Our Blog

The Spirit of Christmas: Ways to Give This Year

Without Christ there would be no Christmas. The celebration of Christmas began when the angel came to tell the shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem that Christ had been born. The angel was joined by a heavenly host praising God for His gift to the world.

Christmas is the season for giving, and Jesus gave Himself that we could be forgiven and become the children of God.  In this season of giving, we have several opportunities to be a blessing to others through our willingness to give:

• Take a name from our angel tree in the foyer of the Worship Center. These angels represent children who ride our buses to church each week. Take your angel to the Welcome Center to receive a box to fill with small gifts for the child. Giving one of these Christmas boxes can make Christmas special for a child in our neighborhood.
• Select a project from the Samaritan’s Purse catalogue; this allows you and your family to bless people around the world. Visit www.samaritanspurse.org to see the gift options available and to purchase a gift.
• The Lottie Moon Christmas offering will be received the months of December and January. This offering is a way your gift can support Southern Baptist missionaries all over the world.

I hope our church family will embrace the true Spirit of Christmas and give generously as Christ gave to us.  May God bless you and your family this holiday season.

The Holiday Challenge

In this holiday season, there will be lots of activities and many things that can distract us from the real meaning of Christmas.  Decorating our homes, decorating Christmas trees, attending class parties, office parties, shopping, gift wrapping, and making cookies and candy are just some of the many things we do during the holidays. These activities are fun and give us opportunities to spend time with our family and friends.

The challenge for us is to not be so wrapped up in the activities that we don’t have time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus is the real reason for celebration.  Everything that we can do to keep the focus on Him and His coming to the world to be our Savior maintains the spirit of Christmas. Jesus is the Light of the World, and He has called us as His children to point others toward that light.

The prophets in the Old Testament were chosen by God, anointed with the Holy Spirit, given revelation from God, and sent out into the world to share a message of hope. The message was designed to penetrate a dark and sinful world. Their message of a coming Savior brought hope to a desperate people. Each generation of people in Old Testament times had prophets sent by God to point them to the Savior that was promised.

We are the prophets of this generation.  We live in New Testament times, and Jesus has already come and made the sacrifice for our salvation.  We are chosen by God, anointed with His Holy Spirit, given His complete revelation and called to go into the world with the message of His willingness to forgive and save.

May we accept the challenge to speak the truth of God and bring the Light of the gospel to a dark and desperate world. May we be as faithful as the Old Testament prophets in proclaiming the truth to our generation. Let’s begin with our families, reach out to our friends and touch our communities for Christ.