December 15th, 2017

What Can I Give Christ For Christmas ?


True followers of Jesus Christ know the true meaning of Christmas. Yet every year it seems very difficult not to be sucked into the ways the world celebrates the season. How much of our season actually is centered around celebrating Christ? Now that is a question each of who truly loves Jesus must ask ourselves at this time of year.

If we are not careful the activities at this time will crowd out the special opportunity that is availed during this precious month to make CHRIST more centered in our individual life, family life and church life. As we seek to give just the right gifts to those we love may we not forget to GIVE TO THE ONE WHO GAVE ALL HE HAD FOR US!

Let me suggest several gift ideas we can give to our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this Christmas! I am certain that as we present our Lord with gifts He deserves He will be well pleased and we will be abundantly blessed within. There is no joy like giving and no greater joy than to give to our Lord!

1. Give Him The Gift Of Your Faith!
 
The Christmas story teaches us to trust and submit to God’s sovereign plan. Mary, Joseph, Zacharias, the shepherds each teach us the proper response to the coming of the Lord. They trusted in the written prophecies concerning the Messiah’s coming and they trusted in the the God given words of the angel. Mary trusted in the words of Elisabeth as she was filled with the Spirit and proclaimed that Mary would give birth to the Lord!  They trusted in the words of Zacharias as he also was filled with the Spirit and proclaimed the LIGHT had come to those who sat in darkness, and that the light was Jesus Christ!  On the night of the Lord’s birth there was faith and trust in the hearts of the shepherds as the angel proclaimed “ For unto you this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord”.  They believed that the Sovereign Savior had come in the fullness of time. They trusted Him by faith.  Few things honor God more than our trust. May we give Christ our trust by exercising great faith in His words, His purposes, His calling on our lives. It is “Impossible to please God without faith”, so may we trust Him more and as we do He will receive a gift which brings pleasure to the ONE we love!


For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.—Luke 1:37–38

2. Give Him The Gift Of Loving Others.

Get alone sometime and present your life to God as a gift offered to Him as you choose to yield to the Holy Spirit to actions of love for others. Visit a hospital room or a shut in. Visit a Mission and help serve a dinner and visit with the homeless. Invite a lonely widow or widower to church and better yet invite them to a Christmas meal or function. Call a stop to the Christmas busyness and make time to really love others in tangible ways. After all that is what Christ did on that first Christmas, He came to love us. He came to be born so that He might die on the cross for our sins. There is no greater love than to die for others. May we this Christmas give Christ the gift of our yielding to His control to lead us to others who He wants to love through us.  

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.—Matthew 25:40
 
   
3. Give Him The Gift Of Tangible Items.

 Give special Christmas financial gifts to your church, missionaries or the less fortunate.  Give Him a gift of time or talent for the new year. After prayer perhaps you may decide to read the Bible daily, to join an organized prayer group, to attend church more faithfully, to begin to serve him in a particular area. Perhaps decide to give an increase in your weekly financial giving, to use your giftedness in His church. To work in the bus ministry , teach a class, visit a widow weekly, sing in the choir,  play in the orchestra, wash a church van or a seniors car weekly, you get the idea. What tangible gift could you give that would make Christmas more about Jesus.  Either personally or as a family, find a way to give to the Lord or to others in His name this Christmas.

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.—Matthew 2:11
 
4. Give Him The Gift Of Sharing The Gospel.

Christmas presents many opportunities for conversations about the Lord. Whether it be asking a co-worker about their holiday traditions and then sharing yours, or bringing cookies over to your neighbors with an invitation to a special church service where the gospel will be presented, this is a wonderful season to tell others about Christ and why He came. Take this special time to present our Savior with the gift of sharing the Christmas Story with all we come into contact with this season. After all that is the true meaning of the season celebration. Our Lord came to be born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross to pay for the sins of all people, He was buried in a grave and arose from the dead. And because of that “ Whosoever calls upon Him shall be saved’.  “ A Savior was born”. And the Sovereign Savior is coming again. May we rejoice and bring gifts to our Sovereign Savior just as they did that first Christmas Day!
 
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.  18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.—Luke 2:17-18
    

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