Vain celebration

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭14‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Vain celebration

I have written of how the pew in a bible preaching, Spirit filled church is the most dangerous place on earth. I must also caution that celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world, without acknowledging who He is and what He has done, is even more perilous, for one is ignoring all the hints placed everywhere, that Jesus Christ was born, to save sinners.

The very calendar that we use to mark time, has been split, for even the most atheistic among us uses the time after the birth of Jesus to document the current era. Even the Christmas season is set apart as having the utmost significance, for even lost sinners can feel compelled to darken the church house door. But even with that, theirs is a vain celebration.

Those vain celebrations, made festive, and filled with grandeur, have no relevance, for they do not know the Lord.

I remember my first Christmas as a Christian. Every moment of that season held me in captivation, as I tried to get my head around the reality that the Creator of the Universe, the Word become flesh, had left Heaven and come down, to live as one of us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
John 1:1-5 NKJV

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 NKJV

In the months since my salvation, leading up to that first real Christmas, I had seen my life radically changed, for the sinner I once was, began to fade from sight, and the one made righteous, was emerging more day by day.

With my growth, came an increasing understanding and admission of my sinfulness. In the light of His glory, looking into my darkness, I could not comprehend how One so Hot would lay down all that He had with the Father to save a sinner like me. That beginning of my comprehension of the grace of Jesus broke me. Christmas would never be the same again.

As I read Psalm fourteen, I thought of all the people running to and fro, looking for all the perfect gifts, going to parties, dressing in there colors of red and green, and I wondered if they would ever have the kind of Jesus, and the fact that there is a God.

The testimony of the follower of Jesus is the most powerful thing on earth, for we stand as living examples of the work of His grace, as those being transformed. In us, the fools may be informed, for even they see changes that only God can make.

Let us also bring the true and divine love of God into a loveless world, that has lost sight of what what love really is. The Lord has shown us through His grace, for each of us is worthy of hell, yet through Jesus we have received heaven.

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
I Corinthians 13:4-7 NKJV

What God hav e given use the power to show, by the gifting of the Helper, the Holy Spirit is contrary to that of the world, which is “love” that is capricious, conditional, and more oriented toward lust than agape.

The coming times will be difficult for those who choose to follow Jesus, and many will be watching. Let our love, under persecution, be our witness, for those who have embraced the folly of this age will see something different, and hopefully seek after God.

My people, let us make this Christmas an act of worship, and not the vain celebration characteristic of the world.

THE PRAYER CHAIR IS OPEN! Send me your requests!

#prayfortheharvest

#prayforthepersecuted

#prayforthepeaceofIsrael

#prayforthegospeltospreadeverywhere

https://www.allaboutgod.com/the-roman-road.htm

2 thoughts on “Vain celebration

  1. 2 John 1:9 “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.”
    Emotional/superficial-external), (external commitments w/o repentance).

    Thank you, Bernie! I am praying for genuine salvation’s to spread around the world like the, “Christmas cheer” spreads during this fine season. The gospel cannot be harnessed. May the Lord bring revival to many people through the special holiday. That is my prayer.

    Like

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