The Focus

“But the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David” Luke 2:10-11 [emphasis added]

If we all agree that Jesus came to this world, then, I submit to you that the exact day is not important. In fact, we can celebrate Christmas every day and it will still be relevant! So why would we allow a tradition that started up from a non-Christian background and we would adopt it as a day to celebrate Christ? It is simply because you need to meet the culture where they are and bring God to them where they are.

For example, Paul went to Athens and he met a very religious people. They had an altar to every god that they knew. And then they dedicated one altar to the Unknown God because something in them did not want to miss out any god. And on those altars were sacrifices and sometimes of human beings. And when Paul got there, he did not struggle with the fact that there were sacrifices made on that altar. He did not struggle with the fact that they probably had the blood of humans on that altar. He did not begin to argue; he leveraged on the fact that at least the world recognized that there was an Unknown God. And he said it is this Unknown God that I have come to tell you about. Fantastic! And he won the whole city for God.

Why do we argue about Christmas when we should leverage Christmas for the glory of God? The world at least recognizes one day, even if they use it for commerce; we can point their direction back to God. In fact, the world is saying to you if you do not want the tag ‘Christmas’, we will replace it with ‘happy holidays’. Then the discussions start all over again. Do not remove Christ from Christmas. When it was there, you were arguing that it was not His birthday.

The point is this, we need to let go of things that are irrelevant and focus on the main purpose of life that is Christ. Please read Luke 2:8-14, it is a fantastic story of the announcement of the birth of Jesus. Think about it, the angel appeared to shepherds and not to priests, or to the kings, or to the Scribes, or to the Pharisees. The angel appeared to shepherds. This tells us that the lack of spiritual status disqualifies no one from a spiritual experience or privilege.

Prayer [Hymn]: There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Thank You O my Father, for giving us Your Son and leaving Your Spirit ‘Til the work on earth is done. Amen.