Christmas is Beautiful!
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (Psalm 90:17)
Christmas is beautiful! How else can we say it? In all the ways beauty can be generated by human beings, it is done the best and the most at Christmas time. It is celebration at its best! Money and time and labor are spent to express something in us that must be done. No law requires it. The government does not send out teams of enforcers to make sure everybody is supporting Christmas.
Christmas has a life of its own like trees that bud and bloom in the spring and brighten into a massive bouquet of color in the fall. It is predictable that it will occur this year and next year and on and on. One might think that people will tire of Christmas but so far, there’s no sign of Christmas growing tired. The best music is performed and played at Christmas time. The prettiest and most dazzling sights are portrayed at Christmas time. The most exciting kitchen aromas and delicious foods appear at Christmas time.
Of course, we are now thinking about the outward expressions of Christmas. This outward celebration that is caught every year by our massive population has amazed me ever since I was a child. Thousands of people who have no relationship with Jesus Christ fall into Christmas celebration. So many human things come out of us and merge during Christmas celebration. Business reporters tell us that many merchants sell one third of everything they sell at Christmas time. They depend on the mood of shoppers to turn loose of their money and put the merchants in the black.
There is something about the collective mood of millions of people, including unchurched people, that is absolutely astounding! Some early shoppers put up tents on the parking lots of shopping centers and stay there for days to be the first in line when the doors open on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving. Fist fights may erupt over a wind-up toy or a special doll on sale. What happens to these people who are so intense on spending their money, even running up their charge cards in a buying frenzy? Are we touched with insanity? Have we lost our minds? Or is there some deep-seated thing within us that is being acted out? I rather think there is something deep within the human spirit that is being acted out.
For many, it’s a brief relief from an impoverished soul that is crying out. Relief! For one week, one month, this celebration will get our minds off our trouble, grief, and sorrow. In 1943 we were in the middle of the hottest war in the history of world. It was uncertain which flag would be flying over our post office when it was over.
Bing Crosby sang: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” in 1943 and it went off the charts. People bought it and played it over and over again. The radio stations played it. We couldn’t hear it enough. “I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams.” That’s it! Christmas is about the celebration of home for a brief time. Underneath it, under the pile somewhere was the faint memory of what Christmas was all about…oh yes! The birth of a special baby! But the baby takes a back seat to the celebration of home. Every year the suicide rate spikes upward. Thinking of home is more than some can bear and they are overwhelmed with despair and kill themselves.
The celebration of Christmas has come to mean “The Celebration of Christmas Celebration.” We are celebrating celebration. Celebration has taken on a life of its own. Time to get drunk. Time to buy a new car. This kind of celebration must always be capped off with a surprise downloading of snow. Can’t have with Christmas without snow. (My eight years in Florida taught me how to have Christmas without snow.
CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WHO TRULY KNOW THE LORD have a big advantage over those who celebrate for the sake of celebration. Yes, it’s about family and home. But foremost, it is about the babe in the manger, angels, shepherds, a mean Herod trying to kill the Christ child. It’s about Moses who said a messiah was coming. It’s about prophet after prophet who wrote: “He’s coming!” He who was coming as a babe in a manger would also come to carry his cross up Golgotha’s hill to his own place to be nailed to it. He would also rise from the dead and leave his mission in the hands of twelve very human men. Christmas is the story of stories for children.
When we celebrate Christmas with beautiful trees with lights and ornaments and pageants acting out the humble story, let’s be glad when many children are there for the celebration. Let them learn the story of Christmas well. Let us be glad when mothers bring their babies and toddlers in their arms and be glad when they cry and have to be carried out for a few minutes. The babies, the toddlers, remind us of that special baby in the manger and the toddler that rich wise men traveled many miles to see. Love the babies! Love the toddlers! Love the children who may leave candy and chewing gum wrappers in the pews and mess up the rest rooms.
We, who know the Lord, can quote Isaiah who said: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
We can say with Moses, who wrote Psalm 90: And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (Psalm 90:17)
I like what McGee wrote about Moses, who wrote Psalm 90:17: “Oh, to do something in this life that will have value in eternity! My friend, Moses out there in the desert, pausing day after day in the wilderness march to bury someone, got a perspective on life that many of us do not have. What a beautiful and practical psalm this is!” (McGee)
(You remember that at this stage of the game, Moses was having to preside over thousands of people who had rebelled against God and were having to wander around in the wilderness until they died off. It is said that in that dying-off period, there was a corpse for every step they took until they were all dead. Then the younger generation could fight the long, up-coming war over the land they were going to take after they crossed the Jordan river.
That’s the time period when Moses wrote Psalm 90. He dared to talk about the beauty of the LORD being upon them and there was death everywhere he turned.)
Christmas is beautiful! Even if millions of Americans don’t understand what Christmas is about. There’s a beauty and power about it that filters down to them as pagans and unbelievers. The celebration of Jesus’ birth is beautiful! Ω
Read Through the Bible in a Year
DECEMBER 1, 2017 - FRIDAY
A.M. Ezekiel 45-46 P.M 2 Peter 3
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
Song for Today:
Hallelujah Chorus (Handel’s Messiah) (3:57) (Choir of King’s College, Cambridge – Boys’ Choir and Orchestra)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3TUWU_yg4s
You may have to adjust the volume and delete an Ad
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (Psalm 90:17)
Christmas is beautiful! How else can we say it? In all the ways beauty can be generated by human beings, it is done the best and the most at Christmas time. It is celebration at its best! Money and time and labor are spent to express something in us that must be done. No law requires it. The government does not send out teams of enforcers to make sure everybody is supporting Christmas.
