Making Much of Him

Alright everyone! Christmas is just around the corner. How are you going to handle it?!?! You may already be thinking about tightening up a bit because of the tough economic times. That is good and necessary. But what about tightening up for other reasons?

Do you know someone in need? How are you giving yourself to someone who needs your love and time? How are you being Jesus to them?

These are hard questions that need answers! It is hard to not want a bunch of stuff this “holiday” season, and I have to fight to remember the meaning of Christmas amongst all the consumerism and my sinful flesh. That is why I love things like Advent Conspiracy and Rethink Christmas.

Why are we more upset when a store takes Christ out of Christmas and replaces it with “Happy Holidays” when we should be upset with ourselves for taking Christ out of our shopping at those stores? It’s not the store or the stuff in the store that is necessarily wrong, but it’s our greedy and selfish hearts that should be upsetting us. And if we know this is true in our life, why not do something?

If you have similar feelings and struggles, let me know how this movement sits with you. Let’s do something with this! Let’s make a difference this Christmas. If you are going to buy anything this Christmas, BUY INTO THIS CONCEPT:

1. Worship Fully. Jesus is the reason.
2. Spend Less. We don’t NEED all this stuff.
3. Give More. Be creative in your giving! Give time!
4. Love All. What about those missionaries you pray for? Or the lost neighbor or coworker? Or the guy at church who just lost his job and has a wife and four kids?

Where do we go from here?

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:21

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” - Matthew 25:40

Like so many friends and family, I have been on Facebook a lot more recently. It is great to catch up with old friends and see what is going on in their life. But I read this post this morning and I thought you would benefit from reading it too. There is a lot to think about when using Facebook and other social networking sites. We should think biblically about Facebook and this link gives us some good questions to ponder. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.buzzardblog.com/buzzard_blog/2008/11/thinking-biblic.html

It seems that the subject of suffering keeps coming up in conversations. I don’t have the time to go into detail but I wanted to direct your attention to a new good book.

JOB by John Piper

Check it out the cool video clip!

If you are reading this, you may want to read this too.

I found it to be very helpful and challenging. It is so much easier for me to browse around the web sometimes when I should be reading a good book.

Then my friend wrote this article.

If you have time, read both articles, then go pour over a worthwhile book.