GIFT IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS
The entire world is gearing up to celebrate Christmas! But isn’t it amazing and incredible that many people who take time off to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ neither follow after nor believe in Him? There are many people who are going to celebrate Christmas and talk about Christ, but they will not recognize Him as Deity; they talk of love, but they have never experienced God’s unconditional love; they talk about family relationships, but they know nothing about the Family of God. And yet the birth of God’s unique Son in Israel on that first Christmas morning over two thousand years ago assures us that God is personal, loves us, and invites us to enter into a personal relationship with Him.
So now, here’s the question: In our secular world, what kind of gifts can we present to others who desperately need to know the real Christ of Christmas? May I suggest a few? This Christmas:
- Mend a quarrel
- Seek out a forgotten friend
- Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust
- Share some treasure
- Provide a soft answer
- Keep a promise
- Find the time
- Listen
- Try to be understanding
- Examine the demands you place upon others
- Think first of someone else
- Be kind
- Laugh a little more
- Deserve confidence
- Express your gratitude
And do all of the above in the name of the Christ of Christmas who is coming again.
How I pray that God will use each one of us to help carve out a channel of faith in the lives of others through whom the Holy Spirit can flow.
Devotedly your pastor,
Bill Blanchard