Christmas has a life of its own like trees that bud and bloom in the spring and brighten into a massive bouquet of color in the fall. It is predictable that it will occur this year and next year and on and on. One might think that people will tire of Christmas but so far, there’s no sign of Christmas growing tired. The best music is performed and played at Christmas time. The prettiest and most dazzling sights are portrayed at Christmas time. The most exciting kitchen aromas and delicious foods appear at Christmas time.
Of course, we are now thinking about the outward expressions of Christmas. This outward celebration that is caught every year by our massive population has amazed me ever since I was a child. Thousands of people who have no relationship with Jesus Christ fall into Christmas celebration. So many human things come out of us and merge during Christmas celebration. Business reporters tell us that many merchants sell one third of everything they sell at Christmas time. They depend on the mood of shoppers to turn loose of their money and put the merchants in the black.
There is something about the collective mood of millions of people, including unchurched people, that is absolutely astounding! Some early shoppers put up tents on the parking lots of shopping centers and stay there for days to be the first in line when the doors open on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving. Fist fights may erupt over a wind-up toy or a special doll on sale. What happens to these people who are so intense on spending their money, even running up their charge cards in a buying frenzy? Are we touched with insanity? Have we lost our minds? Or is there some deep-seated thing within us that is being acted out? I rather think there is something deep within the human spirit that is being acted out.
For many, it’s a brief relief from an impoverished soul that is crying out. Relief! For one week, one month, this celebration will get our minds off our trouble, grief, and sorrow. In 1943 we were in the middle of the hottest war in the history of world. It was uncertain which flag would be flying over our post office when it was over.
Bing Crosby sang: “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” in 1943 and it went off the charts. People bought it and played it over and over again. The radio stations played it. We couldn’t hear it enough. “I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams.” That’s it! Christmas is about the celebration of home for a brief time. Underneath it, under the pile somewhere was the faint memory of what Christmas was all about…oh yes! The birth of a special baby! But the baby takes a back seat to the celebration of home. Every year the suicide rate spikes upward. Thinking of home is more than some can bear and they are overwhelmed with despair and kill themselves.
The celebration of Christmas has come to mean “The Celebration of Christmas Celebration.” We are celebrating celebration. Celebration has taken on a life of its own. Time to get drunk. Time to buy a new car. This kind of celebration must always be capped off with a surprise downloading of snow. Can’t have with Christmas without snow. (My eight years in Florida taught me how to have Christmas without snow.
CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WHO TRULY KNOW THE LORD have a big advantage over those who celebrate for the sake of celebration. Yes, it’s about family and home. But foremost, it is about the babe in the manger, angels, shepherds, a mean Herod trying to kill the Christ child. It’s about Moses who said a messiah was coming. It’s about prophet after prophet who wrote: “He’s coming!” He who was coming as a babe in a manger would also come to carry his cross up Golgotha’s hill to his own place to be nailed to it. He would also rise from the dead and leave his mission in the hands of twelve very human men. Christmas is the story of stories for children.
When we celebrate Christmas with beautiful trees with lights and ornaments and pageants acting out the humble story, let’s be glad when many children are there for the celebration. Let them learn the story of Christmas well. Let us be glad when mothers bring their babies and toddlers in their arms and be glad when they cry and have to be carried out for a few minutes. The babies, the toddlers, remind us of that special baby in the manger and the toddler that rich wise men traveled many miles to see. Love the babies! Love the toddlers! Love the children who may leave candy and chewing gum wrappers in the pews and mess up the rest rooms.
We, who know the Lord, can quote Isaiah who said: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
We can say with Moses, who wrote Psalm 90: And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (Psalm 90:17)
I like what McGee wrote about Moses, who wrote Psalm 90:17: “Oh, to do something in this life that will have value in eternity! My friend, Moses out there in the desert, pausing day after day in the wilderness march to bury someone, got a perspective on life that many of us do not have. What a beautiful and practical psalm this is!” (McGee)
(You remember that at this stage of the game, Moses was having to preside over thousands of people who had rebelled against God and were having to wander around in the wilderness until they died off. It is said that in that dying-off period, there was a corpse for every step they took until they were all dead. Then the younger generation could fight the long, up-coming war over the land they were going to take after they crossed the Jordan river.
That’s the time period when Moses wrote Psalm 90. He dared to talk about the beauty of the LORD being upon them and there was death everywhere he turned.)
Christmas is beautiful! Even if millions of Americans don’t understand what Christmas is about. There’s a beauty and power about it that filters down to them as pagans and unbelievers. The celebration of Jesus’ birth is beautiful! Ω
Read Through the Bible in a Year
DECEMBER 1, 2017 - FRIDAY
A.M. Ezekiel 45-46 P.M 2 Peter 3
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse to Memorize:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
Song for Today:
Hallelujah Chorus (Handel’s Messiah) (3:57) (Choir of King’s College, Cambridge – Boys’ Choir and Orchestra)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3TUWU_yg4s
You may have to adjust the volume and delete an Ad
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