12/25/2024

Merry Christmas! 

Well, it’s here! As the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” I hope you, your family and your friends make the most of every moment — and remember, this is just Day 1 . . . you have 11 more to go! 

When I was coming up, whenever my parents suspected  I was questioning whether or not Santa Claus was real, they would come up with some chicanery to keep me going one more year. 

For example, one Christmas Eve, Santa Claus peeked through my window! It was really a life-size stuffed Santa belonging to a friend of my brother, but it was enough to keep me believing! The next year, Santa was on the roof talking to me down the chimney. Then the next year, there were muddy boot prints on the hearth and, at least it looked like, all up into the chimney. And THEN, the next year, Santa must have been in a hurry, because he spilled his coffee and left cookie crumbs everywhere. 

I believed in Santa until I was 24. 

But to believe in the baby laid in a manger, we don’t need to stage any clever tricks. The love we have for others is evidence enough. The  generosity you show year after year through the gifts you generously give to our missions projects and to our staff at the end of the year is all the evidence anyone should need of the love you have.

In I Timothy 1:5, Paul wrote of “love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.” Our word, sincere, comes from two Latin words, sine, meaning “without,” and cera, meaning “wax.” In ancient times, if you were buying a clay bowl or pot, you would hold it up to the sunlight to see if there were any cracks. Merchants would often take a cracked or a broken bowl and, sealing the cracks with wax,  pawn it off as new. But when they held that bowl up to the light, the cracks would show. A new bowl was sine cera or “without wax.” It was genuine and whole. 

A sincere love — a  love that is “without wax” — is the best evidence of the genuineness of our love and our faith that stands behind it. 

And that, of course, is a reflection of the love God has for us. God loved us so much that Jesus left the throne of heaven, where he was equal with God (Philippians 2:6), took on the form of a baby and crawled into a manger. But that love didn’t stop there. Thirty-three years later, Jesus loved us so much he stretched his arms out on a cross to die for us. But wait! There’s more! And THEN, Jesus rose from the grave, destroying the power of death so that  just as Jesus lives, so we shall live also. 

As Lee Strobel said in our most recent Wednesday night Bible study, the purpose of Christmas is Easter. 

And that is the love we celebrate today and everyday.
 

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Wishing you a blessed and joyous Christmas!

Blessings! 
Pastor Terry

PS - I know I share this every year, but for me it’s not Christmas until I’ve heard “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. I hope you have the same joy the little boy at 2:42 or so has. Enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Hark the Herald Angels sing