Posts Tagged ‘congregation’
Christmas Focus
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25
We called it “Keeping Christ in Christmas.” Several women decided to take a class at Christmas and talk about how they were planning to “keep Christ” in their Christmas.
There were single and married women, moms and Mom-moms, widows and daughters. Each one was asked to tell how they and their families keep Christ in Christmas, or how their parents did it when they were young.
Most shared some version of the same ideas. Many read the biblical accounts of Christ’s birth from Luke 2 before opening gifts on Christmas morning. Some said they sang Christmas carols as a form of family worship.
Many talked of all the time they spend and/or spent as kids and young mothers, participating in church programs. There were musical services and ministry opportunities the church offered to serve the shut ins. Some delivered baked goods to the nursing homes or hospitals. Others joined in whatever outreach the church might be doing to reach others with the truth of what God did for us in sending His Son (Matthew 1:21).
The dominate theme involved the local assembly of believers. Without the opportunities presented by the body of Christ most of the testimonies would have stopped at a few minutes spent worshiping Christ on Christmas morning. (Not that there is anything wrong with that!)
Everyone seemed to take part in and enjoy the worship services on Christmas Eve. They enjoy caroling and gathering food and gifts through opportunities the church presented. They reported that the children started participating in Christmas programs while they were pretty young, walking through the Christmas story. It etched the importance of the birth of Christ on their hearts at young ages.
I like Advent devotions that remind me of the details of the birth of our Savior, helping my focus to be on Him. But, it hadn’t occurred to me how important the whole body of Christ is to keeping me focused. God said that we should not forsake the gathering of believers (Hebrews 10:24-25). Isn’t this part of the reason why? So we will remind each other and point each other to Christ all the time, not just at Christmas.
The culture we live in has taken such a liking to our “Holy-day” that it is very easy to get caught up in many things “culturally Christmassy.” These have nothing to do with the birth of Christ. In the church, we expect it to be about Christ’s birth.
So, if you are not in a congregation of believers who are pointing you to Christ then it may be time to find one or for you to be the light for those around you.
If you are in an assembly but feel like Christ is absent from your Christmas celebrations, maybe you want to try to sit down with some faithful believers and ask what they do to celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ.
They may help you focus on Christ as these ladies helped me.