The Most Significant Change

Christmas is a time when many people dream about how new items will improve life. A new phone or toy will bring great joy, they think.

Whether or not these new items will bring some change into our lives or not, Christmas is a reminder of what has brought us the most significant change. A life-saving, life-altering change for the better. Toward truth and life.

Christ's work and life, which has brought this great change, is beautiful. Moment by moment it affects the lives of Christians. We have fellowship with God again, and he is working in us. And we have great purpose: helping to spread this message and in other ways help people, the bearers of God's image.

The Holidays and an Honesty to Ourselves

The holidays are coming. It is important to be honest with ourselves at these times.

The expectations of the world are unrealistic. The holidays will not be perfect. The gifts will not be perfect, and our relationships will not be perfect.

The world is fallen after all and under the curse of sin. The nature of the world is such that life is not perfect and we can only look forward to the perfect life in heaven with God to come.

If life was as the commercials wish to tell us then the bible would not be true. If money could buy an eternal happiness then scripture would be a lie.

Sometimes money can buy a temporal happiness, but it is not absolute. The human condition is always deeper and family and money cannot fill the void.

Only God as revealed through Jesus can satisfy the void. The new car, new baby, new electronics will only be a temporary fix.

We medicate ourselves with short fix after shore fix. We deal with the surface scratch while ignoring the core.

The core we need is the Jesus we find who loved himself and gave himself for us so that we can be in relation with him forever.

John Piper Quote on the Essence of Christmas

A bit from Piper:

What is the essence of Christmas purity? Christmas purity is not essentially the removal of sin, but the restoration of righteousness. Christ never takes away from his people one thing which he does not replace with something better. Dennis Smith said a great thing at the Pastor's Prayer and Study group yesterday morning: "If you lose your wallet on the way to collect a million dollars, you don't get angry." Every sin you forsake out of love to Christ is replaced with a deeper and purer joy. The aim of God at Christmas is to make the goodies of the world lose all their attraction in comparison to the surpassing glory of the divine Name. The essence of Christmas purity is not what you stand against, but what you stand in awe of, the glorious name of God.