[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Sunday, December 2 2012

[Paul]

Hello and good evening to my North American contacts, and a good Monday morning or afternoon to the rest of you.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that this first Sunday in Advent was a great time for you, if your Christian assembly celebrated or commemorated that fact with the lighting of an Advent wreath or whatever else you do.  Pastor Harry Cook of Rosemont Community Church preached today from the first five verses of Micah chapter 5, emphasizing that world peace is fleeting, but that the peace of Jesus is everlasting, and that we should rely more on the latter than the former.  All in all, a great message, and I trust that the other members of our congregation took away something that they could "chew" on spiritually.

The author's name of this article is not given, but whoever it was, had something to say.  The title in question is "Getting Ready for Christmas," rendered as follows:

"Prepare the way of the Lord." (Isaiah 40:3)

As we prepare for Christmas, there are many things that need to be prepared.  In the Isaiah verse God is asking us to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas.  When I think about preparing for Christmas I think about my to-do list.  That includes putting the lights on the house, putting the lights on the Christmas tree, and other things that need to be done around the house.  Many of us have a long list of things we need to do, and sometimes we forget the most important thing of all, the thing God looks at most.  He wants us to prepare ourselves, our relationships with others and most importantly, our relationship with Him.  I can not think of anything that is more important!

It is hard for us to develop our relationships, especially during this time of the year.  It is difficult, but some of the most important things we can do in preparation for Christmas, is to prepare ourselves, our relationship with God, and our relationship with others.  If you are not right with yourself, you are going to have problems with others, and if you are not right with God, you will not be right with yourself.  If you are not right with others, you are not going to be right with God.

All three relationships, with ourselves, with others and with God are intertwined.  What can we do this Christmas? We can give our baggage away and download resentment.  Give away all the things that hold us back from experiencing the relationship that God wants us to have, with ourselves, with Him and with others.

Today it is our responsibility as we prepare for Christmas, to get rid of the baggage, the resentment, the hatred, the things that hold us back from experiencing the peace, and the joy and the love that define Christmas.

How do we prepare for Christmas? When God visits earth, we give.  Today I want to ask you to give.  God has called us to give.  The gift He wants us to give Him this Christmas is called resentment.  It is called anger.  It is called bitterness, it's called anything that keeps us from experiencing and enjoying and receiving His gift, the gift of His peace, the gift of His love, and the gift of His joy.  It is time to accept the privilege of giving away your anger, resentment and bitterness.  Let it go.  Let God come and touch you today.  Don't let anyone, don't let anything rob you of Christmas this year.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You that You come to bring hope, healing, joy and to bring peace.  We thank You for the gift of Christmas and the incredible gift of You coming into this world, coming to earth, to touch our lives, to touch our minds, to touch our hearts and souls with Your presence, with Your reality, with Your goodness.  Now open our eyes, O Lord, and remove anything that keeps us from experiencing You, we give it all to you right now.  Amen.

Thank you, Anonymous for this article.  (Actually he/she is not anonymous because, after all, it took a human being to write this originally, but the person probably prefers to remain unknown).

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian brother and friend, Paul