Have You Received Christ’s Gift?
Good Morning Friends,
We are entering a season in which it is not only easier to give but also to receive. Unfortunately our attention so quickly can turn to shopping when it should be about accepting and sharing the truth and grace of Jesus.
Some of us have already started our Christmas shopping and making our wish lists. The economic signs for stores are positive. Online shopping is at an all-time high. But that is not the nature of today’s message and should not be the focus of the season. It is not the door to a website portal or a shopping mall that is going to save us. What we have to crave with a passion is the desire to share the door through which people must walk when they find God. It is not the door of a church but the door of the heart linked in our mind with Jesus and His Spirit shared in community with a purpose. So I have to ask you if you are not responding to your God given calling to show people the door. Have You Received Christ’s Gift?
Scripture: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:1-17 (NRSV)
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NRSV)
So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
John 10:7 (NRSV)
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
John 14:2 (NRSV)
Message: What do you do in preparation for Christmas? Perhaps you check out Christmas trees and the boxes of decorations in the attic. I for one clean and get rid of the stuff that has accumulated over the last 12 months or longer. It is a collective family effort that illustrates how God wants us to prepare for His return. We have the cleaning of the heart and home in preparation for Christmas. We have arranging of priorities and schedules. We have a decorating party. All this adds value to our lives that is topped off with the receiving and giving of gifts….the welcoming of Christ into our renewed hearts even as we gain interest in a dwelling place in heaven. But moreover it is leading and loving by exhibiting a life worth living. In Greek, the word translated perfect in Matthew is teleios. If something accomplishes what it is designed to do, it is said to be perfect and mature. Teleios is the idea of being completed by Christ through sanctification and the spreading of this Spirit. Perhaps this Christmas it will be more about the gift of Christ shared. Friends, Jesus stands at the door or our hearts and homes. Jesus is knocking. He has given us the power of choice and if we choose Him we also claim the precious promise that becomes the love of Christ incarnate when it is shared. Enter the perfection in your purpose through the love of Christ shared.
Pray we make room in our hearts for Christ’s blessings by cleaning and rearranging our lives. Pray we share the blessings we have received as decorations of our hearts and homes. Pray we be prepared for Christmas…Pray we be prepared for Christ’s return. Pray we have the joy of the blessings of belonging…the victory of being valued…the excitement of feeling esteem and the loving caress of being cared for. Pray we receive Christ’s gift of life and stand at the door as a witness for others to enter a heavenly home.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 