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Luke 2:7, John 3:16

What Christmas Means

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 22, 2024

In my preaching years, Every year, when I sat down to prepare the sermons for the Christmas season, I would think, “This year, we’re going to focus on the TRUE meaning of Christmas.” I wonder if people got tired of hearing me say that year after year.  I think I stopped saying it after a while. But the sentiment isn’t lost because I do have trouble getting my mind around the depth of the true meaning of Christmas. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully comprehend it: God becoming a man, born in a manger, with the sole purpose of dying at the hands of those He created to pay the penalty for their sins. This is just a little too profound for me to grasp. That’s why it’s great to visit this truth often.

It’s very hard to focus on the real meaning of Christmas at Christmas time. Christmas comes at the wrong time of the year. I mean, all the activities of Christmas take my focus off of the true meaning of Christmas. All of my family Christmas pictures growing up were about toys and trees. I got my first bicycle at Christmas. I loved that bicycle! (I had training wheels on it for 3 years!)  I rode that 20-inch bike until I was 13 years old. It served me well on my paper route and I remember when it was stolen at the swimming pool at Miller Park. I was heartbroken.   Anyway, at Christmas We buy presents for everyone in our family. We send cards and or letters to those far away. I don’t get the “tree” idea. Where does the pine tree show up in the Christmas story? I like the idea of lights because Jesus is the “light of the world,” and that’s a great symbol. But we take what’s inside, lights, and put them on the outside. Then take what’s outside, trees, and put them on the inside. What’s that all about? We all have parties to go to, and the list could go on and on. We give and receive presents, which are important because it’s the real meaning of Christmas, giving to others because God so loved that He gave His only son.

The main problem I have with Christmas is that I’m always too busy with the season to really enjoy It. When I was pastoring, we’d have two Christmas Eve services every year, which were the highlight of our season’s holiday. When Christmas came on a Wednesday, I’d preach three sermons on the Sunday before and then two on Tuesday night, which was Christmas Eve. Thankfully, we didn’t have a Christmas Day service. That’s a lot of stress. Now that I’m retired, I won’t have the stress of the ministry to occupy my mind so much. It’s nice not to have a lot of deeds to do and promises to keep in my old age. Yet, I still struggle with the commercialization of Christmas and all the mushy Christmas movies that seem to miss the real point of Christmas. It’s not about my finding love in this world, it’s about finding God’s love demonstrated to me on the cross.  God gave us Himself so that we might have eternal life!  He came into the world to give us that present. He was born of a woman and lived with us. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger…” Luke 2:7

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Romans 5:8

Loving and Giving

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 21, 2024

Richard Hatch was the winner of the first Survivor game show. I never liked the guy very much, and after he won, he started doing the talk show circuit. He was on all the big ones: letterman, Leno, etc. He was arrogant and obnoxious! (I guess it takes one to know one!) The most memorable thing about him is what he said, which always makes me think about the Christmas tradition of giving. He said, “Selfishness is a virtue.” He said, “For example, if you give somebody a gift, it’s because you want that good feeling that comes to you from the act of making someone you care about happy.”

Well, that’s the truth in many ways. I remember shopping as a little boy for my mother and father and wanting to get them something that they would like. Dad always got excited over the handkerchiefs and the socks. Mom loved the cheap perfume. Well, they sure acted like it. It was interesting that as I look back, I realize that there sure wasn’t much for them to get excited about at Christmas time, but they sure did act like it. I didn’t fully understand it until I had my own kids and got the joy of giving to them and acting like the pencil drawing of a tree was the greatest gift I could have ever received. It really does feel good to give to those we love! We truly do have a selfish motive in our giving. We love to make those we love happy, and we usually go to some expense to make that happen.

