Today has I sat in Sunday school, I had confirmation about a message that I was suppose to of posted a couple days ago. Ironically enough, I erased it just hours prior to the class. Further, proof of the Word that I was to send through the electronic highways and byways would come from the sermon my pastor would preach shortly after the mind boggling realization of what I was suppose to do.
Another confirmation came about a message I had written and posted this morning called “Praise Him.” During the sermon, my pastor used a series names and attributes that describes our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He would further sing a praise and worship ballet written by the late, Dottie Rambo called “I call Him Lord.” This song sent an anointing which causing tears of joy and praised to my Lord. I realized that I followed the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The teachers of Sunday school class talked about ‘child like faith’, has the class would proceed the Lord placed upon my heart 1 Corinthians 13:11 ASB
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
Has children we believe what our parents tell us. We are inspired by our imaginations and the magic of Christmas. With child like faith we believe what do our parents place in our heads? They regurgitate what the Hollywood big screen movie machines and what the mega industrial commercial industries transpose on films, they inspire the imaginations of young and old at heart; a man with a red suit, elves that make toys, rain deer that pulls a sled and fantasies that speak magical folk lords of giving presents to impoverished children. They say that belief in these speaks of the gift of, family and peace and love.
Over the years the true meaning of Christmas has been lost to a industry that has been geared toward greed and a secular idea of a man called Santa Claus.
Santa brings the idea and theology of giving children toys of their imagination. He puts a face on commercialism yet hides it at the same time with chubby red cheeks, a white beard and sparkle of Christmas magic in his joyful eyes.
Through the years this soda created individual has replaced Jesus Christ. The reason for the season has been stricken from the public arena by legal jargon that interprets the Constitution in ways that was never to be. Organizations like the ACLU sue to keep the true meaning of Christmas out of public parks and out of government schools. They say that the true meaning of Christmas might offend someone that differs in ideologies and beliefs. While claim that God does not exist and the virgin birth could never happen. Yet the seem not to mind the idea of a fat man in a red suit. Ironic…
Through the ironic idea of this imagined individual, they force parents to conform our children minds to the stories of the media machine. We tell Christmas stories of sugar plums that dance in our heads. It brings hope to the magically morning of rushing to the Christmas tree in a mad dash. Ripping open gifts of extravagant wrapping paper, throwing bows and ribbon to the four winds of our living rooms. Only to realize that months, days and weeks are over in a matter of minutes.
We spend the rest of our day putting together toys that must first be freed from the plastic wrapped wire bands which the Chinese desire to use, making the day that much more memorable. Some of us almost lose our salvation on the plastic casings that wraps these Santa inspired toys.
Others spend the day mindlessly watching some sort of holiday story that Hollywood has created proclaiming it to be tradition. Sports enthusiasts sit in front of the latest high definition plasma flat screen televisions screaming for their favorite teams. When the movies has ended or our teams of worship has either won or lost and our spoiled children have gotten bored with their newest high tech toys, video games and gadgets. We sit down at our festive holiday tables either at the end of the day or a mandatory brake is called by the chef of the home. We sit to give thanks and arbitrarily uttering some words to bless the feast of tasty delectable meats, starches to increase our waste line and fancy sugars that make us giddy in side. We feel blessed to have family and friends and never giving honor or blessing to the one that deserves it most. The day has come and gone in a matter of months, weeks of shopping, days of planning, minutes of unwrapping and during that time we never gave second or a thought about the true unspeakable gift.
“The Unspeakable Gift” was the message for this morning Christmas service. My pastor brought forth a message with the anointing of the season. His words made everyone in the sanctuary realize that Christ was and is the true gift. A gift that no sum of money can buy, no commercial can be created to tantalizing describe Him and no media outlet can accurately film or title Him.
He came in a way that was not of fancy design. His hospital room consisted of a barn, there was not breathing machines or pain medications, no staff to assist in the delivery, no one waiting for the joyous news in a near by room. The only witnesses would be the expecting mother and father, heavenly Host and animals being sheltered from the cold. He would be laid in a make shift crib, which could be used to feed animals. The air was the only royalty that He would know angelic voices sing praises to the Most High. The announcement of a King is born was made to the lowest of the social circles of the time, shepherds that watched over flocks of sheep.
Wise men would travel from distant lands following a heavenly star which shined with such brilliance like none ever seen, it show that a gift to all of creation was born a miracle. These magi would bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These strangers from foreign lands bowed before a child a infant to worship him for He, the Promise, the King, the Messiah, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God had come.
He fulfilled a prophecy that had been written 700 years prior, in a matter that was not the idea of what they were expecting. He came to fulfill the law, but those that studied the law, and enforced it rejected him. Yet strangers that were not of his own from distant lands received him has their King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They deceived a king, they received a word from God himself not to return the way the came. They endured the harsh land and long travel to see a Child.
This Prince of Peace brought a message of hope. He was tested in all areas, He was and is God, the Word made flesh, so that He might know and have compassion. He taught in parables for His names sake. Men followed because he spoke a word to them, I will make you fishers of men. In their sight, they saw healing of the sick, the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dead brought to life with His authority and power. They saw endless baskets of bread, fish multiplied before their very eyes, thousands were fed at the hands of the Master. In their sight He calmed the seas with “peace be still“, walked on water, slept in the raging storms because is was the faith. Demons trembled, they screamed in His presences, men shackled by principalities’ were set free from spirits of infirmities. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastised for our peace was upon him, by His stripes we would be healed.
Time would tell and history would prove the greatness of this unspeakable gift. Thousands and millions would and will come to believe upon His name. History would prove that leaders would lie about those that believed upon this one called Jesus. Men, women and children were fed to lions, burned in the streets for light in the nights sky. Mutilated and tortured, sawed in half because they chose to be believers. They would not give in to the pain or harsh reality, they endured and suffered for the sake of the unspeakable gift. Caves and tunnels made with blood, sweat and tears would be their homes. They didn’t have the latest in clothes, sheep skins they wore. All this they endured because they chose to believe the creator rather than the created.
Time has come and the season is here, what are you believing for this Christmas Season. Is it a created image of man in a red suit that brings presents to put under a ever green tree. Or have you giving thought to the true meaning of the season: the Christ child our Lord and Savior was born who brought peace, love and joy to a dying world.