My Annual Christmas Message

Why Annual

I only make one Christmas message a year for several reasons. One of which is because there are many great writers and speakers who do an excellent job exegeting the scriptures and present the Christ message well.

A second reason is I feel that people are tired of hearing the same message every day for almost a month at a time. I know I get that way and wish for someone to build on the foundation instead of rebuilding the same foundation year after year.

Like Christmas carols, as good as the message gets the commercializing, lack of respect for Christ and so on place a bad influence on the holiday season.

This year’s message

Christians are to be in the world not of it. While we are allowed to enjoy festivals, as Paul said, we should be careful that our participation does not leave the rules of both God and Jesus behind.

Sometimes believers get too caught up in the secularized version of the holidays and become too much of the world instead of casting their light over the holiday season. Too much celebration has us forgetting about those who are not as fortunate as we are.

But helping people at Christmas is not limited to just helping the poor. While we meet their needs at this time of the year, we cannot ignore the needs of those members of the middle and upper classes.

These two groups may not be lacking in the financial department but many of them are lacking in the friends and spiritual departments. They need true gifts of friendship as much as the poor do because their souls matter to God.

Jesus is a friend to sinners is what the Bible tells us but he did not restrict that friendship to just the poor. Zaccheus was rich and so were many of the people Jesus was a friend to, as were many middle class ancients were.

We do not need to give a salvation message or pressure these people to attend church, etc. We just need to be true friends meeting their needs wanting nothing in return. Ulterior motives can ruin winning souls for Christ.

True friendship is hard for many of these people to obtain and receive. They are inundated with pleas and requests. They need an ear, an honest voice, and more godly characteristics for them to see the difference between their world and Christ’s.

Let’s not embarrass Christ

Let’s face it, the fight over saying Merry Christmas and happy holidays is an embarrassment not only to the Church as a whole but to Christ. He did not establish his kingdom so his followers could turn off people to the gospel by fighting over terminology.

If the secular world wants to exclude the words Merry Christmas, let them. Saying those words is not promoting the gospel or reminding anyone of what Christ did for us. Christ did not establish a festival to celebrate his sacrifice and salvation work.

Christ did establish communion in the Gospel of Luke. His words were ‘do this in remembrance of me.’ That is what we should do. Instead of being of the world by overspending and over celebrating the December festival we should reflect that his presence in this world was for the poor, the middle class and the rich.

We should tailor our behavior and activities to meet the need that is at its greatest at this time of the year. While we can enjoy the company and friends during this festival season, we need to keep in mind that there are people that God loves who are without his love no matter their class status.

Some final words

Winning converts is not found in fighting for the right terms to say but in obeying the instructions given to us by Jesus.