Well it is that time of year again....January. All the brightly colored lights of Christmas are gone along with all the festivities, shopping and special food that is made only once a year. All the Christmas music is gone, candy canes gone, Peanut Blossom Cookies are gone, presents are gone and Christmas movies are gone. We are left with January. We are left with our regular day to day routines and unless you live in the warmer regions of the United States we are left with cold weather, snow, sleet, wind and the desire to just hunker down until spring. It sounds so bleak and dismal to think about Christmas being over and January setting in.
During Christmas we celebrated the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We celebrated His coming to earth as an infant to save us from our sins. We celebrated His holiness and His humanity all in one. We celebrated the hope that He gives us for this life and the next. We celebrated the gift of God in the person of Jesus. This celebration of Jesus' birth does not end with Christmas, in fact, I think Christmas is the beginning of the celebration. What we celebrate at Christmas, does not end on December 25th. Sure we take down on Christmas trees, we go back to eating more sensibly and we go back to our everyday routines, but who Jesus is and what He did by coming to earth to die for our sins does not end, in fact, Christmas is just the beginning. It is the beginning because we can have a personal relationship with the Son of God because of Jesus. With this personal relationship comes joy, peace, hope, eternal life and a desire to live a life that will honor Him and give Glory to Him as the Son of God. As I sit here writing this early in the morning, I see the sun rising up over the hills in the east and the sky is filled with the Glory of who God is. His majesty, power, beauty, creativity and His delight in the beautiful is displayed in these glorious sunrises. Our lives should reflect who God is and what He has done for us by sending His sons Jesus to us. Everyday our lives should bring Glory to God. I don't think we are to sit hunkered down waiting for spring and to bemoan the fact that we can't hear anymore Christmas music, or eat more cookies, or enjoy brightly colored lights. Instead we are to glorify God with our daily lives by loving Him, worshipping Him and offering our lives as living sacrifices. Everything that we do should bring Glory to God. It is a challenge to live a life pleasing to God. It is not easy in this world to make God the center of our worship. The world keeps tugging at us and telling us to worship the earthly things of this world instead. It tells us to use our time and money for ourselves instead of for others and it tells us that we are to seek the approval of men rather than God, but the Bible tells us differently. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transferred by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will". Romans 12: 1-2. So how do we worship God? How to we give glory to God for who He is, for sending His son Jesus, for creating beautiful sunrises? We worship God with our lives by offering our bodies as living scarifies. Not an easy thing to do, but it is the only way to keep Christmas going. We don't keep Christmas alive by keeping our Christmas trees up all year long or eating Christmas cookies everyday. We keep Christmas alive by sharing Jesus with others, by feeding the hungry, by helping those in need, by spending time praying to God, by spending time reading our Bibles, by taking a walk and praising God for all the beauty that He has created, by loving others, by putting others ahead of ourselves and by being joyful and hopeful. Christmas is the beginning so now that Christmas is over take joy in the fact that Jesus lives and offer your lives to Him. As you go about your daily lives may you find joy and peace and may you also give Glory to our Lord and Savior in all that you do.
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AuthorAnita Rennells is writer of this blog. She, along with her husband Ed, founded Soaring Wings Ministries to serve the homeless. The purpose of the blog is to tell the story of Soaring Wings Ministries and to give glory to God. Archives
October 2022
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