Devot. Christmas- A Personal Promise

Dear Friends,

I hope you had a blessed, and safe week!

The devot. today is a neat one.  It explains how Christmas is God's own personal promise to the one who has trusted Him for salvation.

 

I wanted to share something I am doing with the students I teach to get them thinking about the True Reason for the season and why it is important in their lives.  I hope it would maybe inspire you to do this with the young people in your life.

 

During Christmas time, I call our living/dinning room areas 'Manger City' because of the 3-4 manger scenes that grace these rooms. 

They are all different kinds, styles, and with sentimental value, like the one my sister in law  made me for my 1st Christmas.  

 I have all the 'key players' (wise men, shepherds etc..) set up, but I have left out Baby Jesus. I ask each of my students to see if the manger scenes look aright to them, everything there etc... I am looking to see how observant the kids are:) 

Many of them have caught on in a few moments and after a few looks that Baby Jesus is not there!

I then ask them why I would keep Baby Jesus out of the manger scene since HE is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Christmas?!
They usually respond that He hasn't been born yet:)  I affirm that Mary has not delivered yet since she is still 1 week early:)

I then take this chance to ask them what would they say if someone asked them what Christmas meant to them and why that was important?

The majority of them have responded that Christmas is important because it is Jesus' Birthday.  I then ask them why that is important.

Many of them have responded that His birth is important because He came to this earth to die for our sins so that we could be saved from hell,and go to Heaven by trusting in Him.

Folks this is the heart of the matter.   My point for this live example is two fold:  1.  What these children have said is the heart of this season.  They get it.  2.  What are we doing it to make this Reason an active part of our hearts, homes, families?  Are we teaching this to the young ones in our lives or is there 'No Room' for Him in our lives?  Remember how I said last week that so far, we have the freedom to emphasize The True Reason for the season.  We must take these opportunities in life to give our young people values of substance that will help them see their need to accept Jesus as their way to get to Heaven (they are smarter than we give them credit for and understand more than we assume in this area), build them into being a godly light in the next generation, sustain them though the tough times in life and prepare them for Heaven.

It's never too early to start and never to late to emphasize this.  But we have to make a conscious effort to do so, like using the manger scenes.

This example is what my parents did with me as a child, and it has stuck all these years later.

 

The devot. below is about how we can prepare our hearts and homes for Christmas and how this glorious day is a special promise from Him.

Lord bless you this weekend!

 

Devot. http://www.intouch.org/resources/article-archive/content.aspx?topic=Christmas_A_Personal_Promise_Article#.VH-nY-ktBMs   (Used by permission)

 

Song Below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMus8df0HBU