But what if the one you loved most was what you had to give away? Do you see any selfish motives in that? God so loved the world that He gave his “only begotten son.” Jesus is often referred to as God’s “beloved son.” Jesus is the one God loved above all others, and it was this that God gave up. Instead of pleasing the one he loved, He gave Him up for us! And He gave him up for us when we were His enemies. In doing this, He “demonstrates His Own love for us in that: that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Someone once said that the only purely motivated gift of love was the one God gave us in the person of His only son. When we look at all the presents under our trees this year, let’s remember the greatest present of all. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved us, you and me, “that he gave His only begotten Son.”

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John 3:16, 15:13

The Perfect Gift

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 20, 2024

One of the best Christmas presents I’ve ever received came early in 1970. It was our son Chuck! He came on that year on December 1. We were in Greenville, South Carolina, with my family in Omaha and Kathy’s family in California. It was just the two of us for over a year. But God gave us a great present on our second Christmas together. It made our Christmas 1970 very special. It was a difficult adjustment. We lived in a one-bedroom duplex, and the baby slept in a bassinet in the living room most of the time at night and then in the middle of our double bed during the daytime. Our landlord really fell in love with the baby, but Chuckie (as we called him) didn’t care too much for her. He’d scream bloody murder when she tried to hold him. Marie would wrestle with him for a few minutes and then hand him back to Kathy. We thought it was funny, but she didn’t. I think she was offended by it.

Chuck 3 was the best Christmas present I ever received, or the greatest gift because he taught Kathy and me how to love. He was helpless, messy, hungry, and demanding at times, but that never stopped our love for him. In 1 Corinthians, Paul gave an expose on the Spiritual gifts, but he concluded with “Faith, Hope, and Love. And the greatest of these is Love.” I’ve always found it interesting how Paul put “love” amidst his discussion on the Gifts of the Spirit. Love is the greatest gift we can give or ever receive. During the days when our first son was born, Love was the only thing we really had to give, but it was more than enough. I was reminded of that on my anniversary just a few days ago when Kathy gave me a card. She said I’ve given her many things over the years, but the “greatest and most treasured of all is your love!” And nothing can be truer than this! The greatest Gift anyone can ever give or receive is the gift of love.

Jesus is God’s perfect expression of His love for us. It’s the greatest gift of all. My prayer for myself and all is that His great gift will be our focus this year! And that all our gifts, tied and wrapped, will also be accompanied by love. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved that he “gave….” Then, in John 15:13, we read, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Christmas is all about the perfect gift from the perfect giver of all good gifts.

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Matthew 18:3, John 3:3

Christmas is for Kids

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 19, 2024

A couple of years ago, we used the theme of a “Vintage Christmas” for our services at the church I was pastoring at the time. The tagline was “Christmas is for kids.” I came up with that title myself, believe it or not, and then I did an internet search and found that there’s an entire foundation with that name that was established to make sure that all kids have a very merry Christmas. Their website explains it this way: We are an all-volunteer run, gift-giving program that assists children who would otherwise go without a gift on Christmas Day. We have supported the “Angel Tree” program for many years at my church as well, which is Chuck Colson’s initiative to make sure that the kids whose parents are in prison receive gifts at Christmas time. The church members always responded with overwhelming generosity for these programs.

In my web search for the phrase “Christmas is for Kids,” I got over 1 and a half million hits. There are many organizations that have been using that phrase for a long time. There were also many songs with that same title. One was by Marty Robbins, one of my favorite Western singers from the 60’s, and another one was by George Jones. The lyrics of Jones’s song were really cute:

Uncle Joe threw snowballs till his fingers froze
And how the snowflakes tickled melting on your nose
There goes daddy down the hill riding on my sled
Well, I guess nobody told him that Christmas is for kids

Momma’s popping popcorn that we’ll put on a string
To wrap around the Christmas tree while everybody sings
Grandma’s telling stories about the things that Jesus did
And grandpa’s telling everyone that Christmas is for kids

Christmas is for kids from one to ninety-nine
And the kid comes out in everyone each year about this time
So as we gather ’round the tree let’s all bow our heads
And thank the Lord for all we have but most of all for kids.

