebrating Christmas should be about celebrating spiritual liberty and the cleansing of our sins.

2. The opportunity to find Christ. Apart from Easter, no other religious holiday gives us a big opportunity to share the good news of the gospel. What other better opportunity to tell the world about God's love than at Christmas. 

Christmas is not about the Asian wise men who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh but about the King that brought joy to the world.

When the angel came to inform the shepherds, remember?

Luke 2:8 "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” NIV

It is about the good news that causes great joy! How hard is that to share? This is the biggest opportunity we have every December as the world runs wild feast in and having fun, the essence of it all is the good news that causes great joy.

How was Jesus going to save us if he never came? That he came is because He was going to save us. And the focus of every bible believing church and every single Christian that truly accepted Christ and is living actively should be on this.

We have allowed the flesh, religiosity and the world to subtly take away the truth. Now Christmas is pure fanfare and craziness. But we need to put the message back in the festivities.

There is a Christmas because Christ was born. He brought us good news that will cause joy for all humanity. It is our responsibility to spread the good news. And Christmas brings us this great chance.

Let's take this opportunity and tell everyone why they are celebrating.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Udymos Blogspot11 December 2017 at 15:45

    I owed a debt i could not pay, and it was growing everyday. But Jesus paid all for me. i'm glad he came.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David Pam McQuel11 December 2017 at 18:34

    Glory be to GOd! Yes He did for us all.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REPOSITIONING CAN MAKE YOU MORE EFFECTIVE

  B Y    D A V I D     M C Q U E L Hello Everyone!   It has been a long while. The year 2022 has finally passed. And we are still here. God is to be glorified. We absolutely give God thanks.   I tried to review the year, looking backwards at my pleasure and displeasure with the year. I also did try to see where I failed, underperformed or missed the mark both set by God or by my heart. I always like to do an honest self-appraisal. I bear in mind that either lavishing praises on myself or ignoring things that should be fixed are not to my advantage. Transparency may hurt but I stand to gain first before someone else.   Here are a few things that I came to a conclusion on: 1.       I need to make certain necessary adjustments or changes or repositioning either on my character, my commitment, my determination or my effort. This is non-negotiable. I cannot continue to do things the way I did and expect a different result. I am impressed by European football. If there is s
Post a Comment
Read more

FIVE YEARS ON...

B Y   D A V I D    M c Q U E L HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL   But for us at the World Missions Centre, Abidjan, it is an even bigger day. Today is the 5 th anniversary of the launch of the World Missions Africa Blog.   When we launched on January 1, 2017, we had only on our hearts a message to share about the love of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and on our minds anxiety and questions if anyone at all will read the message we blog.   Here was our first blog post published on January 3, 2017: “Welcome to our blog. World Missions, Africa is making every effort to bring the love of Christ to all humanity. Primarily, we focus on  Africa  now in our physical activities. But with the online community, our efforts extends to the ends of the earth. Jesus died for all humanity. Every race, every ethnic group, every people, male or female, bound or free, the gospel of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ is free to all. Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the go
Post a Comment
Read more

THE RICH FAMILY IN OUR CHURCH

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was like to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money. By 1946, my older sisters were married, and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby sat fo
Post a Comment
Read more