A Christmas Carol

(Joy: The 3^rd of 4 devotionals on Advent.)

 

Luke 7:36-50

(See link below to read the passage.)

 

 

 

When I was a little boy one of the Christmas Eve traditions that we had in our family was to sit down in the living room on the couch with our Father. He would start reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Why my Dad chose to do that is a mystery. Possibly, he was hoping we would get tired and fall asleep.

 

It is a story about a bitter, lonely and ill-tempered old man. He felt that life had been hard on him and that he had earned everything he had. Nobody had ever given him anything, so in turn, he wasn’t generous to anyone. Scrooge’s response to a “Merry Christmas” greeting was, “Bah, humbug”!

 

The story in Luke 7 is about a woman who lived a “sinful life”. The Living Bible refers to her as a common prostitute. She was at the bottom of the social, religious and economic ladder of society. Good people, like the Pharisee in the story, would have

nothing to do with her.

 

We don’t know for sure what her back story was, but we can assume that life had been hard on her. The little that she had, she had earned. Nobody had given her anything. However, she was smart enough and intuitive enough to realize that she was a “sinful woman” that was detested by respectable people.

 

For Scrooge, it wasn’t until his confrontation with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future that he was convinced to change his ways. The result was a joyful and generous Scrooge that went far beyond common courtesy to help others.

 

For the sinful woman, it wasn’t until she had a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that she changed her ways. She poured out her love for Jesus with her tears, drying his feet with her hair and anointing him with expensive perfume.

 

Two people who previously had no joy. Both recognized their brokenness. Both experienced redemption. One through his encounter with the fictional spirits of Christmas. The other through her encounter with the real life Emanuel (God with us).

 

May you and your family experience the true joy of Christmas this year; God with us.

 

 

 

 

 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%207%3A36-50&version=NIV;TLB

 

 

(If God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)

 

http://lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

What Does Your Life Communicate?

1 John 4:1-6

 

Do you open your Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

 

Growing up, my parents made us wait until the morning. It was sheer torture. I was so keyed up the night before my Dad would read the Christmas Carol just to put us to sleep. Even then, I found creative ways to stay awake like, hiding in the downstairs closet or hiding under my bed with a light to stay awake.

 

There are a lot of messages at Christmas time, and many of those messages come through time honored traditions, like gift giving. In Sweden, there is a tradition of watching a 1958 Disney Christmas special at 3:00 p.m. on December 24. The program consists of Jiminy Cricket introducing a series of vintage cartoons.

 

What message does this tradition communicate?

 

“¹Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around, ² and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: Does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God.” TLB

 

That’s what John wrote to the believers about how to determine if a spirit - or message - is genuine. He wrote that we should put messages and beliefs to the test; to make sure that the message you are hearing holds up to the truth of the Gospel.

 

Messages are normally communicated by word of mouth, but oftentimes messages are communicated by written word or body language, actions and even inaction.

 

This makes me wonder if our lives aren’t a message. And if that is true, what message are we communicating? What would happen if our message, our life, was put to John’s test?

 

As a child, I knew that Christmas was about Jesus, but the message that I heard, that came across loud and clear, was that Christmas was all about gift getting.

 

John wrote in his Gospel the true message about Christmas. “¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”        NIV

 

Jesus Christ came in the flesh from God. This is what we as believers celebrate, not just in December, but throughout the year. This is the truth. It may not be popular. It may not be PC. But it does pass the truth test.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does your life communicate?