Christmas is for kids, and so is heaven. When his disciples tried to prevent children from coming to him, Jesus said to knock it off because heaven was populated by children. He later went on to emphatically say in Matthew 18:3 “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Most of us adults find it necessary to start over. I think that’s what Jesus meant when he said to Nicodemus in John 3:3, “ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Christmas & Heaven really are for kids!

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Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:15

Childlike Faith

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 18, 2024

Christmas and the Kingdom of Heaven are for children. I think this is why Jesus told Nicodemus that he “must be born again.” As the old wise teacher, rabbi, and Pharisee that he was, he needed to back off all the adult learning and philosophy of the day and just have faith. It’s often true that when children grow up and leave home, they lose their faith. The secular world resists and often rejects anything beyond what can be scientifically demonstrated or proven. But most of the important things in life are not a matter of science or math. They are a matter of faith. There are some things science cannot reproduce: origins, historical data, or matters of the heart. Many of these truths must be taken as a matter of faith. This is why the Kingdom of Heaven is also a matter of faith. Paul makes it clear that we are saved “by grace through faith, not of works.” I believe this may have been Jesus’ focus when he said in Matthew 18:3, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The disciples repelled the children who were brought to Jesus, but Jesus insisted that they be brought to him because the kingdom of heaven consisted of such as these. In Luke 18:15, we read, “Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them…” At a time when the infant mortality rate was so high and that childhood diseases often meant death, many children and infants were brought to Jesus for healing. In his commentary on Luke, Butler writes, “This marks off God’s ways from men’s ways. God always deals with the little ones, the unknown ones, the powerless ones. The world seeks people of power, influence, and wealth. God seeks the children. God builds his kingdom on childlike characteristics: trust, love, innocence, lack of power, lack of pretension, lack of credentials. God wants children whom he can make into disciples, not power brokers whom he has to steer away from political and military expectations.”

But you will notice that Jesus took this teaching further. He did not suggest that childlikeness was one possible way; rather, he said it was the only way! Butler goes on to say, “Being like a child is the only way to kingdom living. If you cannot do away with your pretensions, your greed, your claims to fame, your need to dominate and control, and your grasp for identity and power, you cannot be part of Christ’s kingdom. Christ constantly seeks those who have no hope of power and position: the poor, Samaritans, women, children, blind, crippled, lame, tax collectors. These lack the vanity and self-assurance that keep a person from entering the kingdom.” “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Mark 10:15

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Romans 5:6-7

Undisputed Helplessness!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 17, 2024

If Christmas is for kids, what are some of the characteristics that make kids more suited for Christmas and for heaven? Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mark 10:15). It’s interesting to me that Jesus talks about “receiving” heaven. It’s like receiving a gift at Christmas. The Apostle John said that when the Word became flesh and lived amongst us, referring to Jesus, he added “to as many as received him,” God gave the power to become children of God. The Kingdom of Heaven must be received the same way children receive Christmas presents.

God is making a list, and he’s checking it twice, but it has nothing to do with who’s naughtier and who’s nice. We’ve all been naughty, and we know it. I remember wondering every Christmas if the fact that I had done some pretty naughty things this year would negatively impact my gift-getting at Christmas. It never did! It seems that I’d sometimes be threatened by it. Grown-ups would sometimes say, “Santa Claus is watching you.” But by the time I was 10, I knew that there would be lots of gifts under the tree for me. I would find presents even though I’ve been bad at times. I also knew by that time that there wasn’t any such thing as Santa Claus. I also knew I could never dispute my level of “goodness” to argue my case. I was indeed helpless with regard to the attitude of my parents toward me at Christmas time. It had nothing to do with my naughtiness or my niceness. It had to do with their love. And I would receive their love gifts with great enthusiasm. By the time we were done there would be toys and paper scattered everywhere. That’s the way it was for my sons as well. They were my children!

