December 2009
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Christmas Is Coming, Christmas Is Coming
With the approach of the Advent season and the arrival of Christmas just around the corner my mind is already thinking about all the implications of the season for the church.
We have to have everything in place and ready to go by the first Sunday of Advent, which is a full four weeks ahead of Christmas. I’m not going to bore you with “Advent means” stuff but I will challenge you with some important things to keep in mind this Advent/Christmas season. Here are some things to think about.
For one thing get ready and be ready. That’s the first message of the season. Be ready. Be ready to celebrate the joy of the Savior’s birth anew in your life. Be ready for the big day!
For another thing to remember and insist upon is that it really is “Christmas” we are celebrating and not “Winter Holidays” or whatever other titles our secularized society wants to put on it. Once I find a mall or a business that won’t acknowledge what the name of the season is I just go elsewhere with my business. It is Christmas; Period!
Third, Advent/Christmas is a religious holiday. I like the reindeer and the snowmen and the little drummer boy and the angels but it is important to remember that Christmas is about the birth of the Savior. Don’t let anyone take that away from you. Speak to it. Think about it. Center yourself in the spiritual nature of the season. No matter what focus your heart on growing closer to the Lord and to the church.
Fourth, the Advent/Christmas season is one of the most important times to invite your friends, neighbors, family and co-workers to church. This is one of the two best times of the year (the other being Easter) to bring people to church with you. I love the sign that is in the narthex of our church “Evangelism is everyone’s responsibility”. It’s true – bringing others to the Lord and growing the church are our first and most important call and it’s a call that belongs to all of us. Who have you brought to the church today? Who are you sharing the love of the Lord with? What have you done lately to help grow our church? This is the time of the year to bring people to the church.
The birth of the Savior is so important, so central, and so essential as to who we are and what we are about that I hope every one of you will take the time, the energy and the effort to share the beauty and the power of the story with others. I hope every one of you can experience once again the joy, the power, the meaning of coming to the manger and falling on your knees and worshipping the child in the manger. O Come Let Us Adore Him!
Dr. Chance