That’s the way the Kingdom of God is. It has nothing to do with our goodness; we all have our own share of naughtiness, and that makes us helpless. That’s a good place to be. That’s where David was when he wrote Psalm 34. He says, “I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the LORD’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.” Our helplessness and God’s greatness make for a great Christmas celebration! I really like the way the New American Standard Bible Translates Romans 5:6-7. It says, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” If we want to enjoy God’s greatest gift of salvation along with the promise of Eternal Life, we must receive Jesus as children receive Christmas presents. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

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Matthew 11:25, John 1:12

More on Childlike Faith

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 16, 2024

Christmas and the Kingdom of Heaven both are for children. Jesus made it clear that we all must be born again as little children and embrace as adults the faith of a child. God’s ways are filled with paradoxes. You must die if you are really going to live. You must give if you’re ever going to get. You must become last if you’re ever going to be first. You must be the least if you desire to be the greatest. God’s ways are much different from man’s ways. The world seeks people with power, influence, education, social status, and wealth. God seeks little children. God is building his kingdom on the characteristics most frequently found in children: love, innocence, lack of power, sincerity, without pretension, and, most of all, complete trust. God doesn’t look for power brokers. He wants trusting children. Adults have to unlearn a lot of things to become like children. That’s why Jesus told the wise and seasoned Nicodemus that he had to be born again.

A rebirth is necessary because grownups who put confidence in themselves can’t ever grasp the true meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven or Christmas. They have become blinded to the spiritual reality all around them. When his disciples finally grasped this truth, Jesus exploded with praise to God. He said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children…” (Matthew 11:25).

Maintaining childlike faith in the midst of hurt, pain, suffering, and loss is not an easy matter. Christmas time, for many, can be a time of sorrow and suffering. We hear so much about perseverance and biting the bullet and staying strong and facing the giants and it almost seems like it’s all about our grit and courage. I don’t think God wants us to demonstrate our strength in the face of trial and tribulation. That makes it all about me. I think He wants us to demonstrate our faith. I sometimes hang on during suffering and trials out of devotion to duty, deep moral resolve, or some misplaced manly ability to endure pain. God wants me, as he did all the saints of old, to stand firm in my faith during times of testing. Like an innocent child, He wants me to stand firm in the fact that God loves me and has my best interest foremost in mind, regardless of my circumstances. It’s holding on with childlike devotion to God’s promises, not my strengths. Our obedience shouldn’t glorify us but the God of Grace. Yes, “To those who received Him, he gave the power to become children of God.” John 1:12

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Luke 18:17, John 5:24, Ephesians 2:8

Receiving the Gift

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 15, 2024

Christmas and the Kingdom of Heaven are both for children. He made it very clear in Luke 18:17 when he said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” The conversation in which this comment was made was with the rich young ruler. He had it all and wanted to add to his account by buying or earning his way into heaven. He asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus went through the list of things he could sacrifice until he got to the ultimate point that if you wanted to buy your way into heaven or earn your admittance ticket, the cost would be very high. As a matter of fact, the cost was always higher than anyone could pay. When the rich young ruler understood this truth, the bible says, “When he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.”

It can’t be bought or earned, but it can be received as the great gift that it is. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” John teaches us that whoever “receives” Him has the power to become children. It’s not those who understand Him. (I don’t think we ever will!). It’s not those who master the doctrines of the Christian faith. It’s not for those who are wealthy, educated, or sophisticated. On the contrary, it’s for those who accept God’s gift – it’s for children! Paul tells us that it’s not by works (or wealth) we are saved but by God’s grace through faith. “It is a gift of God,” and the only thing that can be done with a gift is to receive it and accept it. If we attempt to earn or deserve or buy it, we’ve missed the point entirely.

Receiving the Gift of eternal life and believing in Jesus are the same things. John’s Gospel makes that clear to us. It is saving faith that brings eternal life, opens the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven, and makes Christmas what Christmas is really all about. John mentions eternal life about 35 times in His Gospel. The one who believes in Jesus has received Jesus and has in their possession the gift of eternal life. John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life…” Only Jesus gives the gift of eternal life, and to receive Him is to receive that Gift because Jesus is God’s greatest gift of all. Christmas time is the celebration of God’s great gift to us – – His Only Son. And of course Ephesians 2:8 tells us, ““God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